New 55 Gallon Setup Help

M

matefrio

AC Members
Mar 23, 2005
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I've just gotten a 55 Gallon (48 1/4 x 12 3/4 x 21) tank and would like to run my ideas by some of the experts here. I'm not new to this and had a 100Gal running for over 10 years but that was a while ago.

Stocking:
Red Minor Serpae Tetra 7
Clown Loach 2
Leopard Danio 7
Red Tail Shark 1
Marble Hatchet 5
Shrimp 3
Blue Dwarf Gouram 2
Queen Arabesque Plecostomus or another small spc. 1

Filtering
Eheim 2215 Classic Plus
I may add a aqua clear HOB later for redundancy

Substrate
Pool Filter Sand - Do I need anything else for the plants?

Plants
I am going to try and get a package deal for a 55gal. ~$65-70

Lighting
DIY setup 2.5 watts\gallon

CO2
DIY Setup with bubble counter and defuser.

So, what do you think?
 
I'd be inclined to say stay away from the pool filter sand as there's no telling what it's treated with. Go with one of the substrates like Eco Complete or Flourite. You can mix it with some sand if you like that look, but get sand used for blasting or specifically for the aquarium industry. There's a few other options that I'm sure others will chime in on. For the Eco Complete or Flourite go with drsfosterandsmith.com. They don't charge outrageous shipping like the other places online do.
 
Pool filter sand is fine, haven't seen/heard of any isssues.

I'd skip the clown loaches. Even though slow growing, they behave more naturally in groups of 6 and up, and they get very large.

Ensure your pleco species is one that stays very small, 4-5" max. Many of the commons in an LFS will get huge. They actually represent a large bio load. You might want to figure a school of 10-12 cory instead.
 
I read sand for substrate is less than a ideal choice because it so fine, it's not much room for oxygen to get into the good bacteria living in it. Secondly it hard for live plant to root.
 
If i could work up the nerve to tear the 80 gallon down, i would probably use pool sand......:)
 
In any substrate, without a UGF/RUGF, the bacteria only go so far down. I think sand is a great substrate.
 
Thanks for the advice so far. Looks like I'm headed in the right direction from the responses above.

I just picked up a Eheim 2217 from someone getting out of the fish hobby along with another 55 gallon tank\stand with some other goodies.

The Eheim may need rebuilding but it is much less than buying new and the tank also has a 10 gallon wet dry sump underneath. I don't know what one I'm going to use where but I'm looking froward to it.
 
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