Beat Up 55 Gallon Project Thread - S A Cichlids?

SamB

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While I was home yesterday I managed to convince my parents to go in on a deal I found on craigslist for a 55 gallon tank as they have been going on about getting a bigger tank for some time. The guy said he had a stand we could have with it for 60 bucks (with the tank etc). Unfortunately when we got there the stand would not fit in our SUV so we had to leave it, but fortunately that lowered the price of the tank etc to $40! We managed to find a stand for sale in the area we were in (an hour from my parents' house) and I managed to haggle them down to $15.. so the whole deal was $55 for a 55 gallon setup!
 
Everything has seen better days though.. the stand was like this:
 
20130804_185931.jpg
 
As you can see, somehow someone has destroyed the far left panel. (How do you even mess that up that badly?)
 
20130804_212743.jpg
 
I got busy removing the broken panel and door.
 
20130804_212751.jpg
 
And refitted a new panel in that matched perfectly!
 
20130804_220854.jpg
 
Added on the door
 
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Since the tank didn't come with a hood, I started building one for my parents. The plan is to cut glass to make a panel to protect the light and sit on the tank opening under the hood I'm building. Unfortunately, mum stepped on the glass and broke it, and I ran out of time and have had to drive home, but I think my dad will finish it off so I will post pictures later.
 
20130804_223458.jpg
 
^^Its all put together and screwed but not painted and the brackets aren't in
 
Meanwhile mum was removing lime scaling from the tank and the gross undergravel filter and crushed coral. Just so I could see it we put the tank together. I think it's gonna look great!
 
20130805_011739.jpg
 
It looks lovely! When will you be visiting your parents again?
And are all those toys for Mishka?
 
Honestly I don't know - I havent made plans to go back but it seems most of my visits are unplanned anyways (like this one!)
 
The toys are for mishka and snowbelle.. yeah.. they go a bit overboard but he seriously plays with all of them.. He will pull them all out one by one!
 
Wish I had a tank that big
sad1.gif

What are you going to stock it with?
 
wrightt3 said:
Wish I had a tank that big
sad1.gif

What are you going to stock it with?
 
Not sure yet.. I have been given free roam on it to make suggestions. My mom definitely wants to make sure theres a good number of fish in there, so not two very aggressive fish or the likes. Probably a semi-aggressive community or community with a centerpiece pair or something.
 
You could do a south American tank with a pair of angelfish as the centrepiece.
If it were my tank I would do something along these line:
-2 angelfish
-8 Colombian tetras
-8 silver hatchetfish
-4 laetacaras or a similar sized dwarf cichlid
-1 green phantom Pleco
 
Good luck with the tank anyhow!
 
wrightt3 said:
You could do a south American tank with a pair of angelfish as the centrepiece.
If it were my tank I would do something along these line:
-2 angelfish
-8 Colombian tetras
-8 silver hatchetfish
-4 laetacaras or a similar sized dwarf cichlid
-1 green phantom Pleco
 
Good luck with the tank anyhow!
 
What about alternatives for the hatchetfish?
 
Would GBRs or Gold rams work?
 
I mentioned hatchet fish because they add activity to the surface of the tank.
If you don't like them then I would increase the Colombian shoal size to about 12 or so.
 
You could add a different species of tetra to go with the Colombians instead if you wanted to but I think several different midwater shoaling fish species together looks messy. Its better to have one species and up their numbers as high as you can.
 
Rams, apistos or keyholes should be fine instead of the laetacaras
 
Wow, what a great bargain!
I can't wait to see its progress next time you visit your parents!
 
id like to see the progression of this tank given that your ohters are great.
 
Good find Sam! Looking forward to this project getting in full swing!
 
nks everyone....I'm going to fill it with tetras just to annoy Sam.


ONLY KIDDING!

Great suggestions though....I will post photos when it is set up. The stand is not quite finished and I need to finish and pain the hood...then cycle the tank.

I was really surprised when FF posted this on Facebook! I'm really pleased that I have had all these ideas passed on for the tank. :)
*paint

Paint the hood.
 
UKTsb said:
nks everyone....I'm going to fill it with tetras just to annoy Sam.


ONLY KIDDING!

Great suggestions though....I will post photos when it is set up. The stand is not quite finished and I need to finish and pain the hood...then cycle the tank.

I was really surprised when FF posted this on Facebook! I'm really pleased that I have had all these ideas passed on for the tank.
yay.gif
)
*paint

Paint the hood.
 
^^ Momma SamB who is the owner of the tank
 
Thanks everyone. We will keep you updated as I can only work on it when I go home but I am sure work will be done on it while I'm not there too!
 

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