55 Gallon South American Adventure Tank

[Galligak]

Welcome to my thread After a few adventures with some other tanks i.e.. losing and gaining tanks due to parents, breaking tanks, switching between sw and fw, I'm finally ready to put together my 55 gallon South American tank!

I have:
1 55 gallon tank
50lbs of play sand (couldn't find PFS anywhere looked at every home depot and lowes and other places like that and even tried finding pool stores, couldn't find it)
1 piece of driftwood
Lots of rocks
1 bag of silver marbles
1 300 watt heater
1 filter (meant for 70 gallon tanks)
1 hood
and a light thing, which I will be switching out the light for a better one because I want this tank planted!

I'm getting my stand either tonight or tomorrow. I need to clean out my sand and hook everything in. I'm going to use 2 things of used filter media and plenty of random decor to help cycle.

(yes I'm doing a fishless cycle even though I have 2 cycled tanks, I'm cautious like that)

For fish I want:
2 bolivian rams
1 angelfish
7 silver hatchetfish
8 peppered cories
10 of some type of tetra
Is this plenty/stocked or is there room for more?

Plants:
Guppy grass
Amazon sword
xmas moss~ yes I know this isn't from South America but I don't know of any mosses that reside from there.

Any ideas on south american plants?

Thanks for reading all of this! Oh and thanks if you leave any comments!

 

[Herotilapia_Multispinosa]

sounds good to me. just make sure that that school of tetras isnt big enough to be swallowed by the angels and make sure they arnt fin nippers.

 

[Galligak]

I was thinking rummynose tetras. or some other kind like that like maybe penguin tetras.

 

[Galligak]

We're about to go get the stand. Also could we possibly go up in the number of tetras and cories? Or maybe shrink the tetras to like 8 and get another school? So there would be 2 schools of tetras...

 

[Galligak]

I got the stand tonight. Tomorrow I'm going to sand it and paint it. I have most of my sand cleaned out too. Also if I get rid of the bolivian rams and did GBR instead would I have to take out some fish or could I possibly add more? I really love cories so I want to add more of them

 

[Flash081]

I like your stock list! (it's almost the same as mine)
You should have a little more room in there as long as it's not a hex tank.
Also, Hatchetfish love to jump so make sure your hood covers your tank completely. Otherwise you may wake up one morning and find some fish have met an unfortunate end.

If you want to get a rough idea on how stocked your tank is you can use this website AqAdvisor - Intelligent Freshwater Tropical Fish Aquarium Stocking Calculator and Aquarium Tank/Filter Advisor Don't use it as a bible, but it's a pretty neat tool that will give you a rough idea on your stock load.

As far as your plants go, I'm not sure of any SA plants as I'm not an expert. I can tell you, however, that Amazon Sword, Java Moss, Java Fern, Marimo Balls, Anubias, and Hornwart are all low light, easy plants to take care of.

Rummynose will go well with the angels. They are big enough that the angel probably wouldn't go for them at all, but if they do they will be fast enough that the angel should never really catch them unless they are sick or don't have room to run (i.e a hextank).

Another thing to watch out for is the Bolivian Rams will become very aggressive towards your tetras and cories when they go to breed. To help with the aggression of the pair make sure you have a "cave" for them to go to. A cave can be a flower vase, pot, rock formation, log formation, or pretty much anything they can go into to hide and protect.

 

[Galligak]

Okay thanks! I was planning on getting something like that for them. I have a 55 gallon tank with a turtle in it I was wondering if I could put one of the filters in this (my new) tank and it would seed the other filter. If so how long would I have to keep it in there for? I would want to return it to my turtle tank when it's usefulness is gone.

 

[Galligak]

So I have to finish one project per item towards setting up aquarium I can sand the stand tonight. But thats all. Any ideas on the filter? I also have a revised list:

1 angelfish
2 bolivian or german blue rams
7 silver hatchetfish
8 peppered cories
6 false julii cories
10 penguin tetras -> may go down

Is that now stocked or could I add another schooling fish to the mixture if I took down the number of penguins to 8 and did another tetra of 8?

