Tropical Fish Forums

[FishAddict85]

The purpose of this post is sort of a diary with my journey in setting up this new aquarium. It's my first "large" aquarium so I am pretty excited. To make this suitable for the photo album, I will add a picture of my new tank! It's a 55g if you didn't guess from the title. My convict pair is going to move from a 20g to the 55g once it is set up this summer. Still have to build a stand and then go through a cycling process. What fun!

I dunno what I will do with substrate. I think I might go with a sand/gravel mix since that is what I have in my 20s. What do you think? I'm going for a bottom-of-a-river look.

Also any idea where to find aquarium safe smooth rocks? I was going to do a rock structure but to look naturel I will be adding a few random 4"-6" diameter rocks.

So here's the tank as I got it. Yes, I bought it used (it was built in Nov. 2005 so...not that old). I still need to clean it out and check for leaks. I doubt it will leak but better safe than sorry! BTW, it's sitting in a guest room since I do not have room to stick it in my room yet. I need to finish finals, and then I will worry about building a stand and setting up this tank. Yay!


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Setting up a 55g wooo!!!

[krt]

sounds like a good way to relax after finals... have fun. can I suggest some type of breeding enclosure for the feeders...?

[Shai]

Congrats on the new tank! A sand/gravel combo for the substrate will work well and be quite natural. If you want to challenge yourself you could try all sand.

If you live near a river you can always pick up some rocks from there. You just have to boil or bleach them thoroughly to sterilize them so they don't introduce any parasites or other nasties into your tank. I plan on doing this with my own 55g, as I can't really be bothered to pay someone for rocks that are just lying around otherwise. : )

What else do you plan to stock? Will you be planting this tank too?

Good luck!
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[FishAddict85]

[Foxhawk16]

Fish Addict

Defillently go with pool filter sand it is much bigger than playsand and it won't go every where when a fish moves. As for the substrate mix you should due pea gravel mixed with areas of sand to leave a type of movement look in the gravel and place the sand every where but don't let it completly cover the gravel. This looks great if done right. For rocks I would defilently go with river rocks or any other type of round rock. Try to get 2 or 3 big round ones or other shaped rocks. As they will fill in space and add more features to when you look at your tank. Also helps protect convict fry . Make sure you don't get all round rocks just smooooooth ones. My advice.

Oh, and good luck with it.
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Give Others The Respect They Diserve
(previously known as Foxhawk 15)

[tkipfer]

for rocks, I would suggest boiling over bleaching as you have to throughly scrub and wash all the bleach off after, with boiling just put them in a big pot and when they start to boil wait 15 to half an hour and dump them out of the pot. wait for them to cool as to not screw with the temp of the water and there you go, no way the fish will be harmed as with bleach it can kill a tank pretty easily. good luck with the tank
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"I am a wildlife warrior, and I will fight, fight to the death for wildlife." - Steve Irwin

[FishAddict85]

So I've decided to go with just gravel for the tank. I was unable to find pool filter sand and I am not about to kill an expensive filter with playsand. I did go to PetsMart and get 2 bags of gravel. One is the size larger than the current tiny stuff and then the other is another size larger. 5lb bag of each kind. Even though it costs me 10 times more than Home Depot, it's cleaner and I do not have to worry about metal being in it.

I've been deciding if I should set up a paludarium or full on aquarium. I do not know what else I could add to a 55g with two convicts but a tree frog would really be cool in a paludarium. What are your guys' opinions? I would be placing a removable land area in there since I don't want to kill the tank.
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Setting up a 55g wooo!!!

[Foxhawk16]

Sd
Tree frogs need high places with tall branches and lots of cover. And to have enough swimming space for the convicts, in turn would leave the land section up high and make the top of the tank closer to your land section. I think you should go with geckos or those little lizards called anos (I don't know if this is there name). But they only get to like 5-7 inches but there very slim and you can keep a group. Just some advice.
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Give Others The Respect They Diserve
(previously known as Foxhawk 15)

[MrTwister]

you could add one of these.

just provide the proper lighting, add crickets every few days. Unfortunetly frogs would be eaten, and it would out grow the 55 in about 2-3 years.
hmmmmmmmm maybe tree frogs and some fiebelly toads

Not supposed to mix amphibs, but I doubt the TREE frogs would spend much time in the water, and vice versa. If you do get tree frogs you might have to spray the land section with water a few times a day..they don't care for drinking out of standing water. But it might be humid enough for them with out that..

In the water have some O these.

will eat crickets just like the frogs, they are ugly but I have always found them entertaining to watch.

just some suggestions, I love these types of tanks, good luck and enjoy.

[FishAddict85]

So I went to an amphibian forum and asked for advice on these setups and I pretty much got rude comments and no real advice. Oh, well, it was a good idea but considering I can't get any real advice from people other than "cichlids are evil", I'm ditching the idea. They wanted me to get rid of my convicts and get livebearers, after my first sentence was that I was setting up a tank for my beloved cichlids.
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Setting up a 55g wooo!!!