55Gl Fw Planter Tank

[stanleo]

Hi everyone! I had to move to North Carolina 2 months and I had to brake down all my tanks. I am FINALLY allowed (I finally wore him down) to set up ONE tank. So I thought I would start a journal about it and hopefully get some help along the way. Any suggestions or critiques are greatly appreciated. 
 
Here are the stats. 
     55gl standard aquarium
     2 Fluval canister filters, 304 and a 305. 
     Fluval four bulb 48" light fixture. It currently has 2 daylight 10000K bulbs, 1 actinic bulb and 1 coral life bulb. This tank was my SW tank. 
     Substrate is a mix. The back and sides will have 4 inches of black, plant formulated gravel. There will be a "beach" area in the front with white sand. 
     I am going to attempt CO2 injection. There is a system at the LFS that is reasonable. 
     The water out of the tap reads 7.6pH
 
My plan is to have dwarf baby tears or something similar around the rocks and the "beach". I want java moss on the larger piece of drift wood with anubias nana growing out of it. I haven't decided on the other plants but this time I want lots of color other than just green. I am going to have plenty of time to research the plants I want because I am going to do a fishless cycle. I have never done that before but I want this to be as healthy as possible. 
 
As far as fish go I am in somewhat of a dilemma. I had finally settled on having small schooling fish with a larger "centerpiece" fish or pair of fish. I was thinking a school of pygmy corys, a school of harlequin rasporas, and a school of cardinal tetras with maybe pearl gouramis or angel fish. But I just checked the pH today and it is high at 7.6. That is not good for the tetras or the corys, is it? I do know I want a lot of drama and movement but peaceful. Again, I have plenty of time to figure that out. I know I want to add some snails and filter shrimp when the tank is established.
 
Anyone have any tips or suggestions? Feel free to suggest about the stocking too. 
Also, how does the stocking that I listed sound? 
Are the bulbs ok as they are or should I get 2 floral bulbs to replace the actinic and the coral life?
 
I have some pics of where I am at now. I need to get some more of the black substrate because I think the beach is a little too big and it needs to be deeper anyway. 
 

 

 
 

 

[Chicken2012]

The tank looks okay so far Stanleo, and to me the beach looks a good size. Once it is planted it'll look fine, it probably looks a bit big for you because it is so bare due to a lack of plants at the moment.

 

[mike455555]

looks like a good start i'll be following this =D  one suggestion, clump the pipes,  and the heater (i guess you will anyway?)

 

[stanleo]

you know, I wasn't going to clump all the pipes together, I was going to leave them as they in the pics and hide them with plants. I thought this way there would be an even distribution of the filtering. Maybe that doesn't matter so much in a freshwater? Is there a benefit to having them all in place in the tank?

 

[mike455555]

not really just thought it would look better, you could swap one inlet and 1 outlet and have like 2 groups of them?   but as long as there covered im sure you'll hardly notice them =] 

 

[stanleo]

I have had the tank filled with water and the filters and heater running for 24 now. I began the fishless cycle today. I added 6.6ml of ammonia and waited 45 min to test using API test kit. The result was 1ppm ammonia and 0ppm nitrite. I wanted 3ppm so ATM I am unsure if I should add more ammonia or wait it out and test again. Any thoughts?
 
I am liking the layout so far, I just need to get plants. There are 2 plants at the LFS I want, a water lilly and something else I can't remember the name of. Other than that I am going to order the rest online. 
 
Right now with my pH being what it is i am scrapping the neons and rasporas. I am really liking the idea of getting 6 bosimani rainbows and 10 pseudomugil rainbows and 10 corys. I wanted pygmy's but they are unavailable at the place I order online, so I am still debating on the species. I also want to get four weather loaches, I really like them. Any thoughts? 
 
Here's a pic with the water. 

 

[stanleo]

I must have bought some weak ammonia because it finally took 32ml total of it to give me a 3ppm reading. I hope I didn't screw up putting that much in there.

