Birthday Present

[DazedNCoNfUsEd]

Hey guys. My mom got me a digital camera for my birthday(which is today BTW, 24, woohoo!), and I got my self a brand new 55 Gal tank, so I figured I'd put them both to good use and post some pics. So far I have a Gold Severum, 7 Tiger Barbs, 2 BN Plecs, and just got 4 Pictus Cats today(no pics of those yet). But here it is.

What cha think?

 

[saboy]

Love the Sev, I cant wait till i get my 105 gallon for a sev tank ! Oh and i also love tiger barbs, they look great when they school !

 

[seth]

thats a nice tank. Im getting a 55 gallon tank for my b-day in july.

 

[wendywc]

Wow, great pictures. Nice choices of fish too.

 

[jpedersen024]

Great pics! I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but if the tank is brand spanking new, you do realize you'll need to cycle it before too many fish are added?

And... ..... you may end up wanting to reconsider placing it in front of the window.. both for temp control and algae growth. It'll haunt you continuously with that much natural light...

Enjoy your new gifts! Sounds like it was a really good birthday!!

 

[DazedNCoNfUsEd]

About the cycling, I have the Penguin 350 filter on it, so it has 4 spots for cartridges and 2 biowheels, so I used 2 cartridges from my already established tank, 1 from my friends tank, and 1 biowheel from my friends tank. I added the Tiger Barbs first, then the Severum the next day, then the Plecs the next day, and finally the Cats yesterday. I've been feeding them twice a day and closely monitoring the NH4 and NO2 levels, all have stayed at 0.

And I'm sure the TWO Bristlenose Plecs SHOULD keep a pretty good control on the algae. I keep the temp at 80 F, guess I'll just have to make sure it doesn't rise too far above that when the summer comes. I keep my apartment between 70-15F, so hopefully I'll be okay.

 

[Jules H-T]

I recommend you get yourself a backing sheet for it (and even for one of the sides too depending on position in the room).

Personally I like black- there is no need to go for craggy rocks or the picture of loads of plants etc.

It will reduce algae growth, make the fish more comfortable since it provides a safe inactive background, force you to see the fish (higlighted against the black) and will hide the blinds/airhoses/wires/radiators behind.

It's not expensive at all, and some people even sellotape bin liners to theit tanks! You could try that as a test to see how you like it though, even if it's not a long term thing.

 

[DazedNCoNfUsEd]

Yeah I was actually thinking of doing that, with black even. I think it would look good because the sand I have is like a mixture of black and beige. Also my cat likes to sit on the window seal behind the tank and try to paw at the fish, LOL. She especially likes the Pictus cats now, I guess since their so active.

 

[Torrean]

what kind of sand did you use. I thought about mixing play sand and tahitian moon to get that effect.

 

[fuman_chica]

Yeah, I really like how that sand looks. I would like to put sand in my tank, but I'm not sure if I'm going to. It won't be anytime soon if I do.

 

[karen84]

Very nice tank

 

[DazedNCoNfUsEd]

Thanks for the compliments.... its actually a sand designed for African Cichlids apparently, heres a website for what the bag looks like

http/www.carib-sea.com/pages/products/fr...cancichlid.html

I didn't realize that it supposedly raised the Ph of the water, I'll have check mine whenever I get home. My fish are doing great whether it has or not. I'll post an update in a few hours.

 

[DazedNCoNfUsEd]

Checked Ph and it is still at 7, so no worries there.