New 55g Long - Stocking and Cycling Tips

[aquarob]

Hello all, first post but have been lurking for awhile. Let me give you my setup run down. Need a few questions answered on my first Freshwater (have a FOWLR already, i know im going backwards there LOL)

Equipment:
55g Long All-Glass Aquarium (48inch), Two 18inch 15w flourescent bulb lighting strips, All-Glass Versa tops, Emperor 400 HOB power filter, Whisper 60 HOB Power Filter, Visi-therm 200w Stealth heater, and Coral-Life Digital Thermometer/Clock, Blue and Black gravel substrate, medium planted w/ plastic/silk artificial plants, a few resin-cast ornaments (barrles, broken pots, treasure chest)

Fish:
2 Corydoras, 5 Glowlight Tetras.

Temp: 77.1 F
Ammonia: < .25 ppm
Nitrite: 0ppm
Nitrate: 0ppm
pH: 6.7 (i think, stupid strips are terrible, liquid tests on the way)
KH appears to be in the ideal range on my strips (120 i think)

These fish were added after I set the tank up and let it run with the filters for a week or so. I am using Prime for dechlorinator and water changes. Trying to get the tank to cycle is the problem. Its not been 29 days, nearly a month to the day I added the fish, and still reading 0ppm nitrites. I have been adding Prime and doing 20-30% water changes on a weekly basis. Tank is crystal clear, ammonia never spikes above .25ppm. (There is a small amount of ammonia in my tap water, so i cannot reduce it below this level) My question is this, is there anything I can do to help this tank cycle? I have also already used a bio-booster (Biospira) as directed and still nothing. Should I stop doing water changes and allow the ammonia to rise? I wouldnt think that would help at all, but it sure doesnt seem to be cycling on its own...

The second part of my question is my ultimate bioload for this tank, and wether or not you guys think its acceptable from a bioload/compatiability standpoint. My final fish count is as follows. (What i would like anyway)

10 Neon Tetras
10 Glowlight Tetras
8 or so Neon Blue Rainbowfish (aka Praecox Rainbows)
1 Male Dwarf Gourami
4-6 Corydoras Catfish
Possibly one Siamese Algea Eater
Perhaps a few Cherry Shrimps/Ghost Shrimps

Also, is my filtration overkill? Its been my experience, the more filtering you have the better off you are, but with 2 HOB filters I am worried the current will be too strong for my fish? Please give me some straight forward and honest advice, as my LFS is clueless. (Pets*art) Thank you in advance.

[aquarob]

anyone?

[UncaBret]

I'm not sure, but the rainbows may overload you when full grown.

White clouds would be another option for a small school.

As for the filter? You have enough for 140g. If they can be turned down, I would set them at the lowest setting.

[aquarob]

Thanks mate. Anyone else have an opinion?

[jadefoodog]

opinion yeah but its just that. Alot of people however are agaisnt the glowfish cause they a geneticly engineered or at least tampered with, but i could care less about that. Im just not fond of neons, and i dont know why. it might be the unnaturaly bright colors or their tendency to die for most people (ive never had them so i dont know. tell you something i do like though, my "von rio flames" they only get about 1.5 inces and they have personality by the handfull only thing is you have to get a minimum of 6 witch is no prob in a 55g. I also agree the rainbow fish might be toooo much but heck i overstock my stuff also.

All in all its just not my style but it should work.
i shoudl get a 55 in may and its mostly going to be small fish. theres going to be at least 10 small cories then if i can spoecial order them 10 more dwarf cories (that only get 1 inch) im defiantly going to get a healthy stock of "von rio flames" and some danios. i would do white clouds but they are suposed to be coldwater fish. maybe even some rasboras. anythign small and not nippy like barbs

basically i go as small as possible without doing neons so i can get the most out of schooling behaviors without having to buy a 3 billion gallon tank.

[aquarob]

thanks for the tips, mate. who else?

[Roan Art]

Too many schooling fish. IMO go with the rainbows OR the tetras. Rainbows are really active and need space. They'll push the tetras out of the middle column and they'll end up on the top of the bottom layer, unhappy as heck.

*looks over at her 36g temporary quarantine tank full of 3 different kinds of rainbows and the four unhappy neons on the bottom*

Yah, one or the other. Go for a bigger school of rainbows.

Just don't ask me how many rainbows are in that tank *whistles*

Roan

[joephys]

Cory's are the greatest choice for cycling, so I would keep up the water changes, except that that might not be enough fish in a 55 gal to produce much of a bioload, so maybe change the water every week and a half and see if you see a difference.

[jadefoodog]

i hope thats a typo and you ment they arent the greatest choice

from the rest of your sentence i imagine thats what you ment
but yeah waterchanges are critical with any fish

[aquarob]

Thanks RoanArt, and I am curious how many rainbows you have? You say I should go with a larger number of the Praecox? What about mixing species? I didnt realize I could do that... I love the Boesemani Rainbows, but dont they grow to be 5-6inches long? Thats why i was leaning towards the Praecox. Any advice would be appreciated, as I dont know all their is to know about freshwater fish just yet. Thanks.

