# New 55g Tank, Could use advice



## lamiskool

Hi I am pretty new to this forum and have found it to be every every helpful. I started keeping fish since I was a kid and had two huge ponds in my backyard that I grew very large koi fish in. A few months ago i found a complete 10g tank that someone threw out so I took it and started to keep fish in it and loved it so much I went out and found a 55g tank so I could house more fish which I loved. Still have to cycle the tank and all but here is the list of what I have for the tank, and intend on getting and could use some advice on anything which you guys would think be helpful/make a better/more beautiful tank. I intend to have live plants in it so advice on what kind I should get, and substrate would be very nice, I know with the lighting I am getting I will probably have to also get a co2 injector but have NO experience with this...I will take pictures/post them hopefully next wednesday, on vacation till then =)

-Standard 55gallon tank
-48" 260W PL Aquarium Light Reef Marine Fish Tank Hood Light
-Eco Complete Planted Black Aquarium Substrate
-Aqueon Submersible Aquarium Heaters 150watts
-Aqueon Aquarium Power Filters 400gph
-large piece of manzanita driftwood

Fishes
1xRainbow Shark
7-10xTiger Barbs
1xCommon Pleco

-advice on any fishes that are dark in color and similar to these and could live in the same condition and space as these would also be nice

-for plants I will most likely get some java moss, java ferns and was wondering what other plants would be good for my tank 

-i will update with pics of tank and as I slowly start to build it, let me know if the filter and heater I got will be inefficient and what is the cheapest way to add co2 to my tank safely for my fish/plants, thankyou for any advice!

ok so here are a few pics of the tank so far, will update it regularly as i add more parts/plants/fish =)


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## holly12

Green Barbs are a dark green (very pretty) and will be fine with the other barbs. Google Image Result for http://www.ppaquarium.com/..%5Cimages%5CSUMATRA%20BARB%20GREEN.JPG

I have a plant book "The 101 Best Aquarium Plants" that has a small list for "rough tanks" - tanks with Oscars, large barbs, cichlids, *plecos*, catfish, gold fish etc...

Anubias spp. (Many different types)
Crinum spp. (Onion plant, Natans and Calamistratum) *DWARF onion plant is NOT aquatic*
Microsorum pteropus (types of Java Ferns)
Vesicularia spp. (types of Java mosses)

It has a little blurb after the list that says "These plants are generally safe with any fish, as they are rugged and some simply taste bad. Floating plants are usually fine with all fishes as well."


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## sqtran

- Nova Extreme T5HO X2 - Freshwater
- I would change the heater to either
Marineland Stealth Pro
or better yet
EBO Jager Heaters 
- Try power filters made by Marineland

If you can spend a little more. Try Sunsun, best bang for your buck canister filter


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## lamiskool

thankyou holly for the suggestions, im definitely going to get some green barbs, might have 6 tiger barbs and and 6 green ones...they look so nice and i think will look great with a planted aquarium. also thanks for the plant list...was really wondering what plants would survive my pleco, haha

also thanks sqtran, didnt know much about canister filters and now im definitely going to go out and get one


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## lamiskool

did some more research on canister filter, and saw a lot of people recommended this one as the best bang for buck and was wondering if this is true, if anyone uses canister filters and knows a lot I would really appreciate the advice before I spend my money on this.

Rena 721 Filstar XP2 Canister Filter


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## jrman83

If you go with the light in the link above, you'll really need to pay attention to your lighting time. That light really should require CO2. That is essentially the same thing I have over my 75g. I have pressurized CO2 and dose fertilizer.

I would say that if you don't plan on CO2, to go to a different lower wattage fixture. That one really isn't good for lo-tech and will just make your tank an algae factory.


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## holly12

No problem!  Glad to help.

You've got to post pics once you've got it set up and stocked!


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## majerah1

The renas are indeed good filters.I had one on my 29 for a long while.I just took it off as the seal went(its old)but they do filter and polish pretty well.My suggestion though,if you go with one,find a different set of inlet and output tubes as the ones with the canister is crap.They break way too easy.You can find a nice set of glass or acrylic.They look freakin sweet!

I have a nova extreme over my 29 and its well worth the money.I saw sqtran suggested it. know nothing on the light you have now,but if you do go with anything HO you will want Co2.I am currently in the process of going pressurized myself.


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## lamiskool

ok so just came back form vacation and finally finished moving into my apartment heres a few pics of my setup so far, still need to get a co2 system and a canister filter to replace the aqueon filter. also just ordered some xmas moss, java mass, java fern, and i think some slim leaf java fern. so you think I would really need a co2 system for these plants? and my wattage is about 125ish. i could double that but then I know ill for sure have to get a co2 system. also the plants in there already were ones I moved from my 10 gallon tank, think it was some mondo grass, some kind of anubis, and a mimosa moss ball all from petco. This is basically my first fish tank seeing as how I only had a 10 gallon before and only for a month before I realized the fish I was keeping and wanted should not be in a 10 gallon tank (pleco, rainbow shark, and tiger barbs)


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## jrman83

When I posted that about CO2, I was only referring to the light in the link that someone provided. What exact fixture do you have?


