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I am starting a 55 gal tank. I have lots of natural light from east & south facing windows. The tank is not in direct line of light, but the room is very light. Is it necessary to buy a florescent hood lamp for the aquarium? I will start filling the tank in 2 weeks, at intervals, with 2 knife fish, 2 red tail or rainbow shark(haven't made up my mind yet), 2 black anglefish, 2 kissing gourami, 2 plecostomus, 1 male beta, and 1 fire bellied newt. I'm hoping to make everyone in the house happy with these choices, without killing the whole tank. Please help!

TTFN --->Ta-Ta-For-Now
Kelly ;o}

You are going to make make some very unhappy to start of with.

That tank is way to small for some of those fish who has been advising you on what to get?

Knife fish will get to big to start off with and I believe they can become aggressive.
Only one red tail shark as they will kill each other, also they can grow an lot bigger and do require a lot of space including a cave basically for them selves.

Kissing Gourami another larger fish.
Male Betta certainly not with the Angels
I personally think you should do a lot more research on what to put into that tank.

Lighting natural lighting is nowhere good enough for a tank you will require special lighting for a tank (not the house hold fluro lighting)
Finally what type of filtration do you have or intend to us. Live plants is always recommended this helps to keep the fish and tank healthy also plants require a special type of light, and it is advisable to get a simple 24 hr timer.

You have several issues here and I strongly suggest you understand every one before you make any firm decisions

Fish.
Filtration.
Substrate.
Lighting.
This is an excellent article I suggest you read and understand it before you go much further.

I hope I have not disappointed you too much before you start. It is a lot easier to fix the mistakes now before you have any major problem which will become a lot harder to fix and cam be very expensive mistakes.

Finally go to as many LFS as you can and remember there are many who are only interested in selling you stuff not giving you the correct information.

GETING STARTED

Have a look in [link=My Profile] http://www.fishprofiles.com/forums/member.aspx?id=1935[/link] for my tank info
Look here for my
Betta 11Gal Desktop & Placidity 5ft Community Tank Photos

Keith

Near enough is not good enough, therefore good enough is not near enough, and only your best will do.
I VOTE DO YOU if not WHY NOT?
VOTE NOW VOTE NOW

Thanks! We went to 3 LFS and picked up small pamplets on some of the fish in general but nothing gave us deep specifics on what would be great with each other in the tank. We kinda figured we had to get fish of the same temperment, ie. semi-aggressive fish with other semi-agressives. But nothing we read online or in the pamplets said they would get over 4 inches.
We have a AquaClear filter for 40-70 gal tanks, Tetra Air pump for up to 100 gal, and a Guardian heater for 30 gal (it actually keeps the water within 72-75F. We have 5 various samples of live plants in the tank. (I think 2 have grown taller in less than a week) We can't quite agree on the types of plants. (I like stringy, they like bushy) We've compromise with 2 small, flat, round leaf plants, 2 bushy, 2 stringy. I don't know the names off the top of my head. I'll have to look them up.

We can drop the idea of the beta and the knife fish, but what about a loach, tetras or barbs? I read that barbs can be aggressive and are jumpers. I have a dog and don't want to provide a unexpected snack.

TTFN --->Ta-Ta-For-Now
Kelly ;o}

Hi,
In your description of the proposed tank, you say nothing
about plant life. If you are not going to have live plants
in the tank, and if you don't plan on watching the fish
(to appreciate the colors) then you will not need to add
any lighting. During the daylight hours the tank should
be fine for enjoying your fish. At night, however, with
just normal room lighting, then you will see the fish as
they move about, but I doubt that you will see the true
coloration at that time.

As far as your fish choices I quite agree with Keith, and
suggest that you reconsider some of them.

Frank
Obviously we were typing up our comments at the same time
and you beat me to the <enter> key!
The minimum amount of light you will need for the plants
is at least 1.5 watts per gallon of fluorescent light.
To figure out how much is what, read the bulb(s) and total
the wattage(s) of the bulbs and then divide that number
by the capacity of the tank (55 G). The result is the
number of watts per gallon. One 40 watt bulb in a single
light strip would give you 1.3wpg.

