55Gal Freshwater Fish Journal

10 Black Skirt Tetra(4 female), 4 X-Ray Pristella Tetra(2 male), 1 Yellow Mickey Mouse Platy, 1 Opaline Gourami(female), 1 Rainbow Shark(male) & 1 Pterygoplichthys joselimaianus (unknown gender).

I am looking for two 125Gal or more for these guys and my 3 Goldfish & 1 Rubberlip Pleco. Hopefully I can find one soon. If you have one near Virginia, let me know.

What else do I need? I am hoping the plants grow in, I will be buying more, but let me know what kind and where I should place them, I'm kinda out of ideas. What do you think so far?

 

I think it looks cool Secuono


If you can get straight Valis - its a grass type plant
thats always great and IME grows well without any special care
puts out runners with baby plantlets on, and with nothing more than adequate light
can eventaully require weeding to thin out
no co2 or fertilisers required when I had the straight or even twisted Valis

one of the very few plant success stories for me

Steve

 

Looks awsome!!! everyday i want a fresh water tank more and more bc of people like u lol

 

I think we have a small case of Ich, thanks to the Swords I had and now the Platy. It's real early, so I'm hoping it doesn't get too much worse. 2 cups & 14 tsp for my 55Gal, is that right? Will my plants be affected by the salt? I've gotten about 56tps in before I ran out of salt, so today I have to go out and buy more.
I'm hearing a wide range of how much salt to add. 1tsp up to 6tsp, so what works best?
Right now there is 66tsp in my 55Gal tank, a little more than 1tsp per gallon. I am going to leave it like that and see if it helps.
I am also treating my golds, just incase, since I use the same equipment for both tanks.

 

I can't find that grass for sale in any of the USA websites that sell plants. Anyone have a link to one that does??

 

my plant recommendation has to be rotala rotundifolia. ts a super growing stem plant. Looks pretty. The tips turn pink and it bubbles if looked after well. Is a great algae combatant, as it out competes the algae for nutrients if in large enough volume (which it soon will)
Also it may be one of the only plants that may tolerate the red and blue gravel as a substrate. Most aquarium plants only survive or flourish in a substrate specifically designed for the use of planting. If you wish to keep the decorative gravl, then i would say your best bet would be to get potted versions of any of the plants you choose in the future.

In regards to the ich. 1teaspoon per gallon is enough. You dont need to put any more in. But make sure its aquarium salt specificly for treating ilnesses etc. (not table salt, or marine/reef salt). The next thing you should do. Is gradually raise the temperature to 30 degrees celcius over the next few days (or even better 32 if your fish are hardy and can tolerate it) As Ich does not infect new fish at 29.4°C/85°F. stops reproducing at 30°C/86°F and and dies at 32°C/89.5°F.
Hopefully if all the fish are fine at these temperatures (which they should be if they are healthy fish to begin with) after approx 4 days. You should start doing 25% water changes to remove the salt. Then you can slowly bring temperature back down to normal temps again.
(note. Its important to have high aeration during this high temperature period, as higher temperature water has a lower amount of oxygen, so the fish could have difficulty breathing.)

Hope this helps you out.

 

I bought a 60Gal heater, kept raising it's dial and now it's on max, but my temps are still at 82F. Do I need a heater designed for a bigger tank to get more heat??
Everyone else is telling me to use reg salt w/o Iodine and that will work. I had API salt, used it all. I never see a Salt just for Ich. I am changing the gravel to playsand once the Ich is done. But I am waiting 10days like everyone is suggesting. I have liquid plant food I add to the tanks.
Replaced that heater with a different 400watt heater, hopefully it works. Returned the dead male.
They day before, we got 8 Ghost shrimp, 1 died but another is prego. She still has the eggs with her. We also got a white, black, blue and brown snails along with a Rubberlip Pleco for the Goldfish tank. These guys are in a 20Gal, we bought yet another filter for this tank. I wrapped a very fine cloth over the intake since I couldn't find a Foam filter.
The snails and shrimp will stay in the 20Gal 'Crustacean Tank', 2 snails may go into the Goldtank, but I'm not sure yet. Once the 10day Salt is done, Rubberlip Pleco will move in with the Golds along with 2 snails if we opt to do that.

 

this new heater works great. the fish seem more active, so that's good. ^.^
We still have the 2 female Red Wag Platy, they seem to be doing ok, so I wont be returning them just yet.

 

4-5hrs after sand was added. It should be clear by morning. The 2 Red Wag Platy seem to be doing better now with this new substrate.
I added rocks of all sorts and seashells.