My 55 gal tank

[Cliff]

Here’s my tank project that I’ve started 3 months ago. I’ve had tanks before but spent years of not getting very much good advice from the local fish store. Thank god for this forum. Anyways, here’s my latest and only tank I have right now:

- 55 gal tank with matching stand and canopy.
- A single T8, 40W light.
- Two 150 watt Rena (non glass) heaters
- A fluval 405 canister filter (just added last week)
- I used a fluorite sub-straight covered by a 1 ½ inch layer of ¼ to ½ inch sea gravel

After two months of cycling the tank I added the plants. I forgot what types of plants they were, except for the moss ball . I had them in one of my past tanks and they were very hardly plants. After about 3 weeks, I added the fish. There’s two blue firemouths (a male and female) and 6 cherry barbs (3 males, 3 females). After about another month or so, I’m planning to add a rubber nosed pleco and tow angel fish.

All leaves have been constantly within normal range for well over a month now and I keep the tank at 78 degrees F. All the fish seem to be doing well, and the plants are getting new leaves.

I’m still not sure about the placement of the plants, heaters, and stuff. I think I just need to keep looking at the pictures in this forum to find more elements that my wife and I like.

Sorry for the poor quality of pictures. I couldn’t figure out how to get my camera to take better quality picture with glass glair.

[souly]

Looks nice!

[rich311k]

Nice tank. Looks good.

[little hawaii]

Here’s my tank project that I’ve started 3 months ago. I’ve had tanks before but spent years of not getting very much good advice from the local fish store. Thank god for this forum. Anyways, here’s my latest and only tank I have right now:

- 55 gal tank with matching stand and canopy.
- A single T8, 40W light.
- Two 150 watt Rena (non glass) heaters
- A fluval 405 canister filter (just added last week)
- I used a fluorite sub-straight covered by a 1 ½ inch layer of ¼ to ½ inch sea gravel

After two months of cycling the tank I added the plants. I forgot what types of plants they were, except for the moss ball . I had them in one of my past tanks and they were very hardly plants. After about 3 weeks, I added the fish. There’s two blue firemouths (a male and female) and 6 cherry barbs (3 males, 3 females). After about another month or so, I’m planning to add a rubber nosed pleco and tow angel fish.

All leaves have been constantly within normal range for well over a month now and I keep the tank at 78 degrees F. All the fish seem to be doing well, and the plants are getting new leaves.

I’m still not sure about the placement of the plants, heaters, and stuff. I think I just need to keep looking at the pictures in this forum to find more elements that my wife and I like.

Sorry for the poor quality of pictures. I couldn’t figure out how to get my camera to take better quality picture with glass glair.


I like your set up so far, I would only suggest you double your light for the plants. You are at low levels right now. Welcome to AC. I appologize for the lfs idiots that lead so many of coarse.:l19: :fish2: :fish2:

[Oscar_freak12321]

Welcome to the forum! Glad to have you here! If you have any questions, this is the place to come! thumbs2: Welcome aboard!

[Cliff]

The plants really started to take off in my tank. The left side of the tanks has always been the favorite hinding spot for the blue mouths. When I got two severums, all four started hiding in that little corner. So I changed the drift wood in the tank and addedd more plants. The big one near the center is fake, the rest are real. The severums are still getting use to the new tank (got them two days ago). I'm hoping with all the new hiding spots, they'll feel a bit more comfortable.

My long term plan is to have the severums in a larger tank that I'm getting this fall.

[Cliff]

I think I finally got the tank were I want it, not to mention getting a little better at taking pic. All thanks to everyone's suggestions and replys.

With the exception of the Java Fern, I've been triming and replanting all of the plants to keep up with there growth.

[Bristley]

Wow! That looks gorgeous!thumbs2:

[kathymac]

You've done a very nice job with your tank, looks very nice and I'm sure your fish are very happy.//

[Cliff]

Bristley and Kathymac, thank you for your kind words

[Sharkman]

Cliff what is a blue firemouth? Different from the regular firemouth?

[Cliff]

They are just like any other firemouth but they have very different coloring. They only have a very very small amount of red coloring on their thought. The rest of there body color is a white / silver. When you get a really close look, you can see they have blue lips, looks like they are wearing lipstick

I think they are a lot nicer looking fish than a red fire mouth. Mine are very mild minored and have lots or personality.

I’ve attached a few pictures. They are not the best quality and my drift-wood was still coloring the water some when I took these, but you’ll get the idea

[Clown Loach]

Very nice looking setup Cliff.

[Cliff]

Thanks for the kind words

The tank just keeps getting better and better.

What can I say, I can't stop adding to / improving the tank

The below link is the most current pic I have

http://www.aquaticcommunity.com/fishpictures/showphoto.php?photo=16934&cat=500&ppuser=24262

[lowlight]

Tank looks good. Is there any way to add more lighting to the tank?

[souly]

I was just gonna say, the depending on the plants you might need more light.

[Cliff]

I had added my second light bar since the last pic I placed on this thread. I now have a total of 65W of light. I know this is typically considered low light levels, this should be good for the plants I have. I carefully reseached some plans that don\t need a lot of light as I didn't want to have to spend a lot of money for new / additional lighting.

Thanks for the repleys guys