As far as the snail is concerned, unless you are "hyper"
about snails, they can be very useful in a tank and not
something to really fret about. Crushing a few against the
tank glass with your finger and allowing them to drop will
catch the eyes of the fish who will then eagerly devour
them.



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

I want to purchase a screen to be sure the newt isn't touring the house while we're asleep. We have a cave and intend on purchasing a piece of floating driftwood for it to climb onto.

I'm interested in cichilds but have been argued down, that they are too aggressive.

By the By, I found a (hopefully single) hitchhiker on the last group of plants sliding about my tank today. A very small snail! Do I have to worry about this thing multiplying? I've heard they're born pregnant. I don't think I want a million of them swarming the tank.

TTFN --->Ta-Ta-For-Now
Kelly ;o}

I'm just getting used to the sound of the water filter. It's been a very long time since I've been around a fish tank for a long lenght of time.

I've got family members that have lots of tanks.(haven't talked to them in awhile) Some have no plantlife and no lights, but are just beautiful. Full of convicts, jack dempseys, a red devil, a buffalo cichild and other fish. I've got one crazy cousin with a tank with pike, blue gill, and a big minow that moves so fast it's just a blur.

TTFN --->Ta-Ta-For-Now
Kelly ;o}

One of my co-workers told me today, not to put angels and gouramis in the tank together. The Angels will kill them.
That's not good. Is it true? I'm pretty positive we won't
be getting any gourami, but that seemed interesting.

TTFN --->Ta-Ta-For-Now
Kelly ;o}

If you are getting Angles no way get any Siamese Algae Eaters SAEs as they actually clean the natural slime off of them. I wondered why my Angles were always dying until I noticed the behaviour.

Have a look in [link=My Profile] http://www.fishprofiles.com/forums/member.aspx?id=1935[/link] for my tank info
Look here for my
Betta 11Gal Desktop & Placidity 5ft Community Tank Photos

Keith

Near enough is not good enough, therefore good enough is not near enough, and only your best will do.
I VOTE DO YOU if not WHY NOT?
VOTE NOW VOTE NOW

I don't think I've seen any SAE's in any of the LFS. I have noticed upside down catfish, but they confuse me. It gives me vetigo watching them. Catfish by nature are a bottom dwelling fish, but these things are flipped upside down. Won't they skim the top of the tank? And catfish are known to get pretty big with an even bigger mouth to match. I don't want to come home and find it's vacuumed up all of it's tankmates.

TTFN --->Ta-Ta-For-Now
Kelly ;o}

Upside-down catfish would probably be fine for that tank. The usual species only gets about 4", so pretty much anything you can have with angels you can have with that fish. They may skim the surface, especially if you usually feed floating food, but most of their upside-down behaviour is spent hanging out under overhanging decorations.

><>

Thanks Superlion! I think that might replace the knife fish. Will Blue gouramis mix well with the Angels?

Also I figured out the names of the plants we have so far:
1. Scarlet Temple (in my opnion the prettiest)
2. Frill plants
1. Cabomba
1. Moneywort
2.Corksrew val.

So far those plants have fared fine without any lamps. We think we will hunt down some glosso & dwarf rotala. I haven't seen them at the LFS that I ususally run in. I will have to check the more specialized LFS. I'll be getting a florescent lamp, with a minimum 40w daylight bulb, by the end of this week.

Funny thing, we named the lone snail MOLEY. Because he reminds me of the traveling mole on "Robin Hood Men in Tights" and the giant mole on the guy's face from "Austin Powers".

TTFN --->Ta-Ta-For-Now
Kelly ;o}

40W of light over a 55G isn't probably going to grow all the the plants you have listed very well. I would stick with very low light plants like java ferns, anubias and crypts.

