Thought On My 55 Gallon/Suggestions (Pics)

[Coltrane9]

First aquarium, bought it about 6 weeks ago. Used Tetra Safe Start, and have been doing small water changes every other day (About 15%). I'm pretty much "Cycled". Ammonia is registering a tiny bit, maybe a .1PPM and my Nitrites are at 0PPM.

So this is what I have currently.

FISH
1 Pictus Catfish
5 Red Eyed Tetra
6 Zebra Danios
1 Blue "Three Spot" Gourami
1 Gold "Three Spot" Gourami

PLANTS
2 Java Fern
2 Anacharis
1 Banana Plant
1 Wisteria

In my end game stocking plans, I want a few Angels. Some sites say they'll match fine, some say that the Red Eyes will nip them...

What else would work well in this tank?
I want some more color

THANKS!

Pics:

 

[bluerose]

What is your nitrAte reading? Without nitrates, your tank isn't cycled... just using SafeStart doesn't cycle a tank. It's important to know.

You could definitely add more plants. Angels may or may not snack on the tetras, tetras may or may not nibble on the angels... hard to know.

Also-- it looks like you might have some Anubias (the broad-leaved plants, third pic down)-- the rhizome can't be buried or they'll die. The leaves and roots sprout off of the rhizome, which needs light. The roots can be buried although the plant does well attaching itself to a rock, ornament, driftwood, etc.

 

[Coltrane9]

What is your nitrAte reading? Without nitrates, your tank isn't cycled... just using SafeStart doesn't cycle a tank. It's important to know.

You could definitely add more plants. Angels may or may not snack on the tetras, tetras may or may not nibble on the angels... hard to know.

Also-- it looks like you might have some Anubias (the broad-leaved plants, third pic down)-- the rhizome can't be buried or they'll die. The leaves and roots sprout off of the rhizome, which needs light. The roots can be buried although the plant does well attaching itself to a rock, ornament, driftwood, etc.

My Nitrate levels are around a 5PPM, a very pale orange.
Like I said, I've been doing 15% water changes to keep them down. I guess I could do a big one to knock it completely down.

I'm not sure if that's an Anubias or not,
How should that be planted? Should I un-bury it?

 

[taylorodw]

It looks like an Anubias from the shot although with a close up of the plant (including the roots and how they are buried) we can confirm if it is an Anubias, and whether or not it is planted correctly. (EDIT: checking the closer picture, it is definitely an Anubias. Pull it out of the gravel. The stems go down to a perpendicular section of a thick stem. This is called the rhizome. The rhizome needs to be above the gravel, you can bury the ends of the roots that come off it though. You may like the look if you tie it to a piece of driftwood.)

I think if you go ahead and add angels that are like 2.5-3" the redeyes should leave them alone... you could have 1 or 2 if you get a pair of m/f.

However your tank is a big question mark. Both redeye tetras and gouramis have the potential to be good community fish. The redeyes don't get very aggressive, but sometimes they nip (which may or may not be an issue with Angels and Gouramis). The gouramis can get more aggressive especially towards each other.

Angels can take care of themselves and sometimes can be quite aggressive. This, like the others, depends on the individual fish you get. Fish change aggression levels as they get older (my gold barbs males are starting to pester each other) so things could change.

IMO the Angels are the biggest threat to disrupting your tank, but the Gouramis could also turn nasty. If the Angels breed it could be a problem (or just a display in one part of the tank without causing problems).

So all of this is sane to try but you need to be prepared (able to separate or quickly re-home troubled fish) for things to not work out as planned.

I would also not add any fish until your tank finishes cycling.

 

[mgamer20o0]

its a anubias. i dont need to see the roots. most people attach them to rocks or wood. you can use fishline cotton thread or super glue.

this is hornwort which is a floater. any part in the substrate will end up dissolve and then float back up. great plant to help cycle with since it grows like mad and will use up the ammonia.

you should look into crypts if you want more color. easy to take care of low light plant.

 

[Coltrane9]

It looks like an Anubias from the shot although with a close up of the plant (including the roots and how they are buried) we can confirm if it is an Anubias, and whether or not it is planted correctly. (EDIT: checking the closer picture, it is definitely an Anubias. Pull it out of the gravel. The stems go down to a perpendicular section of a thick stem. This is called the rhizome. The rhizome needs to be above the gravel, you can bury the ends of the roots that come off it though. You may like the look if you tie it to a piece of driftwood.)

I believe you're right. I looked it up, and it looked exactly like this when I planted it.

I'm going to take it out in a few hours. By tie, do you mean literally tie those hanging strand parts around the wood?

The gouramis can get more aggressive especially towards each other.