[Roan Art]

Thanks RoanArt, and I am curious how many rainbows you have? You say I should go with a larger number of the Praecox? What about mixing species? I didnt realize I could do that... I love the Boesemani Rainbows, but dont they grow to be 5-6inches long? Thats why i was leaning towards the Praecox. Any advice would be appreciated, as I dont know all their is to know about freshwater fish just yet. Thanks.
Yah, you could do Boes in a 55. Keep it to a school of 6-8 though, two females to each male. A 55g isn't very deep, which is why I went with the 75g instead.

Boes get 4"+. Some can get to 5", but those are older Boes. Rainbows grow very slowly and once they reach their initial adult size, they keep growing. A ten year old Boe can get 6".

Yes, you can mix rainbows, but keep them to the same size specie. Definitely do not put smaller rainbows in with Boesemanis. They can get belligerent at times with each other and with smaller bows might be a nasty fight. I had to break up a fight between my two biggest males this morning. Duffy had Sunny corned and they were circling and biting each other. Course they were fighting over Rina :rolleyes:

You can stay with the Praecox -- they do get to 3" -- and do a school of 13-14.

I've got a 75g with 13 Boesemani and 7 Goo obo gudgeons. In quarantine I have 8 Lake Kurumoi (parva), 8 Millenium (pseudoincisus), and 6 Crimson-Spotted (duboulayi). Yep, 22 rainbows in a 36g. They're babies, so it's not too bad, but the duboulayi are almost 3". Big babies! My new 75g will be ready this week and the parva and psuedo will go in there. The duboulayi will go in the last 75g with either lacustris or wanamensis. I also have a 10g with a school of Spotted-Blue Eye.

Little note about Rainbows: they need a planted tank and lots of O2. They are very sensitive to water and will break out in fungus faster than you can say "BOO!" if the water is not pristine. A LOT of them also carry TB, but you won't see it unless they get stressed and start fungusing, so don't worry about it.

You *have* to do at least 50% water change per week, but twice is best for them. They will flash their colors right after a water change and show spawning behavoir :)

Any more qs, please ask

Roan

[jadefoodog]

omg what i wouldnt do for just one 75 gallon tank

your a lucky one mrs grinch

[IceH2O]

:OT:


A 55g isn't very deep, which is why I went with the 75g instead.
Roan


Isn't the depth the same. I thought the 75 gallon was just wider?

http://www.alysta.com/books/fishtank.htm

55 gallon - 48 1/4 x 12 3/4 x 21

75 gallon - 48 1/2 x 18 1/2 x 21 3/8

[aquarob]

Thanks, Roan Art. I still am not sure what direction to take with this tank. I was originally thinking of going with a chichlid tank, but its far too small for that. I dont want just 1 fish. So then i thought, rainbows. But I am learning rainbows have a lot of disease issues. I dont want to make a tetra tank, though. No personality in tetras. But I also want some color and beauty. Sigh. Perhaps gourami? Only issue with those, is the females are rather bland. Also, females are not available in my area, so I would have to order them through liveaquaria.com or something. Paying overnight shipping on 40 bucks worth of plain jane silver gouramis doesnt excite me. What should I go for?

/rant on - Reading online, I see a lot of people that list species that dont belong in the same tank together, just because they look good. Are these people successfully keeping these fish? Or just replacing them as they kill each other and/or die of stress? Apparently a lot of freshwater hobbyist are A. Irresponisble. B. Misinformed or C. Just dont care and can afford to drop $10-20 dollars on every fish they lose from stress or whatever. I don't want to be the first 2, and I certainly am not the latter. I just want a tank with beautifully colored fish that wont kill each other, and arent so tiny that people ask, "Where's the fish?" (My friend just asked me that last night, my corys had disappeared (as they do a lot) and my glowlights were apparently hiding in the foliage (which they do whenever there is a lot of movement nearby)) Anyway, darn thing still hasnt entered stage 2 of the cycling process and I am a bit frustrated at that being that it has been 4 weeks, and my marine tank cycled fully in 2 with just one fish! Argh! /end rant

Wow, i feel better. Not really. Any guys, read OP and let me know what you think I should go for. I up for suggestions. Thanks to everyone.

OH! Forgot to mention. I donated some money to Aquaria Central. I love this site. There is a sticky, and they accept PayPal. Who cant spare a couple bucks eh? =)

[EcoPit]

BioSpira will not establish itself in your aquarium without decent levels of ammonia and nitrite for it to feed off of. The few small fish you have will not be enough to supply ammonia, and adding more would be a worse idea. Take those fish back to the lfs and add pure ammonia to the tank up to 5 ppm or so. Hopefully with the little ammonia you had some of the ammonia to nitrite bacteria from the BioSpira actually lived, so once you have a little nitrite showing up re-dose the BioSpira. See a thread on fishless cycling.

[Roan Art]

:OT:
Isn't the depth the same. I thought the 75 gallon was just wider?

http://www.alysta.com/books/fishtank.htm

55 gallon - 48 1/4 x 12 3/4 x 21

75 gallon - 48 1/2 x 18 1/2 x 21 3/8

55 gallon depth 12 3/4
75 gallon depth 18 1/2

Depth = wide. I don't like to say "wide" because IMO it's too confusing. Wide is easily confused with length in aquaria. You can't confuse depth with any other measurement. Unless it's height :)


Roan