I got a 55g!!

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TheCrazyFishLady

Aquarium Advice Addict
Joined
Oct 13, 2010
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Location
Atlanta, Georgia
My mother came up today, so I took her on my fish errands/hunting. And lucky me, the $1 for 1g sale at Petco was still on. I was going to just get a 40g because 55g were sold out on the first day and I wasn't anywhere near civilization. I found one hidden behind a stand and quickly grabbed it (more like hugged it). My mother had a heart attack and is calling me a fish hoarder... but whatever.

Anyway, what I am trying to get at here (sorry for my babbling) is that I now have a 55g. I am used to 10g, 8g, and 2.5g. Nowhere near any experiance this big.

I won't be setting it up until this fall when I move back in with my parents. Thus, I have plenty of time to research and prepare myself.

Any help? I am confused on what to do for filtration. The lady tried to talk me into a fluval canister filter, but I have no godly idea. Should I do two 50g filters? Or do like one 70g filter? I have read that Aqua Clears are preferred.

Thanks for any suggestions<3
 
nice! how exciting. first of all, i would go with 2 filters for a couple of reasons--it's a long tank, and you will want to placea filter at each end to make sure all of the water is being properly circulated. also, it's nice to have 2 in case one breaks and you can't immediately replace or fix it. it's also nice when it comes to replacing filter media, you can change one at a time and wit for it to become established before changing the other. you want to make sure that each of the two filters is rated for 50g or more, because you want the total to be twice the volume of the tank. i don't have much experience with different brands of filters, but aqua clear is one of the preferred ones around this forum, and will be the next type i purchase myself.

do you have any ideas of what you want for stock? how about decor? live plants or fake plants? if live, what kind of lighting are you thinking? just curious of course :)
 
Thank you! I will do two aqua clears at each end.

I was thinking doing low light plants, I don't like fake plants, and stocking I'm still doing research. I really love humphead glassfish. There are some at this shop in Marietta and I fell in love. So, maybe some of them and rainbowfish. That's what they are in with. Decor, I'm not sure. Maybe driftwood or get some crazy idea from wandering about TJ Maxx. That's what usually happens.
 
Congrats! That is awesome!

Though I doubt you would going with the Aquaclear hob, for a 55 you might want to seriously look at canister filtration rather than HOB.

I'm sold on Eheims, personally, though there are a lot of different - and very good - options.

The superb water circulation and resulting water clarity is worth the extra bucks for a canister in my opinion. I run a lot of tanks, and I definately found canisters the best for the larger setups, though my largest are 40s.

Canisters also have less clutter and its easier to hide the intakes, etc. than with HOB.

Just my two cents worth :)
 
Thank you. I am still deciding whether HOB or canister. I guess the problem is I have never had one and don't know much about them. Kind of makes me nervous.
It would be nice to be able to almost completely hide the filter and the money I saved on the tank could go into the higher prices of a canister. I will look into it further.
 
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