my 55 gallon Tank

[Swifterz]

4" ID Shark...


recently had an ich outbreak, so the tank was just thoroughly cleaned ...


the new guy, a 3" rainbow shark my son has named "Ember"...


added a background and a lot of plants, and back in business!


2 Iridescent Sharks
3 Bala Sharks
1 Rainbow Shark
6 Tiger Barbs
4 White Skirt Tetras
2 Red Wag Platys

i am leaning towards returning the ID sharks to my friend who gave them to me, becuase the barbs keep picking at them, and all of my sharks are going to be getting pretty big. will probably take out the platys too, they are just boring imo.

plan to create some rock formations and/or caves on one side with all the foreground plants surrounding it on one side, and have the other side have the majority of the larger plants. i have 3 more large plants to add so i'm trying to figure it all out as far as how to arrange everything. i like the way it looks now, but it looks forced with all the plants/decor symmetrical.

any ideas or suggestions on how to set everything up would be aprpeciated? this is my 2nd tank, but the first one i've taken really seriously.

[HN1]

Nice progression!

My only suggestion would be to place the DW about 1/3 of the way in the tank instead of directly in the center. You could also angle it so that it's slightly angled versus perfectly lengthwise. Maybe put some of the tall plants behind it and use the smaller ones in the foreground and open area of the tank. Hope that made sense.


Welcome to AA!

[Tank2379]

Hey wheres the Salt?

[Swifterz]

Originally Posted by HN1

Nice progression!

My only suggestion would be to place the DW about 1/3 of the way in the tank instead of directly in the center. You could also angle it so that it's slightly angled versus perfectly lengthwise. Maybe put some of the tall plants behind it and use the smaller ones in the foreground and open area of the tank. Hope that made sense.


Welcome to AA!

that's a good idea. i am wanting to get some rocks and was going to have one long rock slanted in there with plants behind it. it also helps hide the base of the fake plants. i can never get it anchored in there 100% where you can't see any of it.

i'm not good at photography, but here's a couple pictures i took today.

the bala sharks hanging out


my rainbow shark and one of the tiger barbs

[Swifterz]

update. pretty much everything has changed. out is all the old decor. in is natural driftwood, lots of slate rock and my substrate is now play sand.

i don't have any pictures (i just switched to the sand 2 days ago), but here's a video...

YouTube - 55 Gallon Community Fish Tank

current stocking:

3 Bala Sharks
1 Rainbow Shark
10 Tiger Barbs

will be adding about 8 cherry barbs and 3 yoyo loaches today after work. also going to pick up a second piece of driftwood for the right side of the tank.

thinking about trying some live plants, never done it before though so i would appreciate some suggestions.

[Aquarium1]

Nice tank. I hear java ferns and anubias are almost impossible to kill. However I did have some java ferns and they got brown spots. Don't know what caused them. I moved them to a qt tank. They aren't supposed to b buried, but to b attached to driftwood and rocks. I just left mine floating in the qt and theyre still alive after 3 months. Keep us updated.

[Swifterz]

YouTube - Tiger Barbs

YouTube - Rainbow Shark

YouTube - Bala Shark

^^ you can see the new driftwood i added in the tiger barb video.

also today i added two firemouth cichlids into the community.



so far no signs of aggression at all towards any of the other fish.

[Aquarium1]

You might not have it n e mor but whats that one blurry fish at the top of the first post?

[Swifterz]

that's an iridescent shark. sadly i gave them back to my friend because of how large they will become.

[mfdrookie516]

when i saw those pics, my bala sharks started flailing... finally figured out that they knew that used to be their home