56 gallon column stocking help?

[bigemike]

so I have a 18x30x24 56 gallon tank, I would like a community setup of fish with three levels of fish and lots of activity. And Hopefully fun for my grandsons to watch.

The only fish that I am really hung up on are getting some koi angel fish in the tank at some point. But right now I would like to plan it out from my starter fish to adding the bueties we want later after the tank is running for a month or so.

This will be a fish in cycle. We have very good water here it is fom a natural underground spring and we treated the tank tonight with aquasafe plus.

The guy at the established retail store in the area here in cincinnati said we could come back and start buying fish tommorow.

 

[siva]

Welcome to AA bigemike!

First of all, if you're going to do a fish-in cycle, which I'm personally not a fan of for a beginning hobbyist but that's up to you, I would suggest you use Seachum Prime as your dechlorinator. This will be incredibly valuable to you during the cycle, as it can detoxify ammonia and nitrites left behind after water changes for 24 hours. I wouldn't begin a fish-in cycle w/o a bottle on hand.

I would go with 2 koi angels, and don't add them until the cycle is complete. Any time you have more than one of the same species of cichlid in a tank, especially with angels since you will not be able to sex them before purchase, you have to be prepared for the possiblity that they will pair up, which could make life for the rest of the community a nightmare. A breeding pair of cichlids will often need removed to their own breeder tank.

Do you have a quarantine tank? If you are adding fish from a retail store without QT'ing them in a seperate tank for 2-4 weeks first, you will likely end up with disease in the tank sooner or later.

Corydoras catfish are very popular bottom dwellers and are a great pick for beginners. A shoal of atleast 6 of any type would be great in this tank. You could also go with some algae eaters such as a couple of farowella cats and/or dwarf plecos. Any pleco that doesn't exceed around 6" is a good choice for your tank, bristlenoses are probably the most popular and easy to find.

Some mid swimmers you could look into are glass cats, boesemani rainbows, threadfin rainbows, rummynose tetra(not during cycle), kerri tetra. All of these are schoolers and should be stocked in groups of 6 or more.

Top swimmers could be marble hatchets(not during cycle), silver hatchets, pork chop rasbora, harlequin rasbora, zebra danios, and purple passion danios. All of these are schoolers and should be stocked in groups of 6 or more.

If you go to the fish store tomorrow, take note of which fish interest you, and post about them here. We'd be happy to advise you as far as whether or not they are a good fit for your tank, and if they mix well with angels. Try to avoid all advice from retail store employees.

 

[Mumma.of.two]

Hi and welcome!
http://www.aquariumadvice.com/artic...-to-Starting-a-Freshwater-Aquarium/Page1.html

 

[bigemike]

great info , thanks