60 Gallon Aquarium Setup Advise

Greetings everyone,
I am new to the aquarium hobby and new to the forums as well. July 2017 will mark my 1 year experience as an aquarium hobbyist. I recently bought a 60 gallon aquarium to replace the 29 gallon, and I want to take it up a notch with attempting my very first aquascape. This forum has been a great place of countless hours of research and educating myself to create a healthy stable aquarium.

My Aquascape Plan:
Mixing MopanI Driftwood with Ohko Stone (aka. Dragon Stone). Plants, I am not sure; however, my biology teacher is more than willing to provide me with several aquarium plants he has growing the classroom for free. Substrate, I am going with Caribsea Eco-Complete. In addition, I may add Caribsea white sand if I can see a way to implement it into the design.

Stocking:
x2 - Veil Angelfish
x2 - Bolivian Ram (both males)
x1 - Electric Blue Acara
x1 - Clown Pleco
x10 ~ 12 - Emperor Tetra or Harlequin Rasbora

Current Accessories
x1 - Fluval Aquaclear 70 (may upgrade to a canister filter)
x1 - Current USA Satellite LED Plus 48" - 60"
x1 - Current USA Satellite single ramp timer
x1 - 200W Aqueon Pro Heater

Questions:
1. Will this setup work well for the design of the aquarium?
2. Flow / Current, power head, air pump or none?

If you guys have any advice, then please share your valuable knowledge and insights! I will greatly appreciate it and show a picture of what all you contributed to helping me create it!

 

HI there,
Are your veil angels a pair? If so, they can be very hostile during breeding especially to the blue acara

 

HI there,
Are your veil angels a pair? If so, they can be very hostile during breeding especially to the blue acara

I currently do not have Veil Angels. It is a fish that I want to add to the new aquarium. If a pair does form, then I will have to take it into consideration the hostile treat to the blue acara.

In the 29 gallon, I only have a clown pleco and two Bolivian rams. I rehomed the Buenos Aires tetras due to being incompatible with a planted aquarium.

 

Welcome to Fishlore!

Bolivian rams and angelfish don't have enough temperature overlap to make them compatible. I would either swap out the Bolivians for blue rams or don't add the angels. You have room to add more fish as well! Let us know if you want some possible stocking options.

I would also add another filter to this tank. For HOB filters, you want 8-10x the volume of the tank for GPH.

I don't think you need to add an extra powerhead. The filters should provide enough flow.

 

Welcome to Fishlore!

Bolivian rams and angelfish don't have enough temperature overlap to make them compatible. I would either swap out the Bolivians for blue rams or don't add the angels. You have room to add more fish as well! Let us know if you want some possible stocking options.

I would also add another filter to this tank. For HOB filters, you want 8-10x the volume of the tank for GPH.

I don't think you need to add an extra powerhead. The filters should provide enough flow.

Interesting, I thought that Bolivian rams and Angelfish were compatible with similar water parameters other than pH. I could be wrong; however, I will appreciate stocking advice! Also, thank you for answering my question. It was reassuring knowing that the filtration are more than enough to generate adequate current in the aquarium!

 

Fish can adapt to a wide range of pH, so I wouldn't worry about pH compatibility.

 

Fish can adapt to a wide range of pH, so I wouldn't worry about pH compatibility.

Oh!!!! Good to know! Thank you!

I honestly wanted to put 4 Bolivian rams, but I read that no more than 2 for a 55 Gallon aquarium; otherwise, there will be territory aggression issues. Basically, 1 Bolivian ram per 30 gallon or 15 - 20 inches in aquarium length.

 

Ur fine if u wanna put 2 pairs of Bolivian rams, but I'd recommend German rams slightly more just because of aggression, availability, cheapness, and coloration.
Idk about the blue acara, the ones I use to have use to bully angels and rams, but u can do it if u want

 

Ur fine if u wanna put 2 pairs of Bolivian rams, but I'd recommend German rams slightly more just because of aggression, availability, cheapness, and coloration.
Idk about the blue acara, the ones I use to have use to bully angels and rams, but u can do it if u want

Good good! I wonder, is the Electric Blue Acara different than the Blue Acara in aggressive personality?

