40/50 Gallon Tank Planning

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Yes exactly, I hope they have sweet personalities :) I'm gonna be saving a whole bunch of fish from petco, petsmart and petland! So does the tank sound like the bio load will need 50% bi-weekly pwcs or alternating 50% and 25% bi-weekly pwcs? (just wanted an opinion because I'm just not totally sure yet)
 
What are you planning on having as your light and substrate? What is the depth of the tank likely to be? All of these are factors in determining plants, just like Librarygirl said.

I'd be careful with the Neons and Cardinals. Cardinals are notoriously picky about water params and Neons generally aren't a lot better. I was told be a few people that generally you buy a school of 15 with the hopes to get 7 that survive. I've experienced this exact issue myself a few times. Just my 2 cents on the neons and cardinals.
 
skywhitney said:
What are you planning on having as your light and substrate? What is the depth of the tank likely to be? All of these are factors in determining plants, just like Librarygirl said.

I'd be careful with the Neons and Cardinals. Cardinals are notoriously picky about water params and Neons generally aren't a lot better. I was told be a few people that generally you buy a school of 15 with the hopes to get 7 that survive. I've experienced this exact issue myself a few times. Just my 2 cents on the neons and cardinals.

Wait what cardinals? And I'm going to have lots of plants ranging from low to high light needs, so what's the highest and second highest lights? And I'll have the low light plants below frogbit and dwarf water lettuce, so they're happy. I honestly know very little about plants but I want alot of them :) so teach me my friends! ^^
 
There's a general saying that you need to have so many watts per gallon. It varies by how deep the tank is. It gives you an idea of what could be kept under different lighting. For instance I have I have about 4 watts per gallon over my 90 and It is about 24" deep so I can keep moderate to high light plants.
 
There was a mention of Cardinal tetras in an earlier post. Disregard if it no longer applies.

I currently have just under 4WPG in my 67g which is also 24" deep and it allows me to grow high light plants.

There really isn't an overall "best" or "second best" light. Its all a matter of what you want to accomplish. If you want to grow the high light plants you're going to have to get something that will measure up to a minimum of 3.5-4 WPG, just keep in mind that more light means more money so if you are on a strict budget you might want to take that into account. Also keep in mind that some fish can be light sensitive so you will want to make sure there are enough shaded spots for them to hang out in.
 
I think I'll be going with the long version of the tank, so they're about 2 feet high, right? I'm gonna plant a whole ton of plants though, and so I'll use flourish comprehensive or some other fertilizer that covers all the needs of my plants. I might use root tabs but not entirely sure on that yet. How long are they anyway? (the forty and fifty gallon long tanks?)
 
skywhitney said:
There was a mention of Cardinal tetras in an earlier post. Disregard if it no longer applies.

I currently have just under 4WPG in my 67g which is also 24" deep and it allows me to grow high light plants.

There really isn't an overall "best" or "second best" light. Its all a matter of what you want to accomplish. If you want to grow the high light plants you're going to have to get something that will measure up to a minimum of 3.5-4 WPG, just keep in mind that more light means more money so if you are on a strict budget you might want to take that into account. Also keep in mind that some fish can be light sensitive so you will want to make sure there are enough shaded spots for them to hang out in.

I'll use frogbit on 1/4-1/2 of the tank to keep low light plants and for the light sensitive fish. What would be the bulb size/wattage for a 40 and 50 gallon long to stay around 4 watts per gallon? (for high light plants)
 
Those tanks would be around 36 to 48 inches long. Just multiply the gallons of you tank by how many watts per gallon your trying I achieve. For instance 40 gallons x 4 watts per gallon is 160 watts. 50x4 would be 200 watts. Remember it's just a general idea not exact.
 
I think I'm gonna get the tubey bulbs, I'm hoping to get a lid with the sockets inside the top part because I just like them that way. So I'll ckeck for the wattage I want and see what I get! Do you know how many bulbs go into the lids for the 40/50g?
 
I think I'm gonna get the tubey bulbs, I'm hoping to get a lid with the sockets inside the top part because I just like them that way. So I'll ckeck for the wattage I want and see what I get! Do you know how many bulbs go into the lids for the 40/50g?

Unless you find some sort of amazing lid i doubt you will be able to reach high light levels with a build in ballast/lid combo (at least i haven't seen any). From the lids i've looked at usually only 1 or 2 bulbs will fit due to heat issues.
 
alia258 said:
Haha I'm only getting males, there aren't gonna be any females in the tank, so no babies from the mollies! (they breed faster than guppies and rabbits put together) XD

2 male mollies may be aggressive toward each other.... I've had the same problem with just 2 male platies...
 
Then what kind of lid avoids the heat issues? Or could I use tinfoil to make more light go in the water? Do fluorescents fit into the lids?
 
alia258 said:
Then what kind of lid avoids the heat issues? Or could I use tinfoil to make more light go in the water? Do fluorescents fit into the lids?

If you want high light you're probably going to end up with an open or glass top with a light fixture. I'll post a pic in a few min to show what I mean if you need me to.
 
ocminpin said:
2 male mollies may be aggressive toward each other.... I've had the same problem with just 2 male platies...

Then I'll get females (do they have the same coloring as males?)
 
skywhitney said:
If you want high light you're probably going to end up with an open or glass top with a light fixture. I'll post a pic in a few min to show what I mean if you need me to.

Great! Thanks ^^
 
ocminpin said:
Yea sure do... Just be prepared for several batches of fry before all stored sperm is used up.

I can handle that easily enough, I've dealt with (and I still am dealing with) guppies and their fry. I hear mollies are very similar (they both hold sperm packs) :p
 
I was at petsmart, they had healthy looking fish (that's new for them, and their shipment doesn't come till tomorrow) and I saw albino Cory catfish. Would they school with my one peppered Cory cat?
 
alia258 said:
I was at petsmart, they had healthy looking fish (that's new for them, and their shipment doesn't come till tomorrow) and I saw albino Cory catfish. Would they school with my one peppered Cory cat?

I know every Petsmart is different... And i've experienced complete opposite things at the same exact store, but I've had good luck with most fish from Petsmart. I did have one horrible experience and brought home Camallanus... But I got Cruella, Charger, Blaze, Meringue, my Oto, my Betta from Petsmart. Cookie, Trixie & Vixen are from Petco.
 
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