The tank is still cloudy but I am sure that will clear up in a few days.

 

[stanleo]

Day four of the fishless cycle and I ran my tests for ammonia and nitrite. Ammonia dropped to 2ppm and nitrite has spiked to between 2 and 5ppm. I can't tell the difference between those two shades of purple on the API nitrite meter. So it would seem that the cycle is progressing. I am going to wait another 3 days and test again and if at that time the ammonia has dropped to .75ppm then I am going to do another full dose of ammonia.
 
The cloudiness has all cleared and I should be getting my plants sometime next week.
 
I have settled on the stocking.
 
5 Boesamani rainbows
5 axelrodi rainbows
10 pseudomugil or blue-eye rainbows
3 peacock gudgeon
1 bitterling for a "centerpiece"
When the tank is established I am going to add 2 neon blue gobies and some filtering shrimp with a bunch of snails and a BN pleco.

 

[Xzavier247]

Awesome tank, Is it just me when I say I like the look of a tank with no water lol... Dry scaping.... no not a terranium.

 

[stanleo]

Thanks everyone. 
 
So I got tired of looking at it with no plants so I picked up the only two plants at the LFS that I actually liked. The rest of the plants i have to order online. The two plants I got are Argentine sword (Echinodorus argentinensis) on the left and Malaysian red (Microsorium pteropus) on the right. 
 
I also got a CO2 infusion system that sucked. It wouldn't punction the canister and I couldn't get it to work. I took it back to the LFS. It was Ista Water Plant 45g CO2 Kit, in case anyone thinks of getting one. So I ordered one online that should be here in 5-10 days. I got it through Drs Foster and Smith. Fluval Pressurized CO2 Kit with 88g canisters for $62.99. I read some reviews on the system and one was specifically for a 55gl tank and said their plants were thriving so I think this will work well. 
 
I have to wait till that comes in to order the rest of the plants I want but I have made a list. 
 
Foreground:
Dwarf baby tears (Hemianthus callitrichoides)
Four leaf clover (Marsilea quadrifolia)
Banana plant (Nymphoide aquatica)
Midground:
Ludwigia Peruensis (Ludwigia glandulosa)
Ludwigia -broad (Ludwigia repens)
Anubias nana 
Background:
Tiger Lotus (Nymphaea zenkeri)
Madagascar Lace (Aponogeton madagascariensis)
Ruffle plant (Echinodorus martii)
Moneywort (Bacopa monnieri) 
 

 

[Xzavier247]

Just a heads up. The 88g is going to cost a lot in the long run. What's your bubble count?

 

[stanleo]

I don't know what it will have to be but my thinking is 1 every 2 or 3 seconds. I read that it can go through a canister every 3 weeks so it will probably cost me 40 bucks every 3 months. To be honest, I don't have the DIY skills to do a CO2 system myself which I know is a lot cheaper and this was the cheapest option I could find. 

 

[stanleo]

Today is day 7 of the fishless cycle and everything is looking good. My results are Ammonia .25ppm, Nitrite over 5ppm and Nitrate is 5ppm. I am going to add the same amount of ammonia as I did on day one so Dose #2 will be 32ml again because I bought a weak solution of ammonia.
 
I also replaced the actenic bulb so now in my light hood I have 2 10000K Daylight, 1 6700 Daylight, and one Coral Plus bulb, all of which are 48" T5 HO 54W.
 
My plants will arrive on Thursday (my next day off work) and in addition to the above list I have added Dwarf Hairgrass (Eleocharis acicularis)

 

[mike455555]

the plant on the right is java fern trident right? in its emersed form, it will melt to go into its aquatic form, but you may want to take the rhizome out of the substrate  or it will rot 

 

[stanleo]

I hate PETCO sometimes! They sold it under the common name of Malaysian red so I didn't think to research it further!!! You are right Mike, that is what it is. Oh well, there is a piece of driftwood that I can attach it to in the back that will look nice. Thanks so much for the heads up!