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## lamiskool

48" 260W PL Aquarium Light Reef Marine Fish Tank Hood Light

I only have the 2x65w lights on at this time so about 130w


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## Pigeonfish

If you're still lurking here, you should put some moss on that manzanita driftwood. It'd look awesome.


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## lamiskool

haha great minds think alike, heres pigeonfish, heres an update on my tank, actually even got more plants after this vid was taken but ill post those later. 

-Here are a few vids of my tank and my fish 
All of my fish
Tiger Barbs and Roseline sharks feeding


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## Pigeonfish

lamiskool said:


> haha great minds think alike, heres pigeonfish, heres an update on my tank, actually even got more plants after this vid was taken but ill post those later.
> 
> -Here are a few vids of my tank and my fish
> All of my fish
> Tiger Barbs and Roseline sharks feeding


That moss sure is growing good.

Beautiful tank btw.


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## lamiskool

heres an update with pics of a few new plants, still waiting on the blyxa and stargrass. enjoy and please leave any suggestions


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## majerah1

Very nice!

What do you think of the rena canister?


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## lamiskool

i think it works great but hey what do i know this is my first canister filter, thanks for suggesting it by the way it keeps my water clean and fish very happy =)

also next thing i need to do after looking at this pic is to take off the black wallpaper in the back and clean the glass haha, was in such a rush getting this tank up i forgot to clean the back of the tank


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## majerah1

No problem!

Yeah I need to clean my glass more often.but I cheated.The back is spraypainted,lol.


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## jrman83

The Java Moss looks familiar  Is there CO2 setup for this tank? Great start!!


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## lamiskool

haha yea thanks so much for the java moss, they are doing great! and yes I ended up getting a paintball co2 system, kind of scared to do more then 1 bps because i heard roseline sharks are really sensitive to co2 and need a lot of o2 so have been either not turning the co2 on or just 1-1/2 bps when the lights are on


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## susankat

Watch your moss with the pleco, they are bad at tearing it up trying to rasp the wood. I would find a bn for that tank soon as when the pleco starts growing he will be to big for the tank. Once they start getting bigger, he will tear up lots of plants just moving around in there.


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## holly12

BN plecos are great! (Like Susan said.) They are much gentler on plants and don't get very big at all!


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## lamiskool

hmm ya, i actually wanted a bn pleco and was going to get one but the store i went to first didnt have one so i ended up getting the common pleco. was intending to return it when they got a bn pleco but got attached to it so know i dont know what im going to do because i dont want to return it back to the pet shop


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## susankat

Here is a pic of my common, he's in a 90 gal and when he gets to big for it he will go into the 220 gal.


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## majerah1

Susan,Everytime I see him,Im still impressed.


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## susankat

One of these days I need to pull him out and get another pic of him, he has grown somewhat since this pic. I put a 3 inch one in a 55 to move to the 90 when he gets bigger after I move the big boy and in 3 months he is hitting close to 7 inches. Faster grower I have ever had.


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## jrman83

Do you think the 220 will ever be too small? How old is he?


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## susankat

Don't know how old he is, and yes the 220 can get to small if he reaches 24 inches as the tank is 24 inches from front to back. By that time he will go into a pond or to the states aquarium.


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## lamiskool

lol to the pond =P and that is one beautiful pleco, would love if mine would just stay small and cute....


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## majerah1

How much does that thing way,Susan?


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## holly12

wow. that is one. big. pleco!


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## lamiskool

hmm ya wonder how much does it weigh and is i heard you can train it to get used to being scratched/pet and can feed it with your hands, is that true?


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## susankat

I'm not sure but close to 4 lbs I would guess, maybe more. I had one once before that I raised from a 2 1/2 inches to 18 inches. He would come to the top of the tank to get brine shrimp from my hand along with the 14 inch ghost knife. I ended up giving both of those to the Tulsa zoo and I still see them once in awhile. The ghost is about 20 inches now, and the pleco is a good 2 foot.


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## holly12

That's awesome! I'd name him Tiny! Lol. He's a handsome fishy! It's cool that you can pet them..... didn't know you could.


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## Storm

Hi, I'm new here, and I'm about to put together a 55 gallon tank very similar to yours. I was wondering, now that you've had it in operation a few months, is there anything you would have done differently than you did?