 

Good good! I wonder, is the Electric Blue Acara different than the Blue Acara in aggressive personality?

Now, the electric blue Acara can be a little bit more aggressive, but what is the reason behind u wanting to add a cichlid?

 

Now, the electric blue Acara can be a little bit more aggressive, but what is the reason behind u wanting to add a cichlid?

The coloration. It's a nice looking fish, and I want to add it if it works with my setup. With the aquascape, it'll be rather dull with the tan color driftwood and tan / brown Ohko stone.

 

The coloration. It's a nice looking fish, and I want to add it if it works with my setup. With the aquascape, it'll be rather dull with the tan color driftwood and tan / brown Ohko stone.

German blue Rams r pretty good if u want to add blue, maybe even a betta if u hav no aggressive/ fin nipping fish. Acaras R cool and beautiful fish, just beware that he will kill things that r small and weak once he grows. If u want to do a big fish tank and get bigger, faster, Or etc fish a blue crayfish has beautiful coloration, just look at my profile pic lol. They'll clean, eat dead fish, but they may eat small bottom feeders like corys, baby plecos, and etc and that cichlids will try to kill it constantly

 

Electric blue acaras, by all accounts, are pretty mild-mannered fish. Particularly as you're only doing one. They also stay smaller than normal ones, as they are a hybrid of the blue acara and German blue ram. And they are gorgeous! I think one of those plus 2-3 Bolivian rams is fine. They're both mild cichlids.

Also, German rams need warmer water than Bolivians, so I would not mix them.

 

Electric blue acaras, by all accounts, are pretty mild-mannered fish. Particularly as you're only doing one. They also stay smaller than normal ones, as they are a hybrid of the blue acara and German blue ram. And they are gorgeous! I think one of those plus 2-3 Bolivian rams is fine. They're both mild cichlids.

Also, German rams need warmer water than Bolivians, so I would not mix them.

My experience with acaras was mostly of death, then finally a little light came. I would introduce all sorts of fish, from Bolivian Rams, to plecos, to a couple feeder fish to test its aggression, and even a crayfish once. I ended up just making an aggressive tank and putting 2 acaras (they worked and tried to breed), 2 9" Chinese algae eaters, and another cichlid which I can't remember. They're fine now, but idk if it's my luck, maybe it is, but every single Acara I got , when it got to about 1 year old and was like 3-4", they got too aggressive. I gave the aggressive ones to my friend which put them into a nice cichlid tank where all 3 of the acaras I tried r living happy

 

Were they regular or electric variety? Were they the last fish introduced to the tank, or the first? What size tank? How small were the feeder fish? My understanding of cichlids is that all those factors come into play.

 

Were they regular or electric variety? Were they the last fish introduced to the tank, or the first? What size tank? How small were the feeder fish? My understanding of cichlids is that all those factors come into play.

2 were electric, 1 was just a regular blue, they were the first introduced along with a couple of other random fish I tried from forum advice (2-3 because usually they were about 3-5" fish) it was a 50 gallon tank, regularly kept. The feeder fish were just from petco, so some small danio feeders to baby comets goldfish to just random baby goldfish. This was the first cichlid which truly stumped me, I had 1 other which died from ich the second month from a pleco I got, which also died to the ich. The acaras were from a local, good fish store, same with a couple other fish except the feeders

 

You can keep more than 2 Bolivians in a 55 gal. I think 2 pair would be fine.

And agreed, electric blue acara are usually more peaceful than blue acara.

 

You can keep more than 2 Bolivians in a 55 gal. I think 2 pair would be fine.

And agreed, electric blue acara are usually more peaceful than blue acara.

