Wanting to set up a tank

[Marchingbandjs]

I want to set up a planted tank with parrotfish... my good friend has 8 parrot fish in a pretty small tank, and she is staying in my basement while her and her husbands house get fixed after a oil problem... so i want to set up a medium size tank for planted stuff and some of her parrot fish...

I know i have to reasearch and read some stuff, but i thought i would start here first


What are good FW forums...

Anyone care to give me the run down on things i need and how to go about doing it...

Thanks..

also anyone have any spare equipment they would like to get rid of pretty cheap..

[Marchingbandjs]

So from what i have read... Im going to need 2-3 watts per gallon.....

Thinking a 40g tank with a 36" length, that way i can get a nova freshwater light that will put out 78 watts...

Then something about CO2 and that seems like a whole lot of money.. i want it to be  nice and cheap and as easy as possible

[fishguy9]

u can manually dose co2 in tablet form... my personal opinion, find EASY plants, and research to make sure they belong completely submerged in water. most of the live plants u find for sale actually need to be half out of the water. elodea being one of the few, cheap, and easy to keep generally.  very soft, low ph water. (complete opposite of your reef!) lol.

fwiw, my wife has 2 parrot cichlids in a 35 hex. the fish r far easier to care for than the plants my friend. just get a cheap t8 fixture, filter, heater, gravel, and some fake plants! nitrates r hardly a bother to these guys. feed em and do a 25% monthly water change.... call it a day! just my 2 pennies.

the fish themselves r a hybrid. gold sevrum and red devil. MOST of the males r sterile, i have heard a few cases of them being fertile. but i wouldnt plan on getting eggs to hatch anytime soon. anything other than red/orange, white, and blackish (any mix of the 3) colors is prolly dyed and will lose that fancy color within a year or so.

pretty much everything on theses guys i think. lmk if u need anything else....