Slow-building Family Room Tank (55g)

So I am quite new to freshwater fish and have recently been doing a lot of research on what I would like to do with our tank.
This tank used to be a saltwater tank but I am going to clean everything out and remake it into a freshwater tank. It will sit in a corner of the room at an angle (not sure if too much sunlight will get in that area though, but i can always just cover it during the day when no one is around to look at them anyways) It has a black background already.
I have a Fluval 305 canister filter which i need to look more into which types of filtering products I want to use in it, but I still have time before all that.
Since I have well water, we usually go and buy the giant jugs of water from a wholesale store to fill it and do the water changes. But I was reading that my well water may possibly be used as long as it isn't too bad chemical-wise. Going to test it out today.

Anyways here is my plan:
Probably a organic soil as substrate (I saw you can put fertilizer tabs in it but I'm not sure how I feel about that)
One of those man-made bonsai trees as either the center piece or have that as one side and maybe some sort of large rock formation on the other side. Going to go to a landscape supply place sometime this week to see what kind of rocks i can find for cheap.
The "leaves" of the tree will be anubias petite since they look realistic and nice.
Along with these I would like to have a nice carpet of dwarf hairgrass throughout most of the tank.
I am a big fan of the java ferns so i will definitely be using that in the background but don't want to overdo it at the same time.
I still need to find a couple small mid-ground plants that I like and possibly some variety for the background.
As for fish, I am not really sure. Some ideas i had were cherry barbs (6?), cory catfish (3?), and some sort of tetras (8?), and whatever else people suggest.

Tell me what you all think, if I am completely wrong in something or maybe even a better suggestion for something, I would love to hear it. Thanks!

 

You have plenty room for more fish i’d go with maybe a big centerpiece fish or maybe two like a cichlid maybe? And if you are doing cory cats you gotta bring the school up to a minimum of 6 but you could go higher

 

The only problem here is that cory's should be in groups of 6+. What i would do with fish is:
6 Cherry barbs
7 pepper corydoras
8 whitecloud minnows
10 neon tetras
6 Zebra danios
10-12 cherry shrimp

That would make a wonderful community tank and with the plants and decor your getting, you WILL have a beautiful aquarium!
Be sure to post pictures when its done!

 

I was looking at the cichlids, i heard that they could be aggressive though so I was worried about them. I can definitely get more cory cats as well.
I wanted shrimp but I don't think they'll make it very long since these fish will probably eat them haha.

Oooo i like those minnows. I like that plan. Am i able to get those shrimp without worrying about them getting eaten? Do i need snails as well?

 

The shrimp will do just fine with all the other fish. If you want snails you can get some Mystery snails. For mystery snail colors i would do 2 blue 2 ivory and 3 jade.

 

Thank you so much for your help, i will be sure to keep this thread going to give updates! Going to clean everything today and hopefully be cycling in the next week or two.

 

Most cichlids can be territorial but with plants and hardscape you can block line of soght and give enough hiding spots to ease aggression and there are some dwarf cichlids that are less agressive. Fishlover00 has a great stocking as well but entirely IMO I’d still add one bigger fish like a gourami or dwarf cichlid as they both only get to about 4-6 inches and most are pretty peaceful especially for the size of your tank

 

You will have to order them from a breeder bc most pet stores don't sell blue or jade mystery snails although they do sell some interesting looking mystery snails

 

I like that gourami, its very pretty. Would there by enough room in the tank for all that fishlover00 suggested plus one of those? Do i need to pair them?

Alright, I'm not too worried about the snails, I can always find them later down the line.

 

You don’t need to pair them and you should be alright with the stocking that fishlover00 gave you and i would be careful of neon tetras right now as they have been highly susceptible to disease due to overbreeding. And what is your filtration? As that would be key to know howuch fish you can stock other than tank size

 

Okay sounds good, i might look into a different kind of tetra but ill see when i get there. I have a fluval 305, i think it has 4 shelves in it, probably not going to do carbon, not 100% on what is essential yet. Have to look i

 

Adding a gourami would work and I’d recommend a pearl gourami they are beautiful and are pretty hardy if you like the look of neons I’d look into cardinal tetras as they look very similar and IMO more colorful I’d just add them a bit later and let your aquarium get established. Do you have a quarantine tank?

 

Both of those sound good. I was looking at either the pearl or the blue gourami. As of right now i don't have any tanks. Should i set up my 10g tank as a quarantine?

 

If you don’t have any plans for it and it isn’t housing any fish currently i would quarantining is very important and could be what saves your aquarium from diseases that could kill all your fish and also allows you to medicate your fish and make them even healthier before going in your show tank which will help in the long run and is a very reassuring feeling

 

Alright, ill look into making that into a quarantine