angelfish220

After testing my hand with a smaller aquarium I have gotten a 55gal and now I have a major problem, my smaller tank I inheirted of sorts and it had every thing that I needed to have a complete system. Now that I'm setting up my own system of "mix and match" I decided on just about everything except substrate. For a freshwater aquarium what is the benifits of sand and/ gravel. Which would be better to take care of?
I plan to have a community tank that will include, but isn't limited to, zebra danios, guppies, cherry barbs, platys, balloon mollys, lace goramis, blind cave teras. I will mainly use plastic or fake plants of some kind, but I want to have the option to try plants someday if the urging strikes. Thank you so much for listening to my problem and please post any comments.

JMatt1983

sounds like you have a good mix of fish there, i like gravel better, sand looks nice, but can be hard to clean, think of when you're walking through sand when in the water. as for plants, you always have the option of going to live plants, its just a matter of upgrading the lights. just remember to cycle your aquarium before adding fish, i know that part sucks, but it has to be done. also, it might be best to have 2 heaters in a tank of that size, one at each end, and a maybe a power head to increase surface movement.

angelfish220

All of the plastic plants that are mature from my smaller 30 gal settup are in there plus 2 mature sponge filters would that hold it over enough to start putting fish in it? I really just got lucky with my first settup cuz I didn't do anything right

JMatt1983

i would still let it run for a day or two and test the water, if everything looks good, then i would think you would be able to add fish, but add slowly, only 3-4 fish /week

angelfish220

How much gravel should I get? It is an average 55. I have a penguin biowheel 200 filter and several air pumps to setup on bubblestones (also mature), would that create enough movement? Thank so much for your help!

jsalemi

The Penguin 200 is kinda small for a tank that size; you'd want at least two of them, or move up to (or add) the 350. The goal is to get around 10x the amount of water in the tank in filter flow, so you should have close to 500gph of filtering.

As for gravel, you need about a pound per gallon of the tank to get a 1"-2" substrate, so you should get at least two 25lb bags.

0morrokh

If you put a matured filter in the new tank then you need to add food immediately or the bacteria will starve. If you want to err on the safer side, you could do a fishless cycle with pure ammonia but using in the matured filters...it should cycle almost instantly if the filters are seeded but that way you make sure the filters can handle a bunch of fish. Or you could just put in some fish and hope the filters are seeded enough...(which I have done before btw and it worked fine). If you do this there won't be a full cycle but may be a mini-cycle whenever you add fish so just watch the water parameters.

JMatt1983

i go for 2-3" of substrate, an inch just doesn't seem like enough to anchor plants well enough. i've got 30lbs of gravel in my 20G

angelfish220

Thanks so much! I went to the store today and bought another filter, Penguin 200, and put it on the other side of the tank. I put a shot of ammonia in the tank to feed the bacteria and cycle the tank. If everything is okay by Saturday I will go and get some fish.

susitna-flower

Do you have a test kit? Most here suggest the API Master test kit. Test the water before adding fish. If you put ammonia in, it needs to be checked for sure before adding fish.

To be fully cycled your Ammonia and nitrite have to be back down to 0 and Nitrates at 5-10.

Do a 50% water change, before adding fish. Sounds like it will be a fun tank. Let us know how it goes.

angelfish220

I don't have a API Master kit but I do have a collection of different tests, I didn't want to spend for the master test but I more than likely I spent more to buy the tests seperately over a couple months. The Ammonia, as of 20 mins ago, is at 0 but Nitrite was a still present. Howfully by tommarow it will go down.
I think It will be fun. In Fact yesterday when I went to the pet store I saw some fish that were really cool but I could find the scientific name to look it up. They are "spotted headstanders" They swim around the tank with their back end higher than their head Does anyone have any experiance with them? Thanks

CPVFD325

When cycling a new tank with a mature filter, how much straight ammonia do you add? It will just be some useful info for the future.

COBettaCouple

Use 100% pure ammonia.
Using a dropper, add 5 drops of ammonia per 10 gallons of aquarium water. Continue this process daily until you start to get nitrite readings with your test kit. Once you can detect nitrites you should only add 3 drops of ammonia per 10 gallons of aquarium water. Continue this process daily until you get nitrate readings with your test kit.

angelfish220

Tank levels are perfect! This morning I put in 3 spotted headstanders that I had in a hospital tank till this tank was cycled then next week I will make a trip to LFS!

bandito974

I like sand myself, it can be tricky but it really looks Nice, I am getting a 55 gallon setup today as a matter of fact with sand

angelfish220

I decided that I really like the look of sand but not the specific care you need for it so I got ether really fine gravel or really corse sand depending on how you look at it. It is working really nice because It lookes like sand but doesnt cloud the water as much.

CPVFD325

Thanks CoBettacouple, Now if you were not cycling with a mature filter, and were using, say.....Bio-spira (which i have yet to find at any of our LFS) Then what? Will it do cycle by itself? or will i have to cycle with fish? I cycled my 29g with 3 tiger barbs and the product "cycle" and i want to try somthing different next time.....is Bio-spira a refrigerated product? or a shelf product?

Shrimpy

Gravel = friend

Sand = enemy

Gravel is easier to clean, sand... not so much



GO FISH

COBettaCouple

Those will introduce good bacteria but has a 15-hour life cycle and you need to keep it alive with 'food', which is ammonia and nitrites. The fish do that with their waste.

Bio-Spira is refrigerated. If you find it, check the exp. date - sometimes stores will be selling expired bags.

CPVFD325

Ok, then I can either cycle it with or without fish using the Bio-spira. If fishless, then i have to feed it with ammonia. Thats what i thought. If you read some of the Bio-spira fact sheets ive found on the net, they claim "instant cycle" I just couldnt figure out how that could be. I need to figure out which LFS has some....i just did shelf some shelf hunting and display case refrigerator hunting....i didnt ask anyone. DUHH. What i will most likely do is, just buy my filter for the next tank prior to setting up the new tank and run it for a few weeks in my established tank, then swap it over when im ready......Thanks again!

susitna-flower

That is a good plan. To run your new filter in your old tank.

You can use fish-food instead of ammonia with bio-spira also. I have found two LFSs with Bio-Spira, but if you can't, it is available at www.drsfostersmith.com .

CPVFD325

great, thanks!

Kevin

bio-spira claims to make a tank "fish-safe" overnight, but i think you should wait a couple extra days and then add fish
it is refrigerated

angelfish220

Hey Does anyone know what Biozyme is? The guy at LFS was trying to sell it to me saying it was like biospira only better because it lasted longer. I didn't buy it because you said that biospira was the best but I'm curious

COBettaCouple

He doesn't have a clue, just trying to make a sale with no regard to you. Biozyme is useless, but claims to have living bacteria in it.

angelfish220

figures they have a nice supply of fish and seem like they want the best for my aquarium but they have no idea what they are talking about