New 55g - Where to go from here?

enrique4jc

enrique4jc

AC Members
Oct 17, 2006
615
13
18
Russell Springs, KY
Real Name
Eric
I've been looking for something to put in the living room of our new home. I've had a 29g for years and have a 10g glofish setup for the kids, but I wanted something larger. Ended up getting a used 55g on the local Facebook marketplace pretty cheap. $100 for:
  • Tank
  • Wooden Cabinet/Stand
  • Decor including some driftwood
  • 2x Heaters
  • 2x Penguin Biowheel 330 filters
  • 48" Aqueon led strip w/moonlight (this one that you can add more bulbs to)
  • Python
  • Freshwater Test Kit
  • Food
  • More stuff I have not looked at yet, including another 10g with HOB filter.
Also came with:
  • 2x Angelfish
  • 4x Tiger Barbs
  • 4x Platies
  • 3x Cory Catfish of some variety
They tore it down right before I arrived, but since I want to spend some time cleaning that tank and getting it set up a certain way, I put those fish in my 29g and rearranged my other stock to make sure everyone stayed happy.

I now have to decide what to do with the 55g setup. I love the idea of cichlids, but I'm leaning toward creating a diverse, low-maintenance, planted community tank. Low light stem plants, ferns, swords, mosses, etc. Colorful and contrasting schools, rainbows, German blue rams, snails, shrimp...I'm open to possibilities. What kind of suggestions do you have in those regards?

Also, i need to figure out a substrate. I'm not going to be running CO2, dosing ferts, or keeping difficult/high light plants. I have sand in my 29g but cleaning any algae that grows near or beneath the sand line is very difficult to do without scratching things up and it has other negatives. We love kuhli loaches, and I know sand is typically recommended, but would like to know if they're okay with a good smooth gravel I can vacuum with the python. Thoughts?

Look forward to seeing your advice and getting started on this build!
 
Kuhli's will be happier in sand, but I had them in smooth gravel and they still buried themselves and bred. You do have to be careful cleaning though, since they can be crushed or injured. They will also complicate plants--my advice is to get the rooted plants in and established before adding the kuhlis.and of course, rooted plants prefer that you leave the substrate alone. I don't gravel vac any of the planted tanks. All my tanks have tons of plants, but most are mid-lighting, no CO2, sporadic ferts.

I wouldn't put anything other than amanos in with rams or angels. The caridina and neo-caridina species will be eaten, and even the amanos will be picked at and spend most of their time hiding in all but the densest of planted tanks.
 
Okay. At this point I'm not planning on putting the Angels back in the 55, but I suppose it could happen. Rams are one thought among many (so are the shrimp for that matter, it's hard when you're starting from scratch to decide where to set your limits). I understand the issue with vacuuming and plants. I'd be deep vacuuming the open areas and just surface vacuuming any detritus that builds up around the plant bases, so I shouldn't disturb things too much.

As a side note, how do you keep things clean without ever vacuuming?
 
enrique4jc said:
As a side note, how do you keep things clean without ever vacuuming?
Click to expand...

For my tanks with plants, I don't gravel vac them. These tanks have lots of Malaysian trumpet snails and the plants to break down what collects in the substrate. I never do less than a 50% weekly water change on these tanks to compensate for this. It's usually a bit more.
 
The filters are directed to create flow, which kicks up most of the solid wastes to be pulled into the filter/prefilter. For the rest, it breaks down and forms mulm which mostly sifts down into the substrate via fish and snail activities. On rare occasions there is enough mulm that it sits on the substrate and I'll clean that up, but honestly, the plants tend to eat every bit of it that doesn't end up in a filter.
 
After letting this tank sit empty for several months, I'm finally getting things going. Reinforced, sanded, and refinished the stand. Cleaned everything up. Just put in some driftwood and gravel and filled it. Had to stop there today as I had places to be.

My plan is to transfer my heaters and filters as part of the fish moving process and get it all done at once. From there it's about getting plants in there and working on the layout.

Would love to hear any thoughts/suggestions you have on planting or stocking (see original post for my basic ideas).

IMG_20180801_174901452.jpg
 
The tank came with 4 Tiger Barbs, why not build around them. More Tiger barbs and maybe some other larger Barbs (Panda Barbs), ect.
 
As I understand, tiger barbs can be fairly aggressive. Would they work with the kind of community I describe in the OP? Otherwise, what kind of community would you build around tiger barbs? They're fun fish, so I'd be open to rethinking.
 
Your mix could work, if the tiger barb group is sized right. They often just pick on one another provided it's a large group.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
AquariaCentral.com
Top Bottom