Suave

Ok so me and my dad built a room in our garage in which me and my brothers will have our computers and such. I am planning on putting in a 55g next to my desk, stand and all. So here are my simple plans that i have thrown together in Microsoft Paint hehe




Any ideas for the tank?

I need suggestions for the inhabitants. i do not like larger fish but LOVE smaller, schooling fish. In one of my tanks I have 11 Zebra Danios but they tend to go off on their own.. I am looking for some fish that will stay together. Thanks in Advance!

Amanda

Neon tetras aare great tiny schooling fish. Any tetras really. You could also try barbs.

Suave

I LOVE a BUSY aquarium. What could I put in it to make it HECTIC? the more fish the better in my eyes, well so long as they aren't over crowded

jdhef

Are you going to have enough room between you chair and the tank? It looks like you will run the risk of backing into the tank with your chair. Just a suggestion, but what if you placed the desk facing the wall (instead of the corner) and put the tank just off of the side of the desk forming an "L"

Suave

Ya sorry I was to lazy.. I just shaped the other two desks then copy+paste I will make sure there is room

Steen16

I have a home made 55g with 1 redtail, 10 cardinal tetra, 10 blak neons(great schoolers), 5 glowight tetra, 5 pristella tetra, and three cory cats.. very hectic as you said and great to watch during feeding time!!

Blub

Hectic tanks, eh? Try schooling fish. In a 55gal, you can have 5 12" schools. 6 2" fish = a 12" school. Here are a few suggestions: Dwarf neon rainbowfish, Threadfin rainbowfish, Serpae tetras, Cherry barbs, Black phantom tetras, Neon tetras (8 of these = a 12"), Emperor tetras, Harlequin rasboras, Zebra/Leopard danios, Guppys (Not a schooling fish but they can create that effect and 6 gups = 12"), Panda corys, Otos and Black neon tetras.

What other plants where you thinking? Some good low light plants are: Crypts, Hygro, Elocharis, Elodea, Anubias, Java moss, Java fern and Ozelot sword.

Slug

I'm not sure i fully understand the 2nd picture. Whats the overflow/divider thing?

I'm a big fan of Cardinal tetras myself. More so then Neons. But cardinals are a seasonal fish and it can be hard to get them sometimes.

morganrules

i like cory cats they are beautiful fish and they are schooling

seedy

Hi Suave
Have you considered Silver Dollars . They do tend to grow bigger than what you have asked for but they do like to school up when in numbers .

Suave

The middle overflow thing will go down to the sump. I will have a sizeable sump and if I understand right, if the tank is say 55g and the sump holds an additional 30g then I can fill the tank with 85ish inches of fish. is that right?

as for around the middle, my original plan was to have hornwort growing there. but now I think I might have rocks there that go up the side of the overflow. Then have plants all along the sides.

Any thought on the powerheads? should I have a sort of current to the tank? of course there would be dead zones though

clinton1621

Yes you are right, you calculate any water flow through the entire system to get your total gallons, not just the tank size.

With freshwater it shouldnt really matter if you have "dead zones".... this is really only a major concern with salwater reef tanks.... a lot of freshwater fish wont handle extreme currents in the tank very well either

Suave

ok. i will hopefully make a new sketch for the tank later. but my ideas right now are to have the power heads in the corner and I might make a sort of mid floor out of rock on one end.. its might be hard to picure but I got it all in my mind haha. i will also be doing some research on possible fish to go in. but i am also busy tonight cleaning up some VERY DIRTY 8g tanks I got on craigslist for free today I am going to start breeding Red Cherry Shrimp in those soon. Anyways, new sketches are on the way

Blub

So, you will have 85" of fish to play with! That would be 3 more 12" schools of fish onto the plan I made earlier. That is going to be a pretty neat tank!

Suave

YUP! should be lots of fun. I will have a lot of math to do considering I will have the overflow in the middle and I still want the tank to carry 55g. So it won't be a normal sized 55g.

