50 Gallon Man Cave Build

[Fish Bowl]

Building a new 50 Gallon setup for the Man Cave.
Setup as follows:
Pine stand with canopy all freshly rebuilt and painted.
New Clear For Life blue back 50 gallon aquarium. 36X15X20.
Filtration will be a Fluval 205 Cannister and a HOB AquaClear 70.
New Aqueon PRO 150 heater.
Substrate ECO Complete, have 3 pieces of drift wood soaking.

My intention is a lower maintainance Planted Tank.
No CO2 or heavy dosing.
Figure plant root tabs and dosing with Accel or the like as required.

Center piece fish will be Angel Fish. Aside from that a large school of small fish to be determined as well as bottom fish or others as selected.
Not keen on snails but would consdier shrimp that will work with the finned inhabitants.

Lighting:
Here's where I'm really looking for suggestions on the best lighting for the tank based on what I want to do with it.
I have a light hood as you can see in the picture below the previous owner has 3 CFL tubes installed. Either I want to replace all the electrical hardware in the current light hood or simply replace it with an all new setup. Current setup houses 24" tubes.




Fire away with your thoughts/suggestions. :feedback:

 

[platytudes]

Really nice! Acrylic, looks like? Just be careful not to get particles of substrate between the algae magnet

Angelfish would look superb, you probably should start with anywhere between 4-6, watch for them to pair up, then trade the remaining ones and keep a single pair. Chances are a school of angelfish are going to pair up, and being cichlids they won't be too agreeable to sharing their space once they've got their territories staked out. If you start with small ones, you will have plenty of time to see how it develops.

One thing to consider though - angelfish will eat the smaller tetras as soon as their mouths are big enough. With the excellent filtration and plants you are planning on, I imagine the tank is going to have top notch water quality, which will mean fast growing angelfish

Definitely don't get neons. Some people have luck with cardinals, but angelfish eat cardinals in the wild, so I wouldn't say this is exactly safe either even if they're bigger than neons. Ditto for rummynoses. and the like...anything else really small, like shrimp or otocinclus, is bound to get eaten.

Lemon tetras, diamond tetras, Columbian tetras would all be good choices. I'm a big fan of phantom tetras - their fins are adorable They can be a bit nippy, but nothing like serpaes - just a bit scrappy.

 

[user_name]

How about a few German Blue Rams, and a nice big school of black skirt tetras? Throw in a bristlenose pleco or two, along with a big corydora school.

 

[platytudes]

Dwarf cichlids have a nasty reputation for poking the eyes out of cories. Not sure how notorious rams are, but I know kribensis and cories definitely don't mix! I bet some of the smaller loaches (not clowns or skunks) could hold their own.

Kribs would be great for that setup, and are easy breeders as well There are lots of kinds these days besides just the classic P. pulcher, also.

 

[spencerguy1]

go with 4-6 angels, like platy said, a big school of serpaes or black skirts, a bunch of cories, and 2 or 3 bulldog plecos. i like bulldogs over BNs because the former stays smaller.

 

[Mgamer20o0]

maybe get a t5 fixture for it. very least you might want to look at putting cfl bulbs though they tend to be better for smaller tanks.

 

[Mgamer20o0]

go with 4-6 angels, like platy said, a big school of serpaes or black skirts, a bunch of cories, and 2 or 3 bulldog plecos. i like bulldogs over BNs because the former stays smaller.

when the angels pair off its going to be war in the tank though.

 

[Fish Bowl]

Thanks for all the suggestions so far, please keep them coming on stocking ideas.

maybe get a t5 fixture for it. very least you might want to look at putting cfl bulbs though they tend to be better for smaller tanks.

Have a link to a suggestion for the tank? Ready to burn the internets or in store with my Paypal debit card. :evil_lol:

when the angels pair off its going to be war in the tank though.

Was thinking possibly just putting a young tandem in there. If they don't pair I could always try again.

 

[Mgamer20o0]

if you want t5ho http://www.fishneedit.com/ you should also check out lowes and home depot both tend to have t5no at good prices as well.

Was thinking possibly just putting a young tandem in there. If they don't pair I could always try again.

3-4 young ones as long as you have somewhere to put the others or able to sell them off. not sure where you are at but coast fish club often has angelfish pairs in their monthly auction.

 

[Rbishop]

Nice looking tank!