Just got my hands on a 29 gallon tank, Penguin 125 bio wheel filter (30 gal max), 200 watt submersible heater and a flourecent top light.

Does this set up sound oK? Will the the tank be underfiltered and over powered by the heater?

I was thinking of upgrading the filter to a Penquin 170 (50 gal max), and down grading the heater to a 100 watt submersible. Would that sound like a good idea? I will probably end up stocking the tank to max so i want to make sure my filtration won't be lacking.


As far a what i plan to stock the tank with, My plans are:

2 Blue ram Cichlids = 2.5" max size (anyone know how there temperment is? Was told shy and passive?)

6-8 cardinal tetras or 5 phantom black tetras and 5 cardinal tetras = 1.5-1.75 max size

2-3 bamboo shrimp = ?? max size.


anyone see any problems with this setup? The main fish i would like to have in this tank are the Blue rams so any other suggestions on tank mates would be great. Thanks.

 

you can't mix ciclids with other tropical fish... either get a ciclid tank or a non-ciclid tank, unless you want them eating everything else.

as for the setup, a 30 gal filter should be fine for your 30 gal tank. I put a 30 in my 20, and there was a lot of movement... kinda disturbed the fish.

what kinda temp control does the heater have?

 

I know Cichlids are aggressive but I was reading the tag at a local pet store and it read shy and passive. They looked pretty stressed out in the tank with the bigger Cichlids, constantly backing way from anything that would get near it. I was told that by one of the employees that they where like angel fish in temperment.

What type of fish would you recommend to go with the Blue Rams? All the other ciclids that were sold there (Jack dempsies, assorted African ciclids) all max out at like 8-13" adult size. And I want too keep the size of the fish in my tank under 3"-4" max.

 

I dunno... if you're looking for something thats pretty decent with company, you might try gouramis... they're territorial, but not too agressive. They wont try to eat another fish, but may pester them. There are some pretty cool looking ones too (I used to raise powder blues). Depending on the breed, most of them top out around 3".

People actually make a pretty honed hobby of raising ciclids, and almost all of them say its bad news to mix them with other fish... different species of ciclids are ok with eachother though.

 

I used to work at a pet store...it doesnt matter if they are shy and passive on the label. That means they are shy and passive around other similar sized ciclids. Hell even in my civclid only tank it was like Highlander....in the end, their was only one....my 5inch parrot ciclid.

 

I like my afrikan knife fish...he is hand feedable.

 

I had a clown knife juvenile for a while. I got him eating and growing pretty fast, but at about a month and a half (he was already a good 6-7" long) he just croaked for no reason.

 

:sad:

mine is about 6 inches long and about 4 years old....he always comes over to the glass to say hi when you walk up to the tank.....

his only other friend that has survived is a 10 inch plecostimus(sp?) that I got when he was only .5 inches long....he is about 5 years old

 

yeah, at the rate my clown knife was growing... I wonder if I was over feeding him... he grew about 3.5" in less than two months. I know those guys grow fast, but it was kinda startling. He also ate everybody else in my tank except the bottom feeders :chuckles:

 

lil phucker ate my freshwater eel, and eventually chipped away at the owe so powerful parrot ciclid....I tried putting in new guys a few times, but they always came up missing within a short period of time.