What are your thoughts? 55G tank and 40 Fish?

Siouxish

AC Members
Sep 6, 2004
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I've setup a 55 gallon tank with two Penguin 170 filters and two Fluval 204 filters. I chose these as this is a TruVu 55 Tube tank which is essentially two 27.5 gallon tanks connected with two large tubes that the fish can swim through. I chose the 204 as it is quieter than the 304/404. I chose the Penguin 170 as it is quieter than the Emperor 280.

I like a tank well stocked and always overfilter. Would you consider this to be plenty of filtering for this situation? I plan on having at least 40 fish, a mix of Mollies, Platys, Swordtails, and various scavengers.

Thanks in advance for your thoughts!

Please be sure to click the link below to see the tank:

TruVu Aquarium.jpg
 
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I think 40 fish may be pushing it. You have to consider that fish usually swim horizontally and ideally you'd have a longer tank vs. a taller one. Those two 27.5g are pretty tall and looks to have a smaller footprint compared to a regular 55g. I see that you have large rocks as well. There may be room for only a few bottom fishes. They may also favor one side over the other as well. As for filtering, Your turn over rate is 12X per hour if my calculations are right. I think thats plenty, if not a little overkill, which isn't a bad thing.
 
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40 platies MIGHT be ok, but remember that swordtails get up to 5 inches, and mollies get pretyt big as well. I'd strongly discourage you from putting that many fish in that aquarium.
 
Livebearers will over-populate your tank in no time... especially if your starting out with 40... I would consider get one livebearer specie (which also prevents hybridization, esp between the platies and swords which are in the same genus) and replacing the other 2 species with something else and less of them.
 
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