Welcome to Gaia! ::

Alright I'm sort of new to fish keeping.
If you don't count my current 3 gallon tank(which really only works for one fish it seems, learned my lesson about trusting walmart with anything the second I went to google after purchasing 2 platies and one violet goby, yeah violet goby for a 3 gallon -_-)
Anyways I also helped my parents with their 150 gallon tank and 70 gallon tank when I was younger so I've got some experience with fish that way.
I'm starting a 30 gallon freshwater tank by the end of the month(gotta save some money for it) but I'm wanting to put in a lot of plants, and real ones not plastic(I'm already making the stand for it and a Co2 pump for the plants) Was wondering if anyone here has some advice for the plants and better yet the fish that I could get, I'd like a decent amount of non aggressive community type fish and of course and algae eater or two.
So if possible please post your advice on this here.

Thank you for your time ^_^

Hello and welcome biggrin

I'm glad that there is another fan of planted tanks around here, I have only ever kept live plants, and though it's hard work, it's worth it.
When keeping a planted tank you must first set your priorities, you must ask yourself how do I want the tank to look? Bright or dark? With currents and bubbles or slow moving near still water?

The easiest plants you can get are Java moss and Java ferns, these do well in low lights and still waters or Elodea (water weed) and Sagittaria & Vallisneria (the gras like plants) for clearer fast moving waters. They are very easy to care for and generally produce a lot of oxygen. The only problem I had with the last two is that algea loves growing on them and they may choke that way. If you can't find a decent alea eater make sure you clean their leaves monthly. Which can be quite a hassle with the Elodea. The problems I've had with Java fern is that it's sensitve to rot, but appart from that it's a good plant. Elodea is a little sensitive for that too, but less then the fern.
As center pieces I recomend the amazon sword species and the cryptocoryne. The amazon sword does very well in bright tanks and probably will do too in low lights, it's a tough one, just make sure it's roots are well protected and secured. I don't have much experience on the crypto yet, I've been keeping one in a low light tank for less then a month now and so far it seems to be doing very good. I've also seen them in brighter tanks, so I asume its care is the same as the amazon swords.

for floating plants I sugest duckweed or water lettuce (pista). Do not buy a water lilly for an aquarium. The lights of the tank will burn the leaves preventing it from reaching the surface and eventually it will drown. Also be carefull when chosing plants at the store because some stores will sell you plants that are actually land plants. They can live under water for a while but will start rotting eventually. And their rot is worse then that of normal aquarium plants. Look around in the store and note down the names of the plants so you can look them up before buying. When buying plants pay attention to the roots, if they look weak, pale or are non existant forget the plant.

For fish, eh, you have a 30 gallon, that's quite some space smile you can keep tetras, barbs, livebreeders, kilis, gouramis, chichlids (african or american) danios and the list goes on and on. Once you know what kind of enviourment you want it will be easier to chose.

Oh and actually you can keep more then one fish in a 3 gallon. I currently have a 2.5 gallon with 2 honey gouramis and 5 shrimp. It's a bit tricky, but minature comunities are not impossible, you just have a very limited choice in species.

brine shrimp are not terribly healthy food and will only thrive in saltwater (brine shrimp XD ). your fish should eat them but its too much of a pain for food.

and yes there are freshwater shrimp that eat algae :3 couldnt give you any names right now but its easy enough info to find. and most of the time planted tanks are fresh...usually only seahorse tanks are planted for salt :3

the thing with sword tails and mollies and platys is that they do BEST in brackish water or water that has some kind of salt content (something your plants probably wouldnt like)

That's a good bit of money for fresh water smile yeah I could never keep mollies long and then found out they need salt and if you go to petco or petsmart you will see they have tubs of salt in the tanks for some fish.


And brine are only good for critters that are finicky and will only eat live but even in that case you have to gut load them.

Black Tetras and Gouramis are both lovely choices for fish, they love planted tanks.
The best algea eating shrimp is the amano shrimp, they are semi schooling shrimp and love hanging around eachother. I'm currently keeping them and found that they prefer feeding off driftwood.
The ghost shrimp looks a lot like the amano but they are less into algea and more into scavenging for food. I don't know much about it's normal social behavior but I acidentally got one when I bought my amanos and I find that it's behavior is definately different. It does not hang around with the other shrimp and when it has food it won't hesitate to chase a fish away.
Here's a site with more shrimp information.
The only problem with shrimp is that sometimes, they get eaten by fish. It's best to try to get shrimp that are roughly the same size as your fish.

Other algea eaters are the Siamese algae eater, the Chinese algae eater and the Hillstream loach aka Butterfly loach

Don't depend on algea eaters to take care of all your algea problems though. Sometimes it grows faster then they can eat and you'll have to step in. And when setting up a new tank random algea blooms are almost innevitable.

Oh and I think that brine shrimp do have a plus point. They are one of the best things to feed new born fry with, appart from egg yolk. Most fish fry don't take to commercial fry food for some reason.

if you can find a nice cave in the store go for it
if you cant find a look you like make your own

its all about aesthetics as far as that goes

we already had the nippy convo over PMs :3
they are fin nippers and can be more angry in small groups
i have kept other kinds of barbs (golden barbs) and they are the same way. someone gave them to me along with a huge gold fish and they would harass him and rip his fins sad

no not with oscars
the oscar would eat them
oscars can only be kept with themselves and equally big or bigger fish and since they arent terribly aggressive (just predatory and hungry) you cant keep em with anything to angry or they will get beat up.

something fast needs to be with barbs
tetras i think might be ok depending on the type. gouramis would be bad. they are too slow and their pelvic fins would be gone

now for his tank tetras and gouramis? i think hes gonna do the barbs (which means he has to be careful with what else he adds but i think he's got it) but im not sure...nothing has been brought yet but i think hes gotten attached XD they are real pretty fish