# what stock would you do? 30g sand bottom



## bigcountry10 (Sep 24, 2011)

So heres my new tank its gonna be low tech just a heater and HOB, Im seeding it right now with a sponge from my other tank so it shouldn't take long to cycle. Im useing live plants and im gonna have a DIY co2 reactor. 










So my question is what stock would you do, Im open to everyones idea, I really like community tanks so maybe a few small schools or just a couple single randoms.

If I like one enough i will use your idea, then put some picks up when i get it stocked.


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## jrman83 (Jul 9, 2010)

Natural light?


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## bigcountry10 (Sep 24, 2011)

yeah its going to be natural, I have a hood, but the wife is complaining about all the electriciy used from the first tank. That window gets a good 6 to 8 hours of light a day so the plants should be fine.


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## susankat (Nov 15, 2008)

Me personally I would do a large school of one type of small fish a few cories and otos.


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## bigcountry10 (Sep 24, 2011)

i like that idea,I have become very fond of Otos over the last few months with my first tank.


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## Mantis (Aug 8, 2012)

I would do one school of barbs. I'd put some gold barbs, tiger barbs, and green barbs in there. They'd school together but still have a color contrast. Maybe a loach on the bottom or another fish that won't get too big that stays on the bottom. Maybe a colony of snails, or a bristlenose pleco, I'd be a little worried of algae from the natural sunlight.


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## Aeten (Aug 4, 2012)

I just got some kuhli loaches they are a blast and LOVE sand; look like little sea snakes and they're crazy fast when they do anything


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## navigator black (Jan 3, 2012)

Beware of silvery fish there. If you use natural light, you will quickly discover silver is the camouflage of champions in open sunny water. You'll need algae control so I would say Otos, and something not too nervous. It's an open water tank, as in the minds of the fish, there will be predators coming in from across the street there. Til the plants grow in, you may have very skittish fish. 
What's your water like?


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## bigcountry10 (Sep 24, 2011)

navigator black with silver fish are you talking about they will be just harder to see, or what do you mean about beware of them. I was already planning on doing 2 Otos I like them a lot and have two in my big tank. 
Unfortunately my PH is 8.2 in my area so might use some Ph buffer to bring it down a little, to like 7.5 minimum. 
kuhli loaches are cool, I had one in a gravel tank when I was younger. I would always think it had died cause I would never see it, until I did a gravel cleaning and it would pop out of nowhere.
I like the barb school idea mantis, I'm defiantly going to keep it in mind, and see what I can get from my LFS.
Ok so far I think we're going to do:
2 Otos 
3 Cories 
and one large school, maybe barbs.


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## jrman83 (Jul 9, 2010)

Ph up/down products are dangerous. The diff between the two values is not great enough that your fish wouldn't adjust to it. I would leave it alone. Most people don't have ph issues until they try to muck with it.


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## bigcountry10 (Sep 24, 2011)

you think 8.2 is all right for them??? 

Ph products really arent that hard to use if you ask me I have been useing them for my 65 for the past couple months and havent had a problem. The biggest thing is you have to find your ratios before you start useing it in your tank, you can't just throw some in your water and try and equlize it that way.

but if you think it will be fine jrman83 I will give it a go, makes sence anyways cause my lfs is going to have the same Ph as me, unless they use RO and I highly doubt that.


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## joevw007 (Jul 6, 2011)

barbs and corys would look great in there. plus I happen to love the personality of both fish types


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## SueD (Aug 4, 2012)

Cories will love that sand bottom - look at sterbai corys. How about a single angel and a large school of rummynose tetras, along with the cories. These are really tight schoolers and look great moving together. But, they like a little more cover. If you add a BN you'll want to add some driftwood.


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## bigcountry10 (Sep 24, 2011)

im pretty sure a 30g is to small for an angel, and would take its anger out on the rummynoses

I stand corrected, just looked it up and they say one in a 30g is fine, my wife really likes angels, so maybe I will suprise her.


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## SueD (Aug 4, 2012)

I have two angels along with rummynoses and cories and otos. The only problems have been the occasional squabbles between the two angels when they get ready to spawn and just after spawning. They do not bother with any of the other fish and are quite nice with each other the rest of time. One centerpiece angel should be just fine.


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