Need help and Aquascaping Ideas with my 55g and 10g tanks

faithg1987

So here goes, so far I haven't needed any help with my tanks and considering I am somewhat new to all of this huge tank stuff, So about 2 and a half maybe 3 months ago I wigged out and decided to buy my 55 gallon long tank, it was a wal-mart starter kit and I am still using the original equipment, so from what I have read here on the forums I am not doing so good after all. Here is what I am running.

Deluxe fluorescent full light hood, complete with 2 daylight spectrum bulbsAquaTech 30-60 Power Filter with BIO-Fiber biological filtration and EZ-Change #3 filter cartridge
200 Watt UL aquarium heater

I added the following

1 long Bubble wall thing
1 flat round bubble thing
1 bubbling skeleton lol

That is all I have right now in terms of hardware, I did get some activated carbon and added that to the HOB filter and it has helped with water cloudiness. The water Peremeters are good and have been bout the same now for about 6 to 7 weeks, (did a fish in cycle with platies) took about 4 to 5 weeks.

Now here is the question What equipment should I discard and which should I keep if any, I already have live plants in my tank and want to definatly go that rout oh and here is a list of fish living in tank.

7-Mollies
3- Guppies
8-Assorted Platies
10-Neon Tetras
1-Albino Corydora
1-Standard Corydora
2-Upside Down Catfish
1-Small Plecostomus
2 -Silver Tipped Sharks
1-Angelfish
1-Anubias
1-money wart
1-hairgrass
1-Mail Betta
And 10 or so of the plant bulb plants from walmart

Also I would like some help Aqua-scaping, I have never done it before so I am a little overwhelmed. Any Ideas will be greatly appreciated

Next up, I have a small 10 Gallon set up Fully planted I kind of like the way it looks Currantly housing 2 Male mollies and 2 Female Platies, Tell me what you think?

Attached Images

	SANY0644 (800x596).jpg (55.9 KB, 82 views)
	SANY0669 (800x331).jpg (31.3 KB, 80 views)
	SANY0672 (800x327).jpg (38.2 KB, 82 views)

ladayen

You only need 1 bubbler thingy. Get rid of the other 2. I have a feeling your lights are going to be too strong.

Now... as to your fish.

Mollies are brackish fish, and will have a reduced life expecency in fresh water. Nothing specifically for the guppies or platies, but you might want to try and figure out which are male and female.. same with mollies for that matter. Neons can be a bit on the sensitive side. What is your PH and Hardness?

Crap time for work.. I'll get back to you later.

tf1265

How is the male betta doing in the tank? I bet he would appreciate some floating plants. Bettas breathe surface air in addition to oxygen in the water, so they spend most of their time at the surface. Making them go too deep to find hiding places (which they also love to do) stresses them out. A 55 gallon is going to be a pretty long swim for him to get up there.

As to the stocking, cories are shoaling fish. They will do significantly better if you have them in groups. "Standard" cory isn't really a thing - what does it look like? If I were you I would add at least 2 more of each type of cory that you have. They will all school together, but having at least 3 of each species will make a BIG difference in their behavior. Additionally, albino cories are very sensitive to light so the floating plants would also relieve some stress from their environment. If you add more plants and hiding places, the lights you have may be OK but you definitely need more shaded areas, even if you tone down the bulb wattage.

You may want to consider adding a second filter or a more powerful one. I don't have a tank as large as that so I'm guessing based on what others have said. I'll leave that to members who have large tanks.

faithg1987

The Betta loves it in there, him and my angelfish pretty well stick together idk why they just do, if you look up in the top right hand corner of the 55g there are some floating plants there, as for water perimeters

ammonia 0
PH 7
nitrate 0
nitrite 0
Although I have very hard water the perimeters don't change hardly at all
I do add Aquarium salt have ever since I started with my 10 gallon abut 6 months ago havent changed much other than the dosage.

the "standard" Cory cat is brown with a dark marking running the length of his inner body he is pretty big and the two seem fine they are always together and always pretty active All the neons do great in there so far I have only lost one and that was yeterday, I lost a pleco the other day he turned white and died i tried to help but i don't know much about plecos so that was my fault entirely and he was a sail fin so i am really kicking myself. As for the mollies, they are do amazing i have not lost a single molly since i started and the same goes for my platies the very first platie I bought is about an inch and a half now and the mollies are pushing 2 1/2 inches a piece. But yeah the Betta couldn't be more happy.

