My New 55g

CyberTrip

The Cable Guy
Jan 16, 2005
24
0
0
41
Ridgecrest, CA
Well I finally got a new tank for my not so little Red Tail Tinfoil Barbs. Man have they grown in the past year. They are nearly 5 inches now. Anyways, I recently purchase an AGA 55g Kit from the LFS for $189.00. Altho I should've just bought the Topfin 55g Kit from Petsmart for $159.00. The tank from the Topfin kit looked like an AGA and the hood looked exactly like one as well. Oh well. Anyways, I called Petsmart looking for a cheap 55g stand as the cost of lumber here vs a prebuilt tank would be about the same. Come to find out my stand was cheaper than I ever imagined it would cost. I called Petsmart on Friday night and asked if they had a 55g stand. They said they had one stand on clearance for $97. Well I drove to Palmdale on Saturday and when I arrived to Petsmart they had the stand and it was on marked on clearance for $97.46. The box was kind of banged up and it was open so I asked for some assistance to check to make sure everything was there and the shift manager helped me out by taking everything out of the box and checking the list of parts. The best thing of all is he offered me a 50% discount from the clearance price! Wow!!!

So I also grabbed a couple bags of Tahitian Moon Black sand and a Test Kit. Well when I got to the checkout the lady was ringing it up as $71 something and I asked her to get the manager so he could fix it. Well the manager overrode it and put in 50% off and it gave me 50% off $71!!!! I was like holy sh!~... so I bought 40lbs of Tahitian Moon sand, a Test Kit, and a 55g stand for around $105. Talk about a good day.

So me and my fiance head back home and brack some In-n-out on the way home mmmmm.... We get home and start assembling the stand. Takes us about an hour and we get her up and clean it then put the tank on it. Perfectly level woohoo! I didn't rinse the sand because boy is it cold outside. So I put the sand in, threw the water hose in and let it fill up. Of course it's cloudy as hell but oh well. So today I changed the water 3 times and now it's all cleaned up. It's not crystal clear but I will let the Aquaclear 70 work on that.

I installed the AGA 200W heater and let it get up to 76F and moved the fish from the 10g to their new 55g. The fish definately like it much more. Now it's time for them to cycle it. Good luck barbs! I still need to add some rock to make caves as this will eventually become a Cichlid tank.

Anyways, pics coming as soon as I can figure out how to take pics without them being blurry, too dark, or too bright.
 
moved the fish from the 10g to their new 55g. The fish definately like it much more. Now it's time for them to cycle it. Good luck barbs! I still need to add some rock to make caves as this will eventually become a Cichlid tank.
Wouldn't you want to have the tank cycled BEFORE you move them over to the new tank?? I'm not too sure on how hardy Tinfoil barbs are but when it comes time for me to move all my fish over to the new tank I'm going to let some other fish do the cycling insted of the fish I've had for awhile and have grown attached to.
Anyway glad to hear you got a great deal on your new setup! :)
 
naps said:
Wouldn't you want to have the tank cycled BEFORE you move them over to the new tank?? I'm not too sure on how hardy Tinfoil barbs are but when it comes time for me to move all my fish over to the new tank I'm going to let some other fish do the cycling insted of the fish I've had for awhile and have grown attached to.
Anyway glad to hear you got a great deal on your new setup! :)

Well I'm not actually too concerned about these guys. I'm not really attached to them and I'm actually looking to give them away as these were given to me and I'm not too excited about them growing up to 14". I would like this tank to eventually be a Cichlid only tank.
 
CyberTrip said:
Well I'm not actually too concerned about these guys. I'm not really attached to them and I'm actually looking to give them away as these were given to me and I'm not too excited about them growing up to 14". I would like this tank to eventually be a Cichlid only tank.
Yeah I was worried about those big guys in a 55g too, but I didn't want to say anything seeing that you just got a new tank and all. I just didn't have the heart, but I'm glad that you know they will outgrow your tank. ;)
 
naps said:
Yeah I was worried about those big guys in a 55g too, but I didn't want to say anything seeing that you just got a new tank and all. I just didn't have the heart, but I'm glad that you know they will outgrow your tank. ;)

Yeah I've known that they would outgrow it from the day I got them. I was going to get a 90g but the price is just too much for me atm. So for now I need to look for a new home for these guys.
 
Don't mind the mess. Everything is a work in progress.

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$37 Stand! Courtesy of Petsmart

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oooo look at the pretty expensive sand

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*gasp*

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And of course, the most important part of the project
 
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CyberTrip said:
Well I'm not actually too concerned about these guys. I'm not really attached to them and I'm actually looking to give them away as these were given to me and I'm not too excited about them growing up to 14". I would like this tank to eventually be a Cichlid only tank.

Tinfoil barbs are one of my favorite all time fish to keep. Though you should have cycled, they are very hardy fish.

I've kept tinfoils for up to 5 years at a time. I've never had them get huge on me, perhaps a bit larger than 6 inches.
 
i would also advise atleast another AC 70 or possibly an AC 110 for a lil extra filtration. on my 55 gallon i run a penguin 350 and an AC 110 and i have plenty of filtration.
 
With all the money you save you could have got something other than Budlight!


Woudlent the tank stay pretty much cycled if he added the water from his old tank and used his old filter? The bio load would be the same, but the amount of of water would of course be much greater...

Just curious because thats what I did for my guppies 10 to 20 gallon, tank is going through a mini cyckle but my nitrites have not gone above .25

Course my tank is planted too I dunno if that matters much.

Dont feel bad about getting the tank from your LFS, I bought mine there too because these places need to stay in buisness or else you will only have the selection at petsmart to choose from!
 
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