55Gal setup

6 posts

Discuss all topics related to freshwater and planted tanks.


SpliF5873
 
Posts: 3
Joined: Wed Apr 30, 2008 10:09 am

55Gal setup

by SpliF5873

Hey guys, first time in this forum so bear with me if I repeat please :)


I have a 55gal tank, a few years ago I had a couple Oscars. After a while, and a few dead fish I had stopped with the hobby for a while. While cleaning my garage the other day I came across my tank and it brought back fond memories.

At the urging of my 4 year old daughter I have decided to get it up and running again. Currently all I have is the tank and an undergravel filter, as all my other stuff was broken or dead.

I think I'm going to go with more of a community tank with pretty fishes for the kiddo. But my main questions/concerns revolve around filtering. I'd like to get rid of the undergravel tubes if at all possible. But I'd like to keep the filter itself to run some pierced tubing to create a bubble wall effect against the back glass. Or high flow bubble stream in the rear corners.

I guess I'm really looking for some reccomendations on a hanging filter, or the best solution for my needs. I believe I used to use a TopFin60 with the undergravel filter. Carbon inserts in the UG tubes. And biobags in the hanging filter. I'm a little iffy on the terminology you all are using, so if you could dumb it down for me a bit that would be spectacular :D

Any Help would be greatly appreciated. Thank you in advance.


SpliF


Poetic_Irony2267
 
Posts: 297
Joined: Fri Aug 10, 2007 8:42 pm

by Poetic_Irony2267

just a few suggestions, if you want to stay with the over the back filters i would suggest an aqua clear, as big as you can get with out having too much space between your tank and the wall, if you want to go for the best option, go with a flu-val, or a cascade canister filter that you can hide beneath the tank in your cabinet, this will allow you to put your tank closer to the wall and hide the majority of the mechanical components, as for bubble walls, you can get a high powered air pump and from there you can hook up a line and a long bubble line along the back of the tank for your bubbles, the air pump and line and bubble wall bar can be purchase for around 30 bucks total depending on where you go, as for the filter you will want to over filtrate to maximize filtration and for less water changes. if your not doing live plants keep the undergravel filter in and hook up a power head to one side and cover the other side, this will allow you to put a large fake plant in the tank to cover the tube that comes up from the one side of the u/g filter and will also cover the power head. you could also stuff the intake for the canister filter into the tube for the ug filter and use that as your filtration method, this will keep your tank crystal clear and have you doing less water changes.

Hope this helps.
Brandon


SpliF5873
 
Posts: 3
Joined: Wed Apr 30, 2008 10:09 am

by SpliF5873

Thanks for the advice Poetic. i decided to go with a penguin 350, along with my undergravel filter. I've had it running for almost 2 days now and it is nearly crystal clear.

My next question revolves around fishy compatibility. I absolutely love red tail sharks. They are my favorite fish, I remember my parents having one when I was a kid. I love the deep black and the bright red they have, needless to say, I want one of my own.

I really like the cichlids I see at the local petco/petsmart. They are slim and slender, yellow and blueish, not sure the name. Would those be at all compatible? Also what type of algae eater would be ok with those guys? I used to have plecos, they do a great job but just get to damned big. Another couple I like are jack Dempsy's, black convicts, and green terrors/firemouth cichlids.

i looked at the chart provided on this site for fish compatibility, it seems as all the cichlids play nicely, but I couldnt find red tail shark. Just a 'Shark' category.

Again, thank you in advance for any help you can provide for me.

SpliF


Poetic_Irony2267
 
Posts: 297
Joined: Fri Aug 10, 2007 8:42 pm

by Poetic_Irony2267

i had a red finned shark for four years in with my heavy weights, by heavy weights i mean a texas cichlid, three green sevrum, two striped convicts, two blood parrots, a jack dempsey, venustus, and frontosa, and a few others, i would suggest making sure that when you get the fish make sure they are all relatively the same size and that the shark has all red fins, they tend to call these ones rainbow sharks, instead of redtailed sharks, the fish you have listed will all get along smoothly however they will outgrow a 55 gal tank if put in together, dempsey grow about 8 inches and need roughly 15 gallons to themselves, convicts will take up a chunk about 10 gallons wide and long in a corner, the green terror needs about 30 gallons to itself and a firemouth cichlid can get absolutely nasty!!! LOL so all and all with the fish you are thinking about getting i would suggest you can start them in the 55 gal, however you will want to upgrade to atleast a 90 gal or larger for the amount of fish you plan on keeping. the penguin 350 is a great filter and if you have the ugf running you should do just fine, just remember not to put in any live plants or they will end up destroyed. LOL cichlids whether south american or african love to dig and will dig up the roots and also eat the plants leaves.
Good luck, and hope this helps.
Brandon


Poetic_Irony2267
 
Posts: 297
Joined: Fri Aug 10, 2007 8:42 pm

by Poetic_Irony2267

oh i didn't answer your question about the algae eater, try a gold nugget pleco, they are a little more expensive but are extremely pretty, either that or a stellar pleco, they look like the night sky, black with white spots looks like stars..... hope this helps.
Brandon


Zambize4899
 
Posts: 499
Joined: Sun Feb 24, 2008 4:35 am

by Zambize4899

I use several Penguins and I love them. I have a couple other filters that came in "kits" but eventually I replaced them with Penguins. I have two 150s and one 280.
In each filter I usually use two filter pads and add a bag with either charcoal or peat moss...love it.

Zambize

55Gal setup

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