55 Gallon Stocking

[Man of fish]

Well the flames really aren't dwarfs they go by many names like flame gourami, dwarf flame , fire gourami etc. You need either 1 or a pair of goiramis not like 5. 3 might work but I only want a pair 1 male and 1 female preferably. I don't really care if I get bn babies. I've got plenty of fish tank friends that could always tank em off my hands and my LFS gives me a credit for babies of any breed.

I don't really want to do much work for the plants and what color will the honeys get?

 

[eaglesaquarium]

If you don't want too much work for the plants, that means low tech. But, low tech still can mean different things depending on your light. What is your light set-up?

 

[Man of fish]

Not sure yet thinking of maybe some t5s what do you suggest?

 

[eaglesaquarium]

T5s will work, T8s will work.

Honestly, the light doesn't matter. What matters is that you have to match up your plants to your light. You don't want high lights with low demand lights. But, that is better than high demand lights with low lights. Ideally, you want plants that grow slowly if you have low lights, and faster growing plants for high lights. But, faster growing plants may also demand more nutrients than is naturally in your water and more CO2 than your fish produce. That's when you would have to dose the tank. You don't seem to be interested in that. So, if I were you, I'd go for less light.


Low light is less than 1 Watt/Gallon. T8s would probably be your best choice. Maybe two T8s with 25W each, or even a single T8 of 40W. If you go T5, stick to a lower wattage bulb, they put out more light for their wattage than the T8s.

 

[Man of fish]

Well I have a single 17 watt T8 on my 29 gallon and a single 15watt T8 on my ten gallon so a 40w would probably work good or I think the tank I want might have a single 40-50 watt bulb.

 

[Man of fish]

http/atlanta.craigslist.org/nat/for/2680238856.html
Here's the link of the tank I may buy.
I think it's a good deal what do you guys think?

 

[eaglesaquarium]

You could do either. That would be a low tech, low light set-up.


Lots of plants to choice from.

Primarily, I would go for some amazon swords (these would be the trickest of the list I am going to give you), any of the anubias spp, cyrpts spp., then you could go with java fern, java moss and any of the "waterweeds" like anacharis/elodea.

 

[Dieses Madchen]

That looks exactly like mine

 

[Man of fish]

I think I'll do these:
Anubius
Java fern
Anacharis

For the goiramis though could I get 1 flame or a pair or do you think I should get a pair of honeys?

 

[Man of fish]

I do like the nice orangey yellow the honeys can get though even though I prefer the flame.

 

[Man of fish]

Just gonna hit the basic lists again.
55 gallon tank. 48"x14"x20"
Fish:
6-8 yo-yo loaches
8 bleeding heart tetras
6-8 zebra/leopard danios
1-2 flame gouramis or a pair of honey gouramis
8 black widow tetra
2 bristlenose pleco

Plants:
Anubius
Java fern
Anacharis

Lights:
T8 around 40-50 watt single bulb

Questions remaining:
What type of sand should I use?
How do I plant the plants?
Is there something I need to do like monthly to keep plants alive or will they be good on their own?

 

[Man of fish]

Would this stocking be overstocked understocked or just right?

 

[eaglesaquarium]

It looks like it would be on the high side, but with proper water changes, it should be fine. I wouldn't jump into that level of stocking from the start though. Do a proper fishless cycle and then start with maybe half of that stocking. There is a lot to learn as a new fishkeeper. Having a full stocking level isn't really going to give you much wiggle room for a learning curve.

 

[Man of fish]

Oh I knew not to put it all in at once. I'd do maybe 8 tetras in one week then like 4 yo-yos the next so on and so on I'd start with the danios and tetras prolly.

 

[eaglesaquarium]

Oh I knew not to put it all in at once. I'd do maybe 8 tetras in one week then like 4 yo-yos the next so on and so on I'd start with the danios and tetras prolly.

I would go with half the stocking list after you cycle the tank, by adding ammonia and testing daily until both the ammonia and nitrite reading come back zero in 12 hours.

Once you have a cycled filter you could add them all at once. However, since you appear to be very new to fishkeeping, it would be best to start with a lower total stock number until you get your feet wet and how to do all the maintenance things. Once you have that done, several months later, I would suggest adding the rest in the manner you've suggested, although it might be better to space the additions 2 weeks apart. (And of course, test daily after the new additions to monitor levels and keep an eye out for disease.)