New 55 gallon

[rustedscrapmetal]

Hello, everyone. I just started up a 55 gallon after having a 10 gallon for a while, and finding it inadequate for my fish keeping desires. It has now been made into a quarantine tank. Well, I ran the fishless cycle, and it took longer than expected. A month and a half, but I was patient. Now I am slowly putting in freshwater community fish, and so far, all is well. I test my water constantly, and nothing has spiked yet. Water changes and maintenance is oddly enough easier in the 55, though.

I did have one minor set back. I have a light hood that hovers over the tank. After two days, one fish energetically jumped out at night. I fixed this problem by getting some custom cut glass panels. There's a half inch gap at the ends of each piece for air circulation. So far so good.


Wish me luck as I slowly introduce new fish! Quick question: how long should I wait before introducing more fish? I've been waiting a full two weeks between getting new fish. Is that enough to be certain the bacteria's caught up?

 

[rustedscrapmetal]

To make things clearer, I'd never add in more than five or six small fish at a time, and I never wish to get anything that grows past five or six inches. I also have been quarantining my fish first for two full weeks to make sure they are healthy.

 

[Lt.]

I only wait a week between New fish, but add the same amount as you.

 

[Aqualady40]

Yeah same here...i have a 55g and I add upto 3-7 fish at a time (depending what they are) and the higher the number the longer I will wait for new additions...ex... when i added my 4 cory's I waited 1.5-2 week before adding the next...I also skipped a couple weeks before adding any fish..... you will get the feel for yourself and your tank then you will know when its okay to add a few more...but just to say, I been adding fish since August and just hit 75% stock level today according to aquadvisor so that tells you how sloww I been going.....

 

[Andrew McFadden]

to AA

 

[Convict2161]

Welcome to AA

 

[rustedscrapmetal]

Thanks for the welcomes! I've even going slowly myself since I never dealt with anything this big. I know I'm hooked, and that perhaps 20 years later I'll want an even larger tank if I have room for it. My newest addition will be an albino briatlenose pleco to combat any algae I've been starting to get from the T5 lighting for my plants. He only gets about 5 inches, and I've been told he won't be as aggressive as the other algae eaters. I had him quarantined an will be adding him today.

I've been reluctant to try algae killing chemicals, and so far only have a little bit of green mossy covering on one piece of mopani wood. In the smaller tank, when I was younger, I tried the fish safe algae destroyer, and even removed what carbon was in my filter media, and got absolutely no effect. It did not harm the fish, but it did not harm the algae either.

 

[Lt.]

If all you want is something for algae control, look in Nerite snails. They eat the largest variety of algae types, come in many many colors, and CAN'T breed in fresh water. They need brackish water for breeding.

 

[rustedscrapmetal]

If all you want is something for algae control, look in Nerite snails. They eat the largest variety of algae types, come in many many colors, and CAN'T breed in fresh water. They need brackish water for breeding.

I'll keep that in mind if it gets out of hand.