Ya know Wut, it might just be my luck then. I'm surprised they were so aggressive since people r saying they're more peaceful cichlids.

 

You do get occasional rogues in any cichlid species! Or it's possible the other cichlids were stressing it out, causing it to be aggressive.

 

You do get occasional rogues in any cichlid species! Or it's possible the other cichlids were stressing it out, causing it to be aggressive.

I tried to keep my cichlids alone or with other cichlid safe fish until they grow big enough to not be stressed out when they're with other cichlids. I guess I got 3 rogues, that's annoying

 

Cichlids can still be very easily stressed out by other cichlids, even as adults. Big fish can be intimidated by little fish. I had a dwarf gourami boss around my 6+" x 8+" huge male angelfish.

 

Cichlids can still be very easily stressed out by other cichlids, even as adults. Big fish can be intimidated by little fish. I had a dwarf gourami boss around my 6+" x 8+" huge male angelfish.

I usually keep my cichlids in a cichlid only tank or if they were, like u said, rogue, I'd give them to my friend because he has a huge like 1.5k gallon tank just chock full of cichlids, a couple of 2' plecos, driftwood, and a school of huge clown loaches. It's marvelous

 

Electric blue acaras, by all accounts, are pretty mild-mannered fish. Particularly as you're only doing one. They also stay smaller than normal ones, as they are a hybrid of the blue acara and German blue ram. And they are gorgeous! I think one of those plus 2-3 Bolivian rams is fine. They're both mild cichlids.

Also, German rams need warmer water than Bolivians, so I would not mix them.

Great information! Thank you!

You can keep more than 2 Bolivians in a 55 gal. I think 2 pair would be fine.

And agreed, electric blue acara are usually more peaceful than blue acara.

Awesome bud! If I am going to add more Bolivian rams. Since I have two males, do I just add two female Bolivian rams?

 

That would work!

Can you remind me what your current stocking is, and what you'd like your final stocking to be?

 

That would work!

Can you remind me what your current stocking is, and what you'd like your final stocking to be?

You have been a great help Texas and much appreciated for taking the time to help

Stocking:
x2 - Veil Angelfish
x2 - Bolivian Ram (both males) + x2 Female Bolivian Rams (Maybe?)
x1 - Electric Blue Acara
x1 - Clown Pleco
x10 ~ 12 - Emperor Tetra or Harlequin Rasbora

 

You have been a great help Texas and much appreciated for taking the time to help

Stocking:
x2 - Veil Angelfish
x2 - Bolivian Ram (both males) + x2 Female Bolivian Rams (Maybe?)
x1 - Electric Blue Acara
x1 - Clown Pleco
x10 ~ 12 - Emperor Tetra or Harlequin Rasbora

Idk how safe the smaller fish would be, personally never tried them with acaras since mine were apparently rogue and I thought they'd eat them. I'd recommend algae eaters (Chinese, preferably 1-2) or a common pleco. If u want to help keep ur aquarium more clean, then when ur stocking is about done and ur fish hav some size, I'd recommend a couple snails because mine were always safe or even a blue crayfish with some size if u don't get the rasboras.

 

You have been a great help Texas and much appreciated for taking the time to help

Stocking:
x2 - Veil Angelfish
x2 - Bolivian Ram (both males) + x2 Female Bolivian Rams (Maybe?)
x1 - Electric Blue Acara
x1 - Clown Pleco
x10 ~ 12 - Emperor Tetra or Harlequin Rasbora

So I would switch out the Bolivian rams for GBRs if you want to keep the angels. If you can rehome the angels, Bolivians would be fine! But angels and Bolivians aren't temp compatible

 

I usually keep my cichlids in a cichlid only tank or if they were, like u said, rogue, I'd give them to my friend because he has a huge like 1.5k gallon tank just chock full of cichlids, a couple of 2' plecos, driftwood, and a school of huge clown loaches. It's marvelous

I would love to see that tank! It sounds wonderful!