New 55 gallon tank setup

**abdul1567** · 06-22-2011, 02:01 AM

Hello everyone, i am new to the forums and the hobby and have a few questions about setting up my 55 gallon freshwater tank. I have a Tetra whisper 60 power filter, tetra whisper 60 air pump connected to (2) 12 inch bubble bars with an aqueon 200 pro heater. I recently put in 5 red sailfin mollies to try and cycle the tank. I have a few questions that i needed some help with and the people at the pet store aren't particularly helpful. First, my airpump is going bad and i was wondering if it would be better to replace it with powerheads ( i'm thinking Maxijets due to seeing good reviews everywhere)? Second, if i did replace it with the powerheads, how many would i need, and would i need an undergravel filter? third, if i did put in powerheads could it harm the fish? Finally, what fish could i put together with the mollies? I was thinking about some combination of either angelfish, swordtails, barbs, gouramis, or loaches. Sorry for asking so many questions, i'm just trying to get it set up nicely.

**Spidyman** · 06-22-2011, 09:18 AM

Replacing an air pump with a powerhead will be just fine. It will add a lot of circulation to the tank too, that can be good and bad tho. It is good for active fish or fish that enjoy fast currents. It can be bad for slow moving fish or fish that come from slow moving currents. Mollies with be in the midde in my opinion, that will be just fine tho. If you want angels they may not like is as much. Also power heads do not need to be hooked up to an undergravel filter. I added a fluval edge pre filter sponge to do a little mechanical filteration. http://www.petsmart.com/product/inde...250&lmdn=Brand

As for fish, I like the sword tails a lot as far as livebearers go. Also a group if ten tiger barbs would look nice, just added teen to my community tank and have seen no aggression at all. As for a more center piece fish I would go with a pair of gouramis, they look good and are fairly active but could get stressed from fast moving fish but I have little experience with gouramis but did have a friends in my community tank for a week and he was unfazed by the barbs. You will still need a bottom dweller, I'm think a kuhli loach if you want a loach. Other options would be cories. A BN would be good maybe a pair or two.
Any other question feel free to ask.

**ldoerr** · 06-22-2011, 04:37 PM

I have some advice about Gouramis... They are very hardy fish that can survive just about everything. Do NOT get Gold Gouramis. They are evil. Every one that I have seen or owned has been extremely aggressive. If you want gouramis I would go with Opalines. They are very beautiful. No two of them look exactly alike. They are the friendliest of the gouramis that I have been around. They have a lot of personality. What I did for my 20 gallon long tank at school was 1 male Opaline and 2 female Opalines. They behaved very nicely with the other fish. In my area you can purchase them for under $2 each at Petco. They will learn very fast who their owner is and come up to see you whenever you walk buy their tank. My favorite fish that I ever had was an Opaline female.

**abdul1567** · 06-22-2011, 06:32 PM

Thank you very much for the quick and helpful replies, if possible could someone tell me how many powerheads i should get because people seem to say conflicting things on this topic.