55gallon tank

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well, this weekend I went to my friends house and I saw some of her dads fish mating, it was amazing. Thanks to her dad I now have a 55 and a 30 to fill with fish. He also told me that I shouldn't do a planted tank with a BIOwheel (the filter that came with my 55). So I'm probably going to do a planted 30 with some variation of what I was going to do in the 55. And in the 55 maybe I can make a cichlid tank or something else that wouldn't require alot of plants. I cant remember what kind of cichlids that were breeding but they were an amazing blue color and they were in a tank with yellow labs.
 
He also told me that I shouldn't do a planted tank with a BIOwheel

That is correct. Planted tanks and cichlid tanks are my personal favorite. Where the two do not always mix well you seem like you have a good plan. Just make sure you research everything and come back for lighting and other questions before you spend money. I wasted money on my first planted tank because I didn't know that a 50/50 acintic lamp was no use for freshwater. Have you decided whether you want low-med-high light plants? Good Luck
 
You can always just take th BIOwheel off of the filter. They don't do much anyways.
 
JRagg said:
You can always just take th BIOwheel off of the filter. They don't do much anyways.
Not true, they actually remove allot of things if they are properly cultured. As for what type of plants I want to do, I really have no Idea. I dont know that much about plants besides they look amazing and that ever since I've had a fish tank I've wanted real plants. I'm not sure when I'll get around to setting up that tank though, right now all I have for it is the air pump and stand. If you have any suggestions on where to start learning about plants I'd love to know
 
Actually it is true, they don't remove anything really. They are designed to put oxygen into the water but falling water is going to have oxygen churned in it anyway. Bacteria can grow on them, but bacteria grow in lots of places and most of it will be in the substrate and filter media anyway.

The problem with a BIO wheel and plants is that water aggitation will outgas carbon dioxide which your plants need to thrive. It can be done with a HOB if the water level is kept high so the falling water doesn't outgas the CO2 too much, the plants provide the oxygen, and the BIOwheel goes from being near useless to actually damaging your tank.

I really dislike BIOwheels, they do almost nothing and in some cases can cause problems. I suppose they are better than a UGF, thats the only thing they have going for them.
 
p

The planted forum has stickies and you can learn a lot of information from the people that usually browse there.
 
Alshain said:
Actually it is true, they don't remove anything really. They are designed to put oxygen into the water but falling water is going to have oxygen churned in it anyway. Bacteria can grow on them, but bacteria grow in lots of places and most of it will be in the substrate and filter media anyway.

The problem with a BIO wheel and plants is that water aggitation will outgas carbon dioxide which your plants need to thrive. It can be done with a HOB if the water level is kept high so the falling water doesn't outgas the CO2 too much, the plants provide the oxygen, and the BIOwheel goes from being near useless to actually damaging your tank.

I really dislike BIOwheels, they do almost nothing and in some cases can cause problems. I suppose they are better than a UGF, thats the only thing they have going for them.

i'll second alshain, besides someone on this site, said he was a bio-engineer, and that the surface area wasnt big enough to do much
 
well, it works for me. Besides anything else would probably be out of my price range from what i've seen so far. So, does that mean that a biowheel can pretty much replace an air pump in my tanks? I mean, if i'm already stuck with it I might as well use it to my advantage right?
 
If the biowheel provides alot of surface agitation, you shouldn't need an airpump. I don't have one in any of my tanks and have only had to use one once when my 29g was freshly set up because the fish were at the surface.
 
well, it definately does that. I think thats why my pearl gouramis only stay near the top when I feed them or for a quik trip to the surface
 
hulkamaniac said:
A tank I want to put together when I ever get the space is a faux saltwater tank. The LFS here in town has something similar to it. Basically it's a crushed coral substrate and a lot of base rock and corals. The tank looks like it's saltwater at first glance because it has the basic saltwater look and the Africans swimming in it are bright blues, yellows and other colors.

My african tank is kinda like that. I don't use crushed coral, but a very light mix of natural gravel, and large pieces of Texas holey rock limestone, stacked to look like a reef. In several places a piece of ock is placed on top of two pieces of rock lying on the gravel with a space between them. It creates a cave-live swimthru that reminds me of the swimthrus on my favorite dive in Cozumel, "Paso de Cedral". With the colorful blues, yellows, etc, the tank has a very tropical saltwater-like look. A lot of nonfishkeepers who come to my house ask me if it is saltwater.
 
hc8719 said:
Alshain said:
Actually it is true, they don't remove anything really. They are designed to put oxygen into the water but falling water is going to have oxygen churned in it anyway. Bacteria can grow on them, but bacteria grow in lots of places and most of it will be in the substrate and filter media anyway.

The problem with a BIO wheel and plants is that water aggitation will outgas carbon dioxide which your plants need to thrive. It can be done with a HOB if the water level is kept high so the falling water doesn't outgas the CO2 too much, the plants provide the oxygen, and the BIOwheel goes from being near useless to actually damaging your tank.