What CO2 system did you end up going with? Is the lighted hood you recommended working well for the plants? Thanks for the parts list - it is really helpful. I'm pretty sure I'm going to go external canister for filtration as well.


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## lamiskool

hmmm the light seems fine but i might have gone with the T5HO light instead, i think the wavelength of the bulbs for those are better for plants, everything still seems to be fine and growing well. I ended up getting a rena xp3 canister filter also. I ended up buying a all in one co2 regulator and tank from theplantedtank forums. if you need help or anymore questions just let me know.


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## 37tall

what kind of plants are those? the ones that look like palm trees. very cool!


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## lamiskool

*1/4/13 Update!*

Well I have not updated my tank in a LONG time haha kind of got to busy with college and life. I recently just graduated and moved so in the process had to move my fish tank. While doing so I decided to redo a few things. Since the last time I posted I became a little bit better at keeping fish and live plants thankfully haha. Anyways I got rid of my tiger barbs because I just thought they were a bit too aggressive. I also got ride of my commen pleco and replaced him with two Otos instead. New additions to the tank are the Vietnamese White Clouds (~45-50 of them), Odessa Barbs (7), Otocinclus (2), and some Amano shrimps. My Denison Barbs (7) are very large now. I started out with 5 and one of them jumped out of the tank :icon_frow and I decided to have a school of 7 when I went to get more. I have also since then made my on mesh cover so that it wont happen again. Also my Rainbow shark is now Huge and very fat....lol he mostly just stays in his cave all day, before I moved he didnt have a cave and swam around the tank and kind of bullied everyone around now and then but since I moved I dug out some room under the log on the right side of the tank where the Amano used to hide and now that he fits in there he has taken it as his home :smile: 

In addition to the change in fish I also changed out a lot of the plants I had. I am hoping that the small plants in the front will start to carpet the front of the tank. The plants in the back I am hoping will grow taller and "thicker" and cover the back. Once more grows ill start to redistribute the stalk and cover the back of the tank hopefully. Any suggestions on how best to do this would be of use. 

Now for the tank parameters. Its a 55 gallon tank that I keep at 72 degrees. The lighting on the tank is two 65Watt 6500K Fluorescent lights. It also is dosed with CO2. Before I moved I rarely dosed with CO2 and fertilized the water but now I just recently orderd some root tabs, micro, and macro nutrients that I well hopefully figure out how to dose... The the water parameters which I used easy strip 6-1 to test (which I dont know how accurate they really are but I am currently to broke to get a better testing kit for now) are: Total Harness of 75-100 (the fish dont seem to mind this and have grown very healthy but since I moved and have access to a RO/DI filter I might play around with mixing it with tap water to make "softer water" for my fish, is this advisable or should I just leave it as is?), a KH of about 50-70 i believe (is this ok?) and ph of about 7.0. Nitrate and Nitrite levels are fine so I wont list it. From the fish I have listed I have are the water parameters ok? Also again any help or tips on how to make the front plants carpet and the back ones grow taller and thicker would be great! Also I have pics of the plants if you guys dont mind telling me that they are that would be great....I kind of forgot what they were all called...silly me. Oh and ignore the algea in the back i can clean it but i like to leave it for the oto, amano shrimps and rainbow shark to munch on every now and then lol

what plant is this?









again waht pant is this?









these are the plants in the front which I hope to carpet the front with, what are they are will it be possible?








IMG_6530_zps772a603a.jpg photo by lamiskool3 | Photobucket

no idea what this is...









are these water sprites?









here are the vietnamese white clouds, they are still fairly small and I hope the get a little bit bigger and less timid to go down further in the tank...









heres the awesome rainbow shark...if I had taken a side shot of him you would have seen how fat he is haha but hes a bit shy so was hard to take a good pic









heres a pic of the odessa barbs, they are really fast so they were also kind of hard to take a pic of









and heres a full pic of the tank as is, you can see the denison barbs happily swimming in the current


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## Raymond S.

That's a great start. You put lots of time into doing the moss/fern on the wood.
Small pieces of the moss will find their way to the bottom and should be removed
asap as they will attach to the bottom if not removed and mess things up when
you do get around to moving them later. Regular florescent bulbs are adequate
for tanks (as opposed to HO T-5) but in tall tanks like the 55 the type you select
matters a bit. I have two on my ten gal. and cut off one during winter. The lights
are on timers/instant on instant off and we adjust those timers for winter and
summer light simulation once in the spring and once in the fall and adjust the
amount of light accordingly...so we think the fish appreciate this "annual"
light cycle...LOL...
I get great results with these (one each)...
Zoo Med T-8 Flora Sun Max Plant Growth Fluorescent Bulb at PETCO
Zoo Med T-8 Ultra Sun Super Daylight Fluorescent Bulb at PETCO


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