55 Gallon Aquarium

[Fiji]

Hello everyone. I'm kind of new to the forum and i thought this would be a great place to ask my fish questions!
First question- Compatibility... The fish that i would like to put in the tank are: 1 angelfish, 1 synodontis catfish, 2 dojo loaches, 1 African leaf fish, 4-5 Boesemani rainbow fish, and 1 Siamese algae eater.
Second question- plants... Are there any plants compatible with these fish that don't need special substrait? i could make a DYI CO2 diffuser if needed. I have high lighting and direct sunlight most of the day.
 
The only fish that I absolutely don't want are African cichlids, but i am open to any other suggestions.
Thank You.

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[richpowell1989]

I think ur be better off moving ur tank to an area without that much direct sunlight. You will run into bad algae issues else.

 

[paradiddle]

+1 for moving the tank, mine only gets a bit of morning sun and i have to fight the algae off, not moving it now will only make you regret it in 2 months

 

[Ninjouzata]

Also agree with moving the tank, along with the algae I imagine it could make the temperatures fluctuate.
Which synodontis? I don't really know anything about them so maybe that's a stupid question..asking because there may be some that would outgrow the tank.
Boesemani rainbows like to be in groups of 6+, so just bump that number up a little. Not sure on the other fish's compatibility unfortunately.

 

[lrhodes]

i would skip on the dojos...

 

[hobby5]

Welcome to the forums!
 
Why do u open 3 threads for this? Wouldn't one have been enough?

 
Fish keeping is not like collecting stamps, so keeping lots of different single fish, especially when those are fish who live in groups, I would consider very bad practice.
 
Your tank got a lovely size so you have plenty of options. To really recommend you any fish, it would be good to know your water parameters, what are your KH & total hardness or TDS?
My recommendation usually would be to go for a single species of bottom dwellers (group of catfish/loaches OR some small cichlids), a SINGLE group of schooling fish (imho its better to have one larger group than 2 which are too small) and a third species which i more oriented to the surface of your tank like gourmis or panchax (there are more options.)
 
Start with those and see for a few month how it works. Then there might be the option to maybe add a forth species if needed.
 
Did you set up your tank already? If not I would strongly recommend to go for sand as substrate.

 

[Fiji]

My tank doesn't get direct sunlight for anymore than 5 hours a week. I have had bad experiences with sand in the past, so no to that. I have not set the tank up yet but I have all the equipment. In my opinion, I don't like the idea of putting little 3" schooling fish in a tank that big; I just don't. This is a bigger tank so I want bigger fish. The synodontis I'm interested in would probably be the upside down catfish. Thank you all for your answers.

 

[Ninjouzata]

What kind of bad experiences did you have with sand? Maybe it's something we can help you fix, as a few of those fish would really appreciate it.

 

[Fiji]

I had a 30 gallon tank about a year ago with sand in it and I found it to be quite difficult. I had a HOB filter for it and it would eat up a lot of the sand when I cleaned the tank; plus now I have a fluval 406 which has a much stronger suction than a HOD filter. IMO I think it would be very hard to clean a tank that size if it had sand. Thank you.