Two Connected 55 Gallon Guppy Aquariums

[zean]

Hi! This tank is a work in progress, but I'm still quite proud of it. It's overstocked, with both male and female guppies, so I try to keep the temperature as low as I can so they don't breed as much.

Anyway, here are the pictures: http://www.dropbox.com/gallery/5322046/1/FishTank1?h=7e54fc

I plan to get another light fixture for the left tank, so I can add more live plants.

The tank's equipment:

• 1 Marineland Penguin BioWheel 350 (Left) [http://amzn.to/9be2sy]
• 1 Marineland Penguin BioWheel 330 (Left) [This is an older, discontinued, slightly weaker version than the Marineland Penguin BioWheel 350]
• 2 Aquaclear 70's (Right) [http://amzn.to/bRB04g]
• 2 Heaters (1 per tank)
• 1 UV 9-Watt Sterilizer (Right) [http://bit.ly/aVHqyx]
• 1 Turbo CO2 Injector (Right) [http://amzn.to/af1RgE]
• 2 Flourescent 15 Watt Bulbs (Left)
• 2 T-5 HO 54 Watt Bulbs (Right)
• 2 Bags of Flourite, and Black gravel, making about 3 inches of substrate (Left)
• 1 Bag of Flourite, and a mix of Blue and Light Brown gravel, making about 2 inches of substrate (Right)

The tank's population:

• 4 Albino Cory Cats
• 1 Chinese Algae Eater (I'll find some way to transfer this elsewhere eventually, so no need to comment on how unsuitable or aggressive a tank-mate this fish is)
• 50+ Guppies (Lots off 'em. Began with a good ratio of 2:1 Female:Male ratio, but they bred prolifically. However, they've slowed down as of late.)
• Moderate to Heavily Planted on the Right
• Sparsely Planted on the Left

I don't know what sorts of plants I have, but you can take a look at them in the pictures posted. All plants in the tank are of course, real.

Anyway, some info on the tank itself:

• pH: 7.5 (Left) / 7.0 (Right)
• Amonia: .25 ppm (Left) / 0 ppm (Right)
• Nitrite: 2.0 ppm (Left) / .25 ppm (Right)
• Nitrate: 80 ppm (Left) / 40 ppm (Right)
• Temperature: 76-82 F (Left) / 78-84 F (Right) [The right is generally two degrees hotter than the left, because of its stronger lamp]

Mmmm, so, a little background: this tank system sorta grew out of one 55 gallon fish tank with a few guppies and albino cory cats. It grew and grew, and I eventually connected another 55 gallon fish tank to accommodate the growth in population. It's overstocked, as stated before, and I still need to get a few more things such as another UV sterilizer, another CO2 Injector, another T-5 Light Fixture, and probably more filtration power of some sort. The Right tank was the first tank, hence why it is more stable, and generally has more equipment. The Left tank was gotten later, and with an eye toward adding lots of plants, I gave it more substrate than I did for the Right tank.

Yes, the tanks are in fact, connected together. I used an acrylic pipe (http/aqua-bridge.com/index2.html), joining both of the tanks at the top. All the fishes can freely swim through the bridge between both tanks.

The tank's stats are sorta out of whack, and I'm doing weekly water changes to try to stabilize and/or lower them.

Any thoughts, suggestions, comments?

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[Assaye]

Looks good. Certainly an interesting set-up. As you say, looks over stocked. This could be why water has elevated ammonia and nitrites. If the filters just don't have the surface area to culture enough bacteria, the tank will stay out of wack in a more long-term sense.

Weekly water changes won't make much difference - that's the basic minimum that many people perform anyway just to maintain a healthy tank and keep nitrates down. If you have elevated levels of dangerous chemicals (as you do), then a weekly water change will make very little difference as the levels will just creep back up afterwards and stay there for another week. As you have ammonia at 0.25 on one tank and crucially nitrite at 2.0/0.25, you need to do much more regular water changes to bring the levels down. 0.25 of ammonia isn't too worrying - this will often sort itself out but does need to be kept an eye on as if it persists for several days it will start to cause damage to the fish. 2.0 of nitrite is actually very worrying as levels that high will almost certainly be causing nerve and brain damage to some/all of the fish, even if their behaviour suggests they are healthy. Our general rule of thumb is that in a tank with ammonia/nitrite problems, testing the water daily and doing any water changes necessary to keep the ammonia/nitrite well under 0.25 (ideally 0) is the basic minimum to prevent long term and/or dangerous exposure to these chemicals. Have you done any diagnostics to work out why the levels are out of wack? Do the filters need to be unclogged? Too many fish? Do you use water conditioner? How much water do you change?

You say the tanks are 76-82F on one side and 78-84 on the other. These are huge temperature ranges - do you know why your temperature isn't at a fixed level? Guppies really prefer a steady temperature of around 75-76F.

 

[chigwellhammer]

I like it a lot , Really nice and its defo different.