boet

Greetings Everyone,

I plan on purchasing a 54 Gallon Corner Bow front tank soon (October 2007) and plan to start with heavily planting it, cycle with white cloud minnows from my small 10 gallon, return minnows and slowly add 3-4 swordtails (one male in mix), 6 cories, and eventually 4-6 angels.

Water from my tap shows 6.4 - 6.6 pH but it always stabilized in my 10 gallon at 7-7.2 (due I think to an old shell covered mostly in rock found on the Oregon coast). Water is soft but buffering shows low.

I was thinking of starting off with eco-complete for the plants and adding real malaysian and regular driftwood along with easy care low to medium light plants. How can I add alkaline buffering to prevent ph drop swings?

Another question, I have heard that veil angels have a hard time swimming and need plants to help prop themselves with sometimes? Is this true?

And does this setup sound practical? Overcrowding?

Thank you for any advice you may have!

Kathy

Isabella

Welcome to the forum

Your plan sounds good. Eco-Complete is great for planted tanks - I have it and my plants grow very well in it. Only be careful with the types of plants you choose because there are plants that will do OK under standard lighting and there are those that need higher lighting in order to do well.

How about reducing the number of Angels to 2 - 4? Two would be best. I will have only 2 Angels (MAX 4) in my 75 gallon tank, and my friend has 8 Angels in a 110 gallon tank. The reason I recommend 2 Angels is that if you get 4 or 6, and two of these Angels become a mated pair, they'll be aggressive towards all other Angels during breeding times (and they'll breed every 3-4 weeks). It would be great if you could get a mated pair right away and have only 2 of them in the 54 gallon tank (plus whatever other fish you want - within the limits of not overstocking of course). I know Angels are beautiful, but believe me, you don't need 6 of them to see their beauty. Two will be enough to make you very happy too But of course, the final choice belongs to you. The above is just my advice. (Yet, 6 Angels really are too many for a 54 gallon tank.)

Why do you need to change the pH of your water? Either* 6.4 - 6.6* or* 7.0 - 7.2* will be OK for Angels. Most Angels in stores are bred in captivity and they'll adapt to a wider range of pH than the Angels caught in nature. Just make sure that whatever the Angels you get, you acclimatize them properly. You keep the pH stable by regular weekly water changes.

Butterfly

Welcome to FishLore! I can't improve on Isabellas advice
Carol

boet

Hi Isabella and Carol!

Thank you for the welcome

I have been thinking on the number of angels as well and I would be perfectly happy with only two. What I am going to do is ask our LFS that if I purchase 4 can I return 2 if a mated pair results. If not, I will just get two and hope for the best - or find a way to purchase a mated pair. I saw an advertisement asking over $200 for a mated pair.....

Regarding the PH. I am not so concerned with those stats but I am concerned at the low level of buffer I have. I read that this can cause rapid PH drop?

Recap. 2 Angels, 4 swordtails (1male/3female), and 6 cory cats.

I just love the idea of Angels and I am very excited. It is going to be hard to wait until October to purchase my 55 gallon. Currently I have a baby biorb with 4 golden white cloud minnows and a 10 gallon for quarantine\breeding. I had a 55 gallon 20+ years ago with 4 beautiful Discus and I was lucky enough to have the breeder (to train me) a few blocks away. But I definately don't want to go there again with how sensitive they are.

Thank you for your wonderful advise!