Can we get a list going of all the freshwater schooling fish that are 3" and under(adult size)

Blub

Well, this won't be every single one known to man, but I have a bit of time on my hands so here goes... Please note the catfishes section only has the most common corys as there are several hundred kinds!

Tetras
Cardinal Tetra (Paracheirodon axelrodi)
neon tetra (Paracheirodon innesi)
Black Neon Tetra (Hyphessobrycon herbertaxelrodi)
Glowlight Tetra (Hemigrammus erythrozonus)
True Rummy-Nose Tetra (Hemigrammus rhodostomus)
Bleher's Rummynose Tetra (Hemigrammus bleheri)
Black Skirt Tetra (Gymnocorymbus ternetzi)
Serpae Tetra (Hyphessobrycon eques)
Black Phantom Tetra (Hyphessobrycon megalopterus)
Red Phantom Tetra (Hyphessobrycon sweglesi)
Red Crystal Tetra (Hyphessobrycon haraldschultzi)
Bleeding Heart Tetra (Hyphessobrycon erythrostigma)
Bentos Tetra (Hyphessobrycon bentosi)
Vilma's Tetra (Hyphessobrycon vilmae)
Ember Tetra (Hyphessobrycon amandae)
Red-Line Tetra (Hyphessobrycon amapaensis)
Lemon Tetra (Hyphessobrycon pulchripinnis)
Yellow Tetra (Hyphessobrycon bifasciatus)
Colombian Tetra (Hyphessobrycon columbianus)
Silver-Tipped Tetra (Hasemania nana)
Gold Tetra (Hemigrammus rodwayi)
Ulrey's Tetra (Hemigrammus ulreyi)
Bassam Tetra (Hemigrammus marginatus)
Pristella (X-Ray) Tetra (Pristella maxillaris)
Diamond Tetra (Moenkhausia pittieri)
Red-Eyed Tetra (Moenkhausia sanctaefilomenae)
Emperor Tetra (Nematobrycon palmeri)
Mexican Tetra (Astyanax mexicanus)
Blind Cave Tetra (Astyanax jordani)

Danios:
Zebra/Leopard Danio (Danio rerio)
Dwarf Spotted Danio (Danio nigrofasciatus)
Glowlight Danio (Danio choprai)

Hatchets:
Marbled Hatchetfish (Carnegiella strigata)
Common/River Hatchetfish (Gasteropelecus sternicla
Blackwinged/Marthae hatchetfish (Carnegiella marthae)
Pygmy hatchetfish (Carnegiella myersi)
Dwarf hatchetfish (Carnegiella schereri)

Minnows:
White Cloud Mountain Minnow (Tanichthys albonubes)
Rosy Red (Fathead) Minnow (Pimephales promelas)

Rasboras:
Harlequin Rasbora (Trigonostigma heteromorpha)
Espe's Rasbora (Trigonostigma espei)
Hengel's Rasbora (Trigonostigma hengeli)
Dwarf (Spotted) Rasbora (Boraras maculatus)
Eyespot Rasbora (Rasbora dorsiocellata)
Galaxy rasbora (Celestichthys margaritatus)

Barbs:
Tiger Barb (Puntius tetrazona)
Cherry Barb (Puntius titteya)
Checkered Barb (Puntius oligolepis)
Black Ruby Barb (Puntius nigrofasciatus)
Gold Barb (Puntius sachsii)
Fivebanded Barb (Puntius pentazona)
Sixbanded Barb (Puntius hexazona)
Panda/Ember Barb (Puntius melanampyx)