55G Planted tank thread
19G Container Pond
[IMG]http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y118/Wingsdlc/Ric

Thanks, Wings
I'll get a stronger bulb. I just have a fear of boiling the fish(not literally) or evaporating the tank to quickly. It's winter in Michigan. And with the heat on all the time, I know the dry air is taking water from the tank. Is there a such thing as uber bright, (where it's just to bright for the fish & plants)?


TTFN --->Ta-Ta-For-Now
Kelly ;o}

Flourescent bulbs don't really emit much heat. That's part of why they're so energy-efficient - they don't lose energy radiating heat. For a 55-gallon tank, you'll probably need at least two bulbs to get the wattage you need for any of those plants. They may seem fine for a while, but eventually high-light requiring plants will succumb to the lack of light. You'll need at least 2 WPG for those plants, and at least 3 WPG if you get glosso (most of the "foreground" plants you find actually require quite high light. The best exception I know is Anubias nana).

><>

Hi,
For the foreground and the red plants you are going to
need around 3+ watts per gallon of light over that tank.
You are not going to find that with the type of bulbs that
you are using now. The maximum wattage bulb of that style
is 40 watts. The maximum number of bulbs of that style that
you could fit on top of that tank is a hood with 4 bulbs
and that would only give you 2.9 watts per gallon.

Your only choice is to scrap that hood, and replace it
with one that uses compact fluorescents, or a hood
with T-5 bulbs. With either of these choices you
could easily meet or exceed the number of watts
per gallon needed by those plants.

The catch is... when you hit between the 2.5 and 3 watts
per gallon number you then need to add Carbon to the
tank for plant growth. That is added in one
of two ways - either liquid carbon such as Sachem's Excel,
or through the injection of CO2 gas. The CO2 gas can
come from either a DIY system, or a bottled gas system.
The normal cut off for DIY CO2 injection is generally
a 30G tank, anything larger requires several gas generators
all running at the same time, and several more waiting in
the wings as each generator usually only lasts 4 days to
a week before the output is next to nothing and it has
to be replaced.
In other words, to keep the plants you are mentioning
you are opening yet another can of worms.

Once you get around 3 watts per gallon, the light is so
bright that for many fish you would need to provide plants
such as the amazon swords or floating plants to provide
shade and a feeling of safety for the fish, again, another
thing to think of.

A 55G tank, with low light plants such as crypts, and
some anubis (perhaps attached to driftwood) would be a
beautiful tank, with just the right amount of light to
view the fish and grow the plants without all the headaches
that come with increasing the strength of the lighting.
Frank

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

Kellyjhw - where in MI are you from? I am originally from the Muskegon area.

Frank - great last post.

55G Planted tank thread
19G Container Pond
[IMG]http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y118/Wingsdlc/Ric

Hey Wings,
Originally, I'm from a little town called Ecorse. But, I moved to Detroit about 15 years ago.

I'll check into the lower light plants. But if the leaves are thinner then the vals, I may just have to replinish the plants as necessary. I've got a stubborn spouse, that likes what it likes! I brought up the idea of a few floaters, didn't get a good response. I might engage the argument that it would be helpful for the newt. Will the floaters get sucked into the filter?

TTFN --->Ta-Ta-For-Now
Kelly ;o}

Hi,
Ah, the "other half"... Tanks not only have to be
functional, they must also be "beautiful" and great
to look at and become focal points of the home.
Listen to her.

Depending upon what type of floating plant you opted
for, Yes, some may get pulled in against the filter
intake. This is usually caused by the plants drifting
under the filter return and the downward currents drag
them down in the tank where they float through the currents
and some arrive back at the intake where they are captured.

Frank


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

Yes Frank, I must listen to the "other half".
But I'm the wife (gotcha!)
I'll have to think of a good compromise. There was one that I suggested, that he liked the look of. But when we read that it detaches and floats, when it's mature, he nixed the idea. I can't remember the name of it. I guess it's back to reading, reading, reading!

TTFN --->Ta-Ta-For-Now
Kelly ;o}

/\

YUP!

Frank


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