180G Stocking List

[mossman]

So I'm debating seting up a spare 180G.

Thinking of having it lightly planted and a simple setup. 2 FX-5s for filtration.

I want to stay away from the aggressive fish and am looking for a peaceful community tank, with schooling fish. Most of my experience has been on the saltwater side so i'm not to familar with whole freshwater community fish.

Anybody have suggestions for a stocking list? (I'm thinking alot of tetras...)

Thanks

[JORG]

You should contact Fairdeal he is getting in some tetras,apistos,angels etc. on his next order

[jvision]

I had a 135 planted with some wild caught angels (6), a pair of Eartheaters (Geophagus iporangensis), Congo tetras (4M/4F) and Bleeding heart tetras (3M/3F) and 12 Cory's (6 Orange Lazer, 6 Red Lazer) - it was a great show! With the extra 6" in depth, you could probably go with several pairs of larger apistos (Cackatoos, maybe) or rams.

I would call that bioload medium - could have easily upped the numbers of the schooling fish.

[Evolution]

I'd switch one or both of those fx5s to eheims. fx5s are poor biological filters and the eheims are the best biological filters and they will be cheaper on power consumption and media replacement within a year.

fish

12 - black phantoms tetras

12 - columbian tetras

12 - diamond tetras

12 - red phantom tetras

50 - cardinals

50 - marble hatchets

3 - different sets of 12 cory species

3 - pairs of different species of SA dwarf cichlids.

3 - BN plecos

12 - oto cats

2 - twig cats

[jvision]

One note on the FX5, there's a mod you can do to make it one of the most effective biological filters out there. Look here

[Evolution]

The theroy of the mod is good, but the flow rate of the filter is to high to make the fx5 biologically effective, no matter how you pack it. The fx5 will be out of production in 5 years (just like every other fluval ever made) and the pro 3 2080 will still be selling in 20 years from now (just like every eheim ever made in the last 30 years).