Catfishes:
Oto cat (Otocinclus spp.)
Zebra Oto (Otocinclus sp. (2))
Pit Bull Pleco (Parotocinclus jumbo)
Schwartz's Cory (Corydoras schwartzi)
Sodalis Cory (Corydoras sodalis)
Black Sail Cory (Corydoras melanistius)
Leopard Cory (Corydoras julii & trilineatus)
Bronze Cory (Corydoras aeneus)
Peppered Cory (Corydoras paleatus)
Skunk Cory (Corydoras arcuatus)
Adolfo´s Cory (Corydoras adolfoi)
Bandit Cory (Corydoras metae)
Diagonal-Stripe Cory (Corydoras melini)
Panda Cory (Corydoras panda)
Guaporé Cory (Corydoras guapore)
Tail-Spot Cory (Corydoras caudimaculatus)
Tucan Cory (Corydoras tukano)
Sterba´s Cory (Corydoras sterbai)
Pygmy Cory (Corydoras pygmaeus)
Rio Salinas Cory (Corydoras habrosus)
Albino Cories (Corydoras spp.)
Fin Blotch Cory (Aspidoras pauciradiatus)

Rainbowfishes:
Neon (Dwarf) Rainbowfish (Melanotaenia praecox)
Threadfin Rainbowfish (Iriatherina werneri)

Suave

omg.. wow.. THANK YOU! hahaha

Blub

No problem!

Suave

I am currently working on some of the plans for the tank design and such. I will probably end up posted an almost identical topic on Monster Fish Keepers since they may be able to help with some of the more complicated stuff (not that i dont think you guys dont) the more advice the better ya?

Suave

Suave

Now plant ideas

Blub

I gave a few good plants in my first post. If you want to design your scape, try www.TheAquaTools.com! Their aquasketcher is brilliant. www.AquaticEden.com has some of the basic principals of aquascaping.

Slug

Call me crazy but i still don't get the overflow thing. Being in saltwater i get the concept of the overflow, and the traditional designs of overflows but i've never seen one like this. Are you drilling the bottom of the tank? It just seems like its in the middle of the tank "floating" to me.

Not sure how its going to be accomplished. Are you going to just make a small long compartment in the middle of the tank with glass attached to the bottom of the tank and then put 1-2 standpipe overflows inside?

Suave

I am going to build the tank myself first off. ok so, I will build the middle section sort of like a tank with no top or bottom. the top will have little slits to allow the water to go through. then I will make the outer tank which is the actual tank. then I would place the bottom on which at that point would look like any other bottom of a tank except it will have a long rectangle cut out where the overflow area will be. it is sort of hard to explain but I will do a sketch to make it easier

Suave

lilsoccakid

i would just like to say that even though there will be 85 inches worth of fish for the bio-load, that doesnt mean that their is 85 inches of stocking room. The fish will appreciate the enhanced water conditions provided by the sump, but they still only have 55 gallons of water to swim in. Im not saying you couldnt bump up the stocking a little, but no matter how big the sump is, they still only have enough hiding places that the 55 gal can fit

sounds like a fun project, enjoy!

Suave

I think I could fit 85in of fish in there. I think there will be tons of hiding spots in the tank. the point of the sump is to add more water thus ammonia and nitrates wont spike because there is enough water for it to be spread into. as for the actual tank the fish will be in, I think there will be enough hiding places. considering I will have mainly schooling/community fish.

BUT then again I am new to fish, so I will have to take what you said into consideration. I would definately like to hear what other people have to think in terms of how many fish can go in here.

clinton1621

I would think if you go with mainly small fish you would be able to have at least more than 55 inches, keep in mind that even though most schooling fish say they only take up 1 inch they are really about 1.5 inches because you dont just include the length, you have to include length, height and width.... example - a 1 inch fish that is .25 inches wide and .25 inches high equals 1.5 inches, not 1 inch

Suave

i know about the measuring but lilsoccakid said I couldnt fit in 85in of fish in there, while i believe I could. this of course does not mean 85 fish but 85inches of fish

clinton1621

I think it could be done, and I also think it would be really neat if they were all schooling fish... maybe a couple of cory cats for bottom cleanup too, buts thats just me... off the top of my head, I'm not being exact but I think you could have say about 5 different schools of 12 small fish each, that would be fun to watch