Plans to go fresh for a 55g

almo75

almo75

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Feb 6, 2008
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Corn fields south of Chicago
Real Name
Al
Hey Guys,
I ran into an issue with my 55g saltwater tank and have divided it up into a 20L and 29g. This leaves me with the 55g and I think when I set it back up I may try Freshwater. My first tank was Saltwater started at the beginning of the year.
I wanted to run this past you guys and see if it is an acceptable plan. I want this to be a somewhat dark tank....I was thinking of painting the back glass black and using black sand. For decor I was thinking about one of those split castle(also very dark) type of things and that is about it, as I want it simple. Would this be an acceptable environment for some of those glofish? Do they prefer a planted tank or some other environment? If so how many can I keep in a 55g? I know a lot of people do not like them for various reasons but I think they look cool.
Since I want a dark tank these seem like they would make for interesting contrast.
Also, since I have not come up with too much info on them is it safe for me to research as if housing Zebra Danios? Any differences I need to observe?
If the glofish are not suited to that plan what would you recommend? I am looking more for many small fish as opposed to few big ones.
This will take me a while as I just now started reading about freshwater, lots of research ahead of me first.
I appreciate your thoughts.
Al
P.S. Don't tell the salties on me!! LOL!:lipssealedsmilie:
 
Glofish are geneticaly altered Zebra Danios so their care is the same. Being altered they are controversial but not as offensive as injected fish, ie Painted Glass Fish and the new abomination Mollies at places such as Pet Warehouse. Your set up will be fine for them, some plants would help with them feeling comfortable but in such a dim tank you will be limited to genuine immitations. I think the black background and substrate will make for a very cool look. As an alternative to the Glofish you might look into some of the small Rainbows and Blue Eyes. They have some awesome natural color and would really stand out in your tank. This along wiith some shrimp would make an eye catching setup.
 
I forgot to mention there is a self adhesive background called Ocean Visions which comes in blue and black. I used to paint all my tanks and when I found this I thought I would give it a try. It give you the look of an acrylic tank colored background. I've had it on my 75 for 2 years now and it still looks like the day I set it up. Being adhesive it doesn't get water behind it like regular backgrounds and it doesn't scratch or flake like paint always does eventually. Plus if you decide to do something different it peels right off.
 
No differences on Glofish and Zebra Danios except that they have been injected with a jellyfish gene to glow under a blacklight. For a planted tank, I would put 100 watts of light over the tank. You will be able to grow decent plants yet limit algea growth.
 
I can actually carry over my Salt tank lights and just swap out bulbs. I run 4 @ 54watt T-5s(4 footers). When doing plants at what point do need to worry about CO2? I wanted to keep it as easy as possible.
I have not looked too extensively at fish in a store yet, I will jot down your suggestions and have a look tonight...The wife needs me to go get crickets anyway.
I saw some paste for backgrounds too, never used it though. I will look at Ocean visions as well.
Thanks for the suggestions.
 
If you get over 2 or 2.5 watts per gallon (medium lighting) then I would start to worry about algae. If you stay closer to a low light set up you can keep low maintenance but slow growing plants like java fern, java moss, anubias, and crypts. I have done that for 2 of my tanks while the third is a high tech planted tank.
 
108 watts over 55 gallons is just below the algea area, so you should be fine without CO2. With 2 WPG, you could grow most of the plants out there in LFS and around the forum. Here's the website I use to ID and learn about plants: http://www.plantgeek.net/plantguide.php

Low light: .75-1 WPG
Medium Low light: 1-1.25 WPG
Medium Light: 1.25-1.75 WPG
Medium High light: 1.75-2 WPG
High light: 2-2.5 WPG
Very High light: 2.5-3 WPG
 
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