new aquarium

Question

29 pic   QUESTION: does my aquarium look good to you. I currently hold 3 zebras 2 angels and 1 red tail black shark. My ph is 7.5 and my ammonia is 0.Its been up and running for 2 weeks.

ANSWER: Hi Marcus,
The tank looks very nice! Congrats.  When you said your ammonia is 0ppm.  What were the readings for nitrites and nitrates?  Is this tank cycled yet?  If it hasnt, it will accumulate up ammonia and will need to do frequent water changes until it has finished cycling.  If you are planning to cycle with fish, your setup is good because you dont have a lot of fish which gives you a low bioload, and less nitrogen released in the tank.  Make sure ammonia and nitrite readings are low at all times, because it will burn the fish's gills and eyes if it is past 0.50ppm on both ammonia and nitrite.  It is like us showering with shampoo that ended up in our eyes.  
Good luck with your fish tank and hope all goes well.
Keep up with the good work!
-Matt-   

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QUESTION: Thanks for the advice and i ask another expert this question:"Thanks for the advice on the snails and shrimp(he said three of each (apple snails and amano shrimp), ill probably buy them and put them in this week or weekend some time(does that sound good). One last thing, I've checked many sites and thought i agree with you on many things I've read that coolies can be kept in 10 gal min.Also i would like to had some sort of colorful fish like a dwarf gourami and one last colorful schooling fish maybe cardinals or guppies or platies(by the way i agree on the frog) or maybe some harlequins. Do you think two new schools would work?And then the dwarf and the coolies or maybe some corys instead of coolies, what do you think?"
So Matt what do you think?
by the way here's a link on what my aquarium looks like right now:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oDF6m7cpDm0 also look at :http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EJu88Z9mI9U(thats what my tank looked like before plus it gives more detail.
Thanks a lot marcus :)

ANSWER: I would try to keep the same temperament of fish together.  As of now the red tail black shark grow to be 6 inches and can get very territorial and usually will pick on smaller tropical fish.  In your case it will occasionally chase the zebras and will chase the neons and rasboras if you get them.  The angels and zebras are generally peaceful.  The zebras might do a little bit of fin nipping.  As for the neon tetras and cardinals, they are also fin nippers.  The gourami are semi-agressive.  The harlequin rasboras are peaceful.  Having a bunch of species of fish with different temperaments like this might cause territorial issues and the fish may or may not fight each other.  Also if you do decide to breed, other species will go after another species eggs.  The semi-agressives also might pick on the peacefuls.  But in some tanks it is not a problem.  If you want you could experiment on it.  If your fish happen to work well together, they by all means keep them together.  This is more like a trial and error situation.  But I would definitly keep an eye on the red tailed shark.  They get half a foot and is quite the agressive one.
That is definitly a nice looking tank.  However to make a better aquascape, try putting the taller plants in the back and the shorter plants in the front.  It creates a sort of "depth" and layered look.
Many people wonder and ask what us "experts" tanks look like.  It looks not much different from everyone elses.  Here is an old picture of one of my smaller tanks.
http://www.aquariumforum.com/gallery/watermark.php?file=4641&size=1
http://www.aquariumforum.com/gallery/watermark.php?file=4640&size=1
I keep 100% live plants in mine.  I love the growing and natural look.  Also they greatly reduce the ammonia, nitrite and nitrate values in the tank by soaking it in as food.  And the fish greatly benefit from them.  The algae eating otos clean the algae off the plants and the plants clean the water of nitrogen.
Hope you like it and keep up the good work!
-Matt-  

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new aquascape   QUESTION: hey thanks a lot my nitrite is now o.1 my ammonia is 0 my pH is 7.5 and the temperature is between 75-80. I tried aquascaping, how does this look?
By the way its been another week and no fatalities do you think i could add 5 more zebra danios because i currently have three and two are always together and one is somewhat lonely.I have a 29 gallon (30 long 12 wide 16 high) an aqua clear50 and a bubble bar so what do you think?
Thanks a lot Marcus :)
PS: the three plants in the front are new and real plus i still have a floater

Answer
Hi agiant Marcus,
It looks a lot better then before, great job.  Im glad that you also introduced live plants into the aquarium.  It greatly benefits the fish and the tank.  By any chance are the 2 live plants on the left a Ribbon plant or Mondo grass?  Ribbon plants, Mondo grass, and Aqua Ferns sold at chain local fish stores are false aquatic plants.  They do better potted and will die in an aquarium.  They are more of a terranium plant rather than aquatic plant.  So many of us dislike the fact that the chain stores order in these in and sell them as aquatic plants.  We have discussed this issue with them before and they said they have no choice.  They order in a group of plants without a choice of selection and those happen to be one of the ones that come with the bundle.  There is a plant called Anubias Nana.  Its a very neat plant and very hardy.  They are sold at both petco and petsmart, you should look into it.  Their leaves grow from a rhizome, so the rhizome should not be planted, only the roots can be planted.  They can also be grown attached to decorations, because the roots eventually adhere to it.  Also a plant called Wisteria, it looks like un underwater fern.  It grows fast and also very easy to take care of.  Petsmart orders in new plants every week and every week they may have different plants.  Introduce as much live plants as you can, take advantage of that.  

As for adding the new fish.  I would wait a while, because you are still reading nitrites.  The tank is still currently in cycle and from the looks of it, it could possibly be almost done.  I would wait 1-2 weeks before introducing more fish.
Keep up the good work.
-Matt-