Starting to plan for a 55, need advice

J

JimT

AC Members
Feb 22, 2005
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Indiana
Hi all,
I scored a 55 gallon at a yard sale for $30, so I'm starting to think about putting tropicals in and how to set it up. I currently have a 125 setup with 6 goldfish, 1 bristlenose pleco and 2 Hillstreams and they seem to be doing extremely well.

Here are my two questions:
What equipment do you think I'll need to buy, given that I just have a tank and hood and I'll make the stand? UGF? Powerheads? Filter obviously.

How would you stock a completely empty 55?

Forgot to put in water info! Coming from the tap, water measures Ph 8.4, hardness (kh) very high. My kit measures it funky somehow, but it was 18 on a test scale of 22 I think.
After having my gf tank setup for a while with quite a bit of driftwood, it's Ph was 7.4 or 7.6 I think.

Jim
 
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We have water that is very close in parameters. My PH is 8.5 also with super high KH.

I'm in the process of setting up a 55 gallon too. But I'm going heavily planted so it's a whole entire mess than just setting up a fish only tank.

I suggest you get a combination of canister and power filters on your 55. IMO they do a much better job than any other types of filters I have experienced.

Also get two heaters for it and place them on either end. Depending on what temperature your house goes two I would suggest two 100 watt heaters if you live in a warm area. Two 150 watt if you are in the great cold north.

Decorations I'll leave up to you to dream up.
 
Watcher gave you some good advice, especially on the two-heater deal.

How are you building the stand? I'm guessing you've got some experience. I've known folks to go grab a stack of 2x4's at Lowes and nail them together, only to have the nail joints split and them suddenly have a 55 gallon carpet lagoon. Then again I've seen some nice 2X4 stands built by shooting two or three pilot holes with pencil-thick lag bolts run through them and nuts applied to the back, they hold forever. Put a nice dark stain like a mahogany or walnut, and a thick coating of Spar (outdoor/marine) Polyeurethane to waterproof your work, and you have a pretty nice piece of furniture.
 
Basic plan for the stand would be to have a plywood box with 2x4 vertical supports running from the floor to the top. 2x4's going around the top and bottom, door on the front. I'll model it after the stand that my 125 is on. Won't use lag bolts. I'll use drywall screws from the inside to hide them. Paint the whole thing with gloss black paint 'cause 2x4's aren't pretty enough for a clear finish. I've built a fair amount of furniture in the past, so I think I'll get it strong enough.
Jim
 
How long has your other tank been set up? You might want to consider moving the pleco and the loaches once you get the new tank set up. They'll probably do better in the long run in a tank that is a little warmer and with less waste than what the goldfish give off!
GREAT DEAL ON THE TANK :bday:
 
Hi Holly,
The other tank has been set up since the first week of March. Since there isn't much gf discussion here, I made my way to a gf forum and read up. Hillstreams and bristlenoses are both commonly kept with gf's and hillstreams are actually a cool water fish. As far as I can tell, they're all doing just dandy. One of the hillstreams lives on the front of the tank in the powerhead stream.

So, since no one has discussed fish yet, I'll kick it off. How about angelfish and cardinal tetras? How many of each could/should I have in a 55? Do these two go well together? Can I put some corys in also? Maybe a pleco?

Jim
 
If you want a pleco, I would reccomend staying with one of the smaller ones such as candy cane or spotted. A common might be ok, but I read about one guy having an 18'' one, so prob. not. Cories would be great to have in the tank also, do good in groups of 3 or more, you could have a group of like 6 depending on what else you are going to put in the tank. Im a fan of rasboras myself.....
 
I have a rubber lipped in my 20 he is going to prob go into my larger tank when he grows some he is only an inch and a half long now and hides all of the time I found he may grow to about 8 inchs at max.
 
Bobafish said:
A common might be ok, but I read about one guy having an 18'' one, so prob. not. Im a fan of rasboras myself.....
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You are correct about common pl3cos being able to get pretty big. My brother has 4 HUGE ones in his wife's 55. I guarantee you that they are at least 1 foot long each. We're talking about a 55 with the 4 pl3cos, about 6 rainbow sharks(about 6 inches long each), black skirt tetras, mollies, etc. I bet they have 50 - 60 fish in that tank.

They also put the artificial stuff in there that looks like Roman columns which takes up a lot of space. Most of the fish don't have much room to swim around, hardly any plants, basic biowheel filtration and not enought light. We've tried to explain(repeatedly) to him about his tank and what not to do and let him borrow all kinds of books to read(but to no avail). And he keeps getting upset because he comes down and sees out tanks which look real good and wonders "Why don't mine look like that?" :duh:
 
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