Getting my tank up and running again

[Liberty]

Hi all, long time no see.

I have recently bought a new place in the Sutherland Shire and wanted to get my tank up and running again (you can see my tank by clicking here). I have an Aqua One 620 90L aquarium that I'll be moving from my parent's place over to my new unit and wanted to get prepared for some new fish.

In a nutshell, these are my plans;

• My cabinet has some minor water damage but I'm a perfectionist and want to chase a new one - do I buy it direct from Aqua One or do you know a cheaper supplier? I prefer genuine.
• Have live aquarium plants - chasing very low maintenance yet good-looking plants.
• Looking at getting a small school of neon tetras/Praecox rainbows (I love colour), however I have no experience with them; are they easy to maintain, require a lot of attention, require any specific out of the ordinary tank hardware, any specific food, anything else I should know about them?
• What other cichlids would be suitable and peaceful alongside tetras?
• It will be a feature in my living room so I do want it pleasing to the eyes without looking out of place.
• It will be located next to two floor to ceiling sliding doors that go onto a balcony - I believe I will have an issue with overgrowth of algae as I get direct sunlight in the afternoons? How can I tackle this? Common Pleco? Snails? Bear in mind that I do have separate sunblock and blockout screens that I can drop before heading out for work each day to keep the fish from overheating.

I have basically got the whole set up ready to go despite missing a few pieces from my tank's box when I first received it as a gift from my girlfriend all those years ago. I'll have to get the tank before I know exactly what's missing.

Any and all support would be awesome guys. I'll definitely take pics of progress and the finished product in a separate topic.

Edited March 5, 2020 by Liberty

[Skippy]

• My cabinet has some minor water damage but I'm a perfectionist and want to chase a new one - do I buy it direct from Aqua One or do you know a cheaper supplier? I prefer genuine. Aquaone seems to be widely stocked so you might get lucky and find a store that has a cabinet in stock that it wants to get rid off if you ring around.  Otherwise eBay or Gumtree might be worth a look for someone looking to offload their cabinet 
• Have live aquarium plants - chasing very low maintenance yet good-looking plants. If you going to stick with the stock Aquaone lights you won't be able to get plants with high lighting needs.  Anubias and java fern seem to be very hardy plants that can cope with (relatively) low light.  I've also been told that many Amazon sword species do ok with basic lighting but I haven't tried them personally.   Make sure you get true aquatic plants if you want them to last, many species sold in LFS are not true aquatic plants and will eventually melt away and die.
• Looking at getting a small school of neon tetras/Praecox rainbows (I love colour), however I have no experience with them; are they easy to maintain, require a lot of attention, require any specific out of the ordinary tank hardware, any specific food, anything else I should know about them? I've never kept Praecox but I had neon tetras many years ago and never found them very easy to keep alive long term.  Some people suggest because they are mass breed in Asian fish farms they aren't very hardy and are prone to die off because of poor genetics and disease.
• What other cichlids would be suitable and peaceful alongside tetras? Any species with a mouth big enough to fit the tetras will eat the tetras.  You could look at different types of rams or apistogramma species.  Do your research because some apistogramma have very specific needs.
• It will be a feature in my living room so I do want it pleasing to the eyes without looking out of place.
• It will be located next to two floor to ceiling sliding doors that go onto a balcony - I believe I will have an issue with overgrowth of algae as I get direct sunlight in the afternoons? How can I tackle this? Common Pleco? Snails? Bear in mind that I do have separate sunblock and blockout screens that I can drop before heading out for work each day to keep the fish from overheating. I find bristlenose catfish to be more effective for algae control than common plecos.  Common plecos also get very big some probably not the best choice for a 2 foot aquarium.

[Slipshodman]

All great answers from Skippy

Particularity about the Pleco, it will grow way to big for a two foot tank and put extreme load on you filter .... just don't do it,

you could try just painting or blacking out the sides of the tank with contact to avoid the light getting in 

[adamgatt]

I agree with Skippy too. In my experience:

• I have java ferns, anubias and java moss in some of my tanks. They only get lights for ~3 hours a day (el cheapo eBay LED lights) and they have grwon well and healthy. No Co2 or special substrate or additives either.
• I agree with what Skippy said too re neons. Might be hard but keep a lookout for someone trying to offload a group of tetras/neons on Gumtree or Petlink. If you can pickup a school from a fishkeeper rather than an LFS chances are that they have had them for a while which would have done the weeding out of poor genetics/disease for you.
• Again agree with Skippy. I had 3 german blue rams with a school of 20 neons in a 2 foot tank for ~9 months without any problems. Right now I have i have guppies and endlers with some apistogramma in 2 foot tanks without any issues either.
• The sunlight will help with your plants. Agree again re common bristlenose. They're great at cleaning algae, but they do produce a fair bit of waste themselves.