Oh and I change the water weekly about 30 to 35% depending on what it looks like and I vacuum the gravel while i do that.

now that I know about the hardware part, does anyone have any aqua scaping ideas for the 10g or 55g?

tf1265

Your tank is not cycled. I would worry about that first or you are going to need to start doing daily water changes as the ammonia and nitrites build up. What have you done to try to "change" the water parameters?

I know you say the cories are just fine, but they are shoaling fish - they are happier in groups, period. You say they are always together - because they prefer to be in groups.

I know you want suggestions on aquascaping your tank, but you appear to have some serious issues with it (whether your fish are all dying all the time or not isn't the only indication that they are happy. Being alive and thriving are not the same). The fact that you have had several fish die without knowing why means that something is not right. There are stocking issues, and as I said your tank is definitely not cycled which creates a stressful environment on the fish and a lot more work for the tank owner.

I'm glad the betta is happy - they can be so finicky, especially the males. They are super easy in terms of care and water parameters, but can be difficult in terms of temperament. And he even made a friend!

faithg1987

.... I only lost like 2 fish in 3 - 4 months...?

tf1265

Your tank isn't cycled, and that is the most important thing you can do for your fish. I would worry about that before worrying about aquascaping, because only 1 of them really matters to the health of your fish. But if your priorities are different, hopefully someone else on this forum will chime in some ideas for you.

Jbrofish8

With enough plants you wont need to worry about a cycle. But you will need many more plants than what is in those pictures. Fast growing plants like Anacharis and Hornwort are good for this if you are new to plants.

Also, your Anubias will die if you have its rhizome covered in the substrate. The best thing to do is to attach it to a piece of driftwood or rocks with some cotton string or fishing line.

Byron

I would think the tank (the 55g) is cycled, from your initial information. Not sure I see why others wouldn't think so, unless I'm missing something... So on to your other questions. First, considering solely the 55g.

The light will probably work fine. You do need more plants, those suitable to low or moderate light [we have fish and plant profiles, second tab fro the left in the blue bar across the top, you can browse the plants and any with low to moderate light requirements are possibles]. A few more sword plants (you have 1 right of centre), these should do well and fill in the space nicely. Move the chunk of wood in the left rear corner out, maybe left of centre sort of where the brown and black pebble rocks are? A sword plant behind and one to the left and behind of the wood would I think set it off. If you can find it, a Pygmy chain sword (one or maybe two plants); once established they will send out runners and fill the bottom with nice little plants. And definitely floating plants. Some good ones that do well (or should) are Water Sprite, or some of the stem plants like Brazilian Pennywort. These are easy so I would look for them.

Nice as they appear, the three bubblers are going to hamper plant growth by driving CO2 (carbon dioxide) out of the water too fast. I suggest you remove them. The filter, does it have an adjustable outflow? If yes, this can be directed toward the left end wall so it will lessen the current down the tank but still be sufficient. And as for the inserts, you don't need carbon and other stuff with live plants so just leave them; rinse them regularly, probably weekly, to keep the water flow. You won't have cloudy water issues now. On water changes, these should be every week without fail; change 1/3 to 1/2 the tank volume. Until you get more plants, you can vacuum the gravel a bit, just lightly with the water changer. Once you have more plants, it can basically be left alone.

Do you have any plant fertilizer? A liquid fert added weekly a day after the water change should be sufficient, esp when you have more plants. I recommend Flourish Comprehensive Supplement as one of the best; you use very little so the initial cost is not really expensive long-term compared to other brands that are not as good and have to be used much more. This is the one: http://www.seachem.com/Products/prod.../Flourish.html

Salt--forget it. You do not want salt in freshwater aquaria. As for the mollies, they can manage in freshwater or brackish water and actually even in full salt water. But they will do fine in fresh, and other fish with them don't appreciate salt so leave it out.

Quick comment on the 10g, that is quite nice. I would add some floating plants though, same as above. And no salt. Salt is also harmful to plants, by the way.

Hope that helps a bit.

Byron.