They kind of chase each other around, but nothing looks serious. Overall they seem to be getting along with everyone. Not a lot of problems to the naked eye with any of the fish.

IMO the Angels are the biggest threat to disrupting your tank, but the Gouramis could also turn nasty.

That's kind of disappointing, but I may still try Angels. I'm not set on getting them, I just thought they'd be a cool bigger "center-piece" fish

I would also not add any fish until your tank finishes cycling.

I won't, I plan on waiting a few weeks to do anything else. I'm checking the Ammonia/Nitrites/Nitrates/PH on a daily basis.

 

[Coltrane9]

great plant to help cycle with since it grows like mad and will use up the ammonia.

It really does... The two have completely shot up. They're basically intersecting at the top now, spreading across the whole top of the tank.

They grew almost overnight, it was funny.

 

[Coltrane9]

I wrote a response to TAYLORODW, but for some reason it didn't show up...

Anyways, yeah it's definitely Anubias. I looked it up, and the bottom is exactly what I remembered. And yes, I did bury that bottom stem part. I'm not sure if I'm going to be able to tie it to the driftwood. Can you use a rubber band, (I saw that on a site) is that ok for the tank?

About the Angels, I don't really have my heart completely set on them, I just thought they'd be a bigger "centerpiece fish".

I'm not going to add anymore fish for a few more weeks, 2-3 or whatnot. Hopefully by then I'll be at all 0PPM. I'm doing the tests daily.

EDIT: Just did my testing, this is where I'm at.
Ammonia - .25PPM
Nitrite - 0PPM
Nitrate - Less than 5PPM, the color is in between the 0 and 5.

The Ammonia has been going from 0 to .25 for about 2-3 weeks now. Initially it was at around a .75PPM for a week, and now it fluctuates, but I can't seem to consistently get it to 0

 

[Coltrane9]

On other thing.
Today in doing my 15% water change I noticed all these brown spots on the back of the glass.

I'm guessing it's algae. I read that it can be caused from just "New Tank" and from too much light?
I've been having my hood lights on (stock lights) for about 12-14 hours a day

Too much?

You can kind of see it here. Should you just wipe it off?

 

[mattrox]

You can wipe it off.... about 4-6 bn plecos can help out too.

 

[taylorodw]

I would say 8 hrs is good for lighting the tank.

As for tying, I tie fishing line around the wood and over the anubias.

 

[yenner]

If you want color get a black background. I couldn't believe how much that made everything pop. It really changes things.

 

[Coltrane9]

If you want color get a black background. I couldn't believe how much that made everything pop. It really changes things.

I actually bought a black background, it's sitting next to the tank.
I held it up and didn't really love it, it just kind of looked tacky for a lack of a better word.

Maybe if I completely taped it down and stuff it'd look different.

 

[Coltrane9]

I just tested my tap water for Nitrates, for fun basically.
And it appeared to be at like a 2.5PPM, pale orange.

I wonder if that's the case that I'm doing something wrong, but I'm following the directions of: bottle 1 drops, shake bottle 2 for 30 seconds and put drops in, shake whole thing for 60 seconds.

I assume there's no Nitrates in the tap

 

[mattrox]

There can be nitrates in tap water. Try the test with distilled water (from the supermarket). That will have 0 nitrates and you can check if the test kit is working properly.

 

[Coltrane9]

There can be nitrates in tap water. Try the test with distilled water (from the supermarket). That will have 0 nitrates and you can check if the test kit is working properly.

That's a good idea...
I have an API test kit, with the Ammonia/PH/Nitrate/Nitrite/High PH

I assume that it's sensitive to the amount you shake it up and stuff, though the guy at the fish store said that you don't really have to do that and that "Real men don't measure" in reference to everything...

I'll try some distilled water tomorrow.

EDIT: I'm checking out some of your photos. What's that long straight plant that you have?
It's in this picture in the back right. The long thin strips
http://www.aquariumadvice.com/gallery/showimage.php?i=7658&catid=member&imageuser=2868

 

[mattrox]

Val.
vallisneria - Google Search

Wow that is an old photo, brings back memories.

Unlikey that the kit is faulty.....

 

[Coltrane9]

Bit of an update...
I tested some bottled water and basically got 0s

However, I tested my tap water and got some bigger numbers
The tap water has an Ammonia level around 1PPM, and the Nitrates were still around a 3-5PPM.

I've been doing water changes every other day, about 15% and the water in the tank is around a .25 as far as Ammonia goes and 10PPM for NitrAtes.
0 Nitrite.

So is that a good sign that the tank is knocking the Ammonia down on it's own?
Or is the tap water ammonia a false reading somehow?

I can't seem to knock everything down to 0, the Ammonia/Nitrates are slightly above 0.