 

[Galligak]

So the tank is sanded and is going to be painted tonight. Here is the stock that I will probably be going with, with a bunch of thanks to Bruinsbro1997:
2 Bolivan or German Blue Rams
1 Angelfish
8 Peppered Corydoras- maybe 10
7 Sliver Hatchetfish
9 Penguin Tetras
9 Red Eye Tetras
and an array of random shrimp maybe even a vampire shrimp if I can find one, but probably RCS, Ghost, Bamboo, and Tiger.
Oh and a few snails as well
Does anyone have a clue on adding the other filter in or should I just stick with adding the used media and decor?

 

[Galligak]

Okay, here's the progress on the tank:

I love it! It took me a while to sand and paint the stand, not to mention cleaning the tank, DW, hood, heater, and filter! Also if you could just take our eyes off of this post and look at the one above it, can you answer any of my above questions, it would be much appericated and much thanked!

 

[xwesx1978]

looking good so far , im doing a build pretty close to yours , all amazonian fish and gonna try and put in all amazonian plants but that might change because your plant selection goes way down that way , im gonna try a big school of cardnals with four angels in the tank and pray they dont get eaten lol

 

[Galligak]

looking good so far , im doing a build pretty close to yours , all amazonian fish and gonna try and put in all amazonian plants but that might change because your plant selection goes way down that way , im gonna try a big school of cardnals with four angels in the tank and pray they dont get eaten lol

Good luck with those cardinals. I didn't want to chance it, so I decided against them. I know if you look for amazonian plants there are few one that are simple to take care of and get a hold of, so there will defiantly be a mix of plants.

 

[Galligak]

So today I put in the sand that I had cleaned out about a week ago and add more sand that I cleaned out today and some from another bag as well. I put in my piece of driftwood and put on the hood, filter, and heater. I'm hoping that while my dad and I are out that we can pick up a thermometer for the tank. I also think that I am going to add 3 guppies to the mix, I know that they may get eaten by the angelfish when it's full grown but I'm hoping for the better, plus my mom likes guppies so I thought that I'd appease her as well!

 

[xwesx1978]

Good luck with those cardinals. I didn't want to chance it, so I decided against them. I know if you look for amazonian plants there are few one that are simple to take care of and get a hold of, so there will defiantly be a mix of plants.

if they get eaten i might go with some lemon tetras instead or maybe more hatchet fish

 

[Galligak]

I like the hatchetfish and the lemons! They are both awesome fish IMO. I don't think that we'll be getting lemons though...

 

[Galligak]

So the tank is sanded and is going to be painted tonight. Here is the stock that I will probably be going with, with a bunch of thanks to Bruinsbro1997:
2 Bolivan or German Blue Rams
1 Angelfish
8 Peppered Corydoras- maybe 10
7 Sliver Hatchetfish
9 Penguin Tetras
9 Red Eye Tetras
and an array of random shrimp maybe even a vampire shrimp if I can find one, but probably RCS, Ghost, Bamboo, and Tiger.
Oh and a few snails as well

So, my mother and sister today decided to totally wreck my planning. They don't like the Red Eye Tetras, would be okay with the penguin tetras but would rather have a more colorful fish, want more angelfish, and decided that they want the German Blue Rams instead of the Bolivians that I wanted. However they all said that 'this isn't their tank', but we all know that they would say things if I didn't get fish that they like...
So any ideas on fish for the place of the penguin, red eye tetras, and opinions on the angelfish and german blue rams? They did like rosy barbs, but they're not from South America!

But on a more positive note the tank is 4" from being filled! There is driftwood and plenty of rocks there too. We got 2 more rocks today and are thinking of getting more sand

Replies and opinions would be greatly appreciated!

 

[Galligak]

Oh and another question off the top of my head, how much harder to keep are GBR than bolivians? I've heard both ways... Any tips on how to keep them alive?
Thanks!

 

[Galligak]

So todays update, the tank is completely full and ready for the cycled media. But it's not going in for another week. Also with the new fish thing they like color and lots of it, that's why they liked the GBRs over the Bolivians that they saw. Thanks everyone!

 

[Galligak]

So today's the day that I get to transfer my cories from their home in the 8 gallon tank to their new home in the 55 gallon tank! I just have to finish a report for school put in the media and then put in the fish!!! This is exciting!!

 

[xwesx1978]

very cool man , make sure you posts pics when your all done