I got a 50 gallon Tank that had 4 oscars in it and a pleco i sold them and now have a bare 50 gallon tank. I wanted an planted tank but my mom says its to much work and would result in algae. She wants "pretty fish" and the guy at petland said to get a cichlid tank but i want a vibrant community tank. What fish should i get?
A planted tank, while more work, would actually do better controlling algae than an unplanted. So if you wanted planted, maybe have another chat with your mom. Is the tank cycled? You could have an amazing community tank in a 50G, with many stocking options. Do you have any fish in particular that you would like? We can start from there.
Currently cycling my rank and thing I've learned during the wait is that not all fish thrive in all types of water or tanks. So my newbie suggestion is see what your tap water is like and look into fish that match it. I had to rethink my stocking plan after learning that my initial choices weren't a good match for my water or substrate. Also, I believe plants would use up the nutrients that feed algae, so a planted tank would actually control that better, but is more work and more water chemistry decisions.
with a planted tank you can always go low tech and get low requirement plants. sure, theyll grow slower than if you fertilise and inject co2 but once youve reached ideal plant sizes then that actually reduces grooming maintenance. if you dont maintain any aquarium properly then youre likely to get algae, however there are fish which love to eat it (like shrimp and ottos) but i reckon a low tech planted tank would be a of alot calmer than a 50g cichlid tank. besides, 55g is considered to be the absolute bare minimum for a cichlid tank (assuming africans). plus they hate everything and everyone lol and if you dont get the stocking right youre looking at a massive headache for you and your mum. would strongly suggest researching low tech planted systems with peaceful community stocking. (im writing this while watching a cichlid in my 100g malawi tank chase around and terrorise everyone else)
