55 Gallon Tank Feedback about water and plants

Hi,

I'm returning to the hobby after like 10 years; was not very good at it in my teenage.

I cycled my tank already. Since the tank is kind of curved in the front, I'm not sure about the measures. 55 Gl is my rough estimate. I estimate it should have like 50 Gl of actual water.

Wanted to know if any feedback to improve, specially with my plants that are not thriving and are looking kind of sad ... Some plants already died or moved to my bedroom small 5 Gl aquarium, where they're performing better in terms of color and growth. Not sure what I'm doing different in the 5 Gl aquarium vs the 55 Gl tank.

Also wanted to know if I need to change the water parameters or just leave it as it is.










Water parameters
pH: 7.6
pH high range: 7.8
NH3, NH4: 0 ppm
NO2: 0 ppm
NO3: 5 ppm
dKH: 10°, 179 ppm
dGH:11°, 196.9 ppm
Temp: I live in a tropical area, so I don't think is necessary

Filtration
*2 Fluval 105 canister filter
*1 Marineland multiuse powerhead
*Approx 360 gph
*Black, blue sponges + ceramic rings
The tank as like those built in filters above where you can put sponges and biological filters.

Lightning
Not very knowledgeable about this.
Just a 56W light bought from Amazon.

Substrate
Red Lava rock sand in the back
White sand in the front
Lava rock stones
Seiryu stones (I think?)
2 driftwoods
No aquarium soil (is too expensive to import it in my country)

Fertilizers
Root tabs
Seachem Flourish
Seachem Excell
NPK and Fe

Fishes
*6 Angelfish
*3 Gouramis
*5 Plattys
*6 Swordtails
*4 Harlequin rasboras
*4 White clouds
*4 Ghost shrimps
*1 Pleco
*2 very small fishes that appeared out of nowhere and look similar to the platties.

I think there are fishes on here that shouldn't be together and maybe the water parameters are kind of hard and alkaline for them (?)

 

Plants generally need several inches of gravel/sand to root into with the stones sitting on top. Any plants with roots also need to have root tabs inserted near the base monthly for fertilization. You really need to try to figure out what size tank you have. You have a lot of different kinds of fish that swim in the same area and your schooling fish are in pretty small schools. The platys reproduce a lot and you may end up with more than you planned on.

 

Plants generally need several inches of gravel/sand to root into with the stones sitting on top. Any plants with roots also need to have root tabs inserted near the base monthly for fertilization. You really need to try to figure out what size tank you have. You have a lot of different kinds of fish that swim in the same area and your schooling fish are in pretty small schools. The platys reproduce a lot and you may end up with more than you planned on.

Thanks

The substrate has like 2 inches and with root tabs. Not sure why they look worse in the 55 gl tank than the 5 gl tank. Not sure what is the deficiency since boths tanks I follow the same instructions with the ferts. I'm guessing maybe is nor enough N or Fe? Because the leaves looks yellowish.

Regarding tank size, is not exact because the tank is slightly curved, but it should be around 50 to 55 Gl base on esrimate measures: 40" long x 17" depth x 18" height.

The schooling fishes didn't want to buy a lot first since the aquarium only has only 3 months. Planning to increase them eventually to 6 at least. Regarding swiming area, I thought it was a mix between top and middle area fishes.

About the platys, I was not expecting them to reproduce; thought it will require better conditions... I'm not quite sure those 2 fishes came from my platys reproducing since I just added them 2 weeks ago and are already like 0.50 cm. Shouldn't they be smaller and more than just 2?

 

Is that Ludwigia in the back? Seems like you have plants that prefer low KH aka acidic waters. I would recommend hygrophila corymbosa they are perfect for your water parameters

 

Is that Ludwigia in the back? Seems like you have plants that prefer low KH aka acidic waters. I would recommend hygrophila corymbosa they are perfect for your water parameters

Oh, will try to search for it locally. Yes, in the background I have only Ludwigia and some kind of Echinodorus, not sur type.

Just read now that most probably are the Seiryu stones the ones that increase KH and therefore pH, which will affect how plants absorb ferts... No wonder why the plants I moved to my 5 gl tank are doing way better, because I don't have any hardscape there.

 

What type of lights are they, led, t5, t8 or something else. Theres a good chance they are not going to be good for plants if they are stock lights

 

What type of lights are they, led, t5, t8 or something else. Theres a good chance they are not going to be good for plants if they are stock lights

The OP hasn't been online since last September. Doubt there will be any more reactions.