I really dislike BIOwheels, they do almost nothing and in some cases can cause problems. I suppose they are better than a UGF, thats the only thing they have going for them.

i'll second alshain, besides someone on this site, said he was a bio-engineer, and that the surface area wasnt big enough to do much

That was me. Here's what I said:

I am a masters-level environmental engineer, used to do wastewater design, and am very familiar with the Rotating Biological Contacter, which these biowheels are modeled after. There are 3 reasons why those biowheels don't work:

1. The biowheels don't have enough surface area.

2. The effluent they are treating is not rich enough to support the bacteria. They make this worse by placing the biowheel on the outfall of the filter - after it has already been treated by the cartidge filter.

3. The biowheel moves too fast - RBCs move quite slowly to give the bacteria a lot of contact time with the water.

So in essence, the eclipse biowheel is a junky gimmick.
 
Well, that sucks. I'm stuck with it now though, my friend figured how to use the adjustable spray bar an an Emperor 400 to make the BIOwheel rotate slower so I guess that could help some. I cant afford to go out and spend money on ANOTHER filter so is there any suggestions on what to do so that my emperor isn't a hunk of junk? I had an old BIOwheel filter that I put on my girlfriends tank the other day but instead of buying a new wheel (I lost it I guess) and the proper media, I used some filter floss and activated carbon in a mesh bag, it seems to work pretty well, but I dont think I'd want to try doing it for a filter any bigger than that.
 
hc8719 said:
i know i say this alot, but try to ignore the $1.82 fish, like many mollies, guppies, tetras... its pretty tempting i know, but paying $4 a peice for more exotic fish is worth it, otherwise you have a great tank, full of not so great fish...

but thats just me, some people love the platies and mollies...


Mollies, guppies and tetras are great fish. I love mine. They don't get enough credit. They are colorful and fun.

poor livebearers. they get no respect. =(
 
I agree, there's nothing wrong with having livebearers and tetras. They are quite beautiful and interesting.
 
It's not that they arn't interesting or anything like that. It's just that if you look around there are fish out there with amazing colors and designs where as many swordtails, platies and mollies have simple colors and patterns or are only one color. But that doesn't mean they can't be great tankmates, my girlfriend swears by livebearers and my family likes her little 10g tank more than my 55 lol
 
Bigougit,

The biowheel isn't doing any harm (well, maybe a little if you take Alshain's POV), and the rest of the Emperor 400 is a good filter, traditional HOB, so no need to buy a new filter.

I think I understand your POV on the $1.85 tetras, etc. I got my first 5 gallon aquarium when I was back in maybe preschool, more than 25 years ago, and my first fish were tetras, barbs, etc. When I got a bigger tank later in elementary and jr high school, I eschewed the tetras as "little kid fish", and got into brackish fish, and also African cichlids. When I finally had the money and space for a 55 after college, there was no way I was going to squander the chance to finally have an aquarium big enough for big fish, and that's how it is now, big African cichlids. However, I can see someone also using a big aquarium as an opportunity to have a lot of fish of various sizes living together, to get to see big schooling behavior in tetras, and I have seen beautiful dutch concept heavily planted aquariums where the plants are the focus, but a school of neons, or congo tetra really add to the aquarium.

I have also found in my garden pond that my school of Buenos Aires tetras make great dither fish for the south american cichlids, reducing their shyness and making them more visible and active in the pond. The BA tetra also add interest in their own right, since all my cichlids are just a minor variation on the cichlid shape, and have slow, fluid movements, the more torpedo-like shape of the tetras and their fast, darting movements add variety.

Part of the reason that some of us "experienced" aquarists may eschew the starter community fishes is that they are so common, seen everywhere. I wouldn't be surprised if many of our brethren in the salt section eschew percula clowns, blue tangs, yellow tangs, and royal grammas, especially since Finding Nemo came out. I have to chuckle about the fact that practically every time I am in a fish store that also carries salt, I hear some little girl shout "Dory!" or "Nemo!". No one likes to have something that is common, that has become a cliche. But we have to be careful with this attitude. Even African cichlids have become pretty common now, and nonaquarists even recognize them. I see yellow labidochromis everywhere, even at Walmart.
 
I understand how many people like to have "rare" fish in there tanks and apparently I've got a few uncommon fish. I cant even find Corries with the same patterns as mine (and I'm pretty sure they will stay under 2 inches) and I would LOVE to own more pearl gouramis but after I bought my 2 females I havent been able to find any around here. I'm dying to get a male lol

I just feal that people shouldn't pass up the chance to have great fish in their tank, even if they are common. I love the designs in Guppy tails and live bearers have some interesting behavior.

And about my Emperor, unless I get the funds to buy a XP2 (would like to try a canister filter) I'll be sticking with it and will probably leave it as is, my girlfriend is trying to save up for a 55g so I'd like to be able to give it to her. I also have a Penguin 350 and I like it, it is a little noisy but I'm used to it now the only complaint I have is that the filter gets dirty pretty quick and the cartridge browns quickly.
 
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