# New to hobby...



## Luvfish (Jul 7, 2015)

Hi all,

We are new to the fish world (in a tank), set up a 55 gallon aquarium on 08/03 and are presently waiting for our aquarium to get cycled before we add any fish. The set up consists of 2 decorative air stones, Penn Plax 40/55 Gallon Aquarium Premium Under Tank Filter (2 filters are connected and thus 2 more air stones), Sunsun 4-Stage External Canister Filter with 9-watt UV Sterilizer , 370 GPH, and plastic plants.
we also purchased the API master test kit and Ammonia from Ace hardware store to aid us through this process.
Our aquarium has been up and running for the past 40 days and as of yesterday the NitRItes are 5ppm, NitRAtes were above 40ppm and Ammonia had reached 0 ppm so I dosed 4 drops (1/2 of my dose used to obtain 4 ppm of Ammonia). We are also keeping a log of our readings.
We are hoping to have a cycled aquarium by October 2nd week and would appreciate any stocking ideas or suggestions.
We are planning on a Freshwater Community set up with friendly little schooling fish (max full grown length 3"). I do not want live bearers/birthers. Looking for bottom swimmers/algae eaters, middle level and top level swimmers.
Any and every suggestion is welcome.
P.S all our fishes will most probably come from our local petSmart.
will post pics soon.
Sorry for the long post and thank you for your time.


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## kalyke (Nov 19, 2014)

Consider real plants?


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## Summer (Oct 3, 2011)

hows it goin?


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## henningc (Apr 17, 2013)

I always design and stock around the top, middle and bottom zones, so this is right up my ally. First, you need to know if you're going to use plants and then decide live or plastic. Either way, you really want some floating plants at the top of the tank. Floating plants open you up to a really good choice of livestock. For the top layer you can go with some sort of gourami or antabantoid. Paradise fish are neat and can patrol the surface as can Pearl, Moonlight, Lavender Gouramis. You could also go with a nice trio of Pearls and add 4-6 pigmy gouranis like croaking or sparkling. If you want some smaller surface cover fish Least killies work, but they are super small if you have anything aggressive. If aggressive is your thing then the Gold Wonder Killie is great. 3F-1M all have stunning color but they will eat smaller fish. These guys can go with most gouramis except the pigmy types.

Mid-tank will depend on what is up top. Depending on the size of fish you want a nice group of rosy or odessa barbs 6-8 and a group of larger of med size tetras say rummy nose or scissor tail rasbora. You could also go with rainbows, but I am not the expert on them.

Bottom. Depending on the plant situation, you could male a huge statement with some version of charex. Just think mega huge crayfish-pick a color. 2-3 zebras would work or 2 cherax qu. If you do crayfish you can do shrimp and they will multiply like crazy. If that isn't your thing you can go with 2 contrasted groups of corys, nice snails (Rabbits or Nits). To the cory mix you could add 6-8 kholi loaches. Avoid the, "Sharks" redtail, rainbow, etc. as they out grow the tank and become aggressive with age.


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