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Hey everyone!

Just thought I would pop in and see if anyone has any stocking ideas for a community tank in my planted 55 gal?!

I'm all ears and open to suggestions!

Thanks ahead of time

rainbows

or maybe an amazon tank, couple discus some angels

55 is a good size u have lots of options

i like feesh

See i was thinking Discus but the location of the tank is in the busiest room of the house.. not sure that would be the ideal place for them... Any opinions on that?

Keep the water quality high and lighting relatively subdued and you'll be fine.

Discus tanks aren't really community tanks though. How about a community of 'peaceful' SA cichlids - firemouths and rainbow cichlids?

perhaps that would work... do they normally destroy plants in your experiance, and what type of stocking rates would you use?

Hi H!
Your 55 sounds like the perfect venue for a planted tank
and some really beautiful fish. Planted tanks can develop
a "Color" of their own. Many will use the natural
variations of the plants colors to paint the canvas, while
others use different leaves as the textures on the canvas.

You actually have three choices:

You can use "plain old green" plants and have the flashes
of color (the fish) to break up the "look."

You can use just a few plants "here and there" to make the
tank look more natural for the highlighted fish.

You can try and blend both the fish and plants into a
eye catching rainbow of color.

In your choice of fish, and there are hundreds of choices,
you do need to be a bit cautious. Many fish are aggressive
to others of their family, or just plain to others, period.
Many are territorial, sometimes fiercely.
In these cases (aggressiveness, or territoriality) the poor
plants become hiding places for real or possible opponents,
and are torn up and ripped to shreds.
In other cases, plants are either a part of their daily
menu, or THE menu. In this case you can plant some fast
growing plants with leaves that the fish crave, as well
as other plants with not so tempting leaves.
With some fish, planted tanks are all but impossible.

My advice to you would be to choose which of the three
"styles" of tanks you want to create with this 55G tank,
and then choose the plants and fish that will get along
with each other.

Frank


-->>> The Confidence of Amateurs, is the Envy of Professionals <<<--

Thanks Frank that was very helpful! Let me think about it for a bit and I will get back to you for more ideas

Fires love being in planted tanks and both them and the rainbows have never bothered with any of my plants. They do need rocks and caves (especially for breeding) too.

Thanks! Well I will be planting my tank hopefully tonight and then I will start thinking about fish in teh 3 tank styles

If you want a peaceful cichlid, I woudl suggest getting some Bolivian Rams (Ruby Red Cichlids is another name by which they are known).

Typically, you will not have a peaceful situation with firemouths... Generally speaking, that is, I am sure there have been the rare exceptions.

I too am stocking and setting up a planted 55g.
So far, I have three gouramis, 6 neon tetras, 4 neon green painted platys, a fancy guppy.

I have planted the tank so far with a Jungle val, a contortion val, some anacharis, wisteria, a potted amazon sword and some bulbs (dwarf lily and aponogeton).

I've decorated with a couple good size hunks of driftwood, some great river rocks, natural pebble substrate, a partially buried small terra cotta pot for a cave.

I intend to build the shoal of neons with more neons or possibly some Cardinals. I also intend to have a couple pairs of Bolivian Rams, probably a couple more gouramis. I am also thinking of maybe some corys and a shoal of some other sort of peaceful tetras.

I love having all the room for the fish to roam and it has been fun to see the plantings begin to grow and fill out some just in the month or so the tank has been up.

wow thanks for the info.. I planted last friday! driftwood went in today.. no I can;t see again (cloudy water from florite) so Im not sure how it actually looks!
Im tempted to build the tank around a pair of Angels.... as a good friend of mine has had 3 spawnings in teh past few months and all were sucessful, and the LFS wont take home bred around here... thought I would help her out..lol

If I do that what else would you suggest?!

oh and frank, mostly low light greenery with many levels of green....