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Permalink Reply by Robert Jango on May 21, 2012 at 1:33am

Saw your name in Forum as I was checking out - good to hear from you Derrick. Gotta wake up in 2 freakin' hours; so I'll check out your tank situation tomorrow. Also check out this other site, "Aquarimax.com." It's a husband/wife team that puts out a podcast each week.  He's a real scientist and works professionally as a zoologist. This dude REALLY knows his stuff and they will answer any questions you have on their weekly podcast. Nice people. 

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Permalink Reply by Robert Jango on May 22, 2012 at 12:50pm

You mention a lot of different things in your post. 

“So I got a 55 gallon tall for $40 the other day...” 

$40. Can’t beat that.

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“I was thinking, heavily planted tank with dark sand(not sure where to get dark-black sand?) to bring out the colors of the fish and plants.... What is black sand called? Where could I acquire darker/black sand?” 

Black will definitely bring out the colors in your fish and plants. Good choice. But black sand or black substrate? Sand compacts creating anaerobic pockets (sulphur dioxide/poison) and constricting roots. Dustin has a video showing a bunch of dead plants in his sanded tank. He had to dismantle the whole thing. I suppose if your layer is thin enough... but if it was me I wouldn’t chance it. Fluval makes a beautiful black substrate that’s rounded and very close to sand in size (a bit larger). Its great for plants and has high cec and nutrients. On the other hand sand has 0 cec and 0 nutrients. I think eco-complete makes a dark color substate too but its standard sized. If you wanna go cheap use what I use - standard size clay pebbles. They cost next to nothing but they’re bluish-gray, not black.

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“I'm going to be focusing on... selling the plants”  

You wanna sell the plants out of your tank? I don’t think you can make significant money that way. Its just too small. Dustin has to order his plants from a greenhouse and resell them. That’s one of the reasons he’s building a his own greenhouse. I would just focus on a well planted tank and figure on selling the excess growth to help out a bit. Not a lot of money but its better than nothing.

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“I can't really work with the width of the tank for a great foreground, mid, and background. -So I was thinking like "fields" of plants that grow large and have them merge into each other across the 4 ft bottom.... What types of nice carpeting plants like dwarf baby tears would grow quickly and look nice among much larger plants?”

“As far as the aquascape goes, you can do a lot with a 55 tall. A long, tall tank shows off long, tall design elements. Figure on a carpeting plant like Echino Tenellus, Dwarf Sag, but no Dwarf Baby Tears and some tall grasses in the corners and background. Even your limited width will accommodate a center piece(s) like Echino Amazon or Madagascar Lace. And if you grade your substrate upwards and toward the back and place rocks and wood strategically it will give the illusion of depth. 

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“Then for breeding and housing the dwarfs; I was thinking small portions of the tank, without the large plants, with small caves covered in java moss...” 

I’ve got German Blue Rams and so far they’ve ignored my beautiful caves and laid their eggs in plain sight on my Amazon Sword. They do prefer the heavily planted side of the tank though. Like you, I place plants around the cave.

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“I've always been against mixing New Worlds with Old World but I was considering instead of Rams maybe some dwarf africans like shell dwellers or Julidochromis... We have mixed same size and aggression New World and Old World cichlids before but I still don't prefer the idea, especially since they need different water conditions”  

As far as fish go the shell dwellers sound intriguing. And you’re right not to combine fish that require different water conditions. Some (all?) Killies are from Africa (old world) but they love soft water just like the Amazons (new world). You’ll just have to google the preferences for each fish. I share your sensibility about combining old world/new world fish but it probably doesn’t matter to the fish. Everybody knows the rift lake cichlids love hard water but that’s East Africa. West Africa is a lot like South America.

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You have a lot of choices to make about fish. Too many together in one tank and they may get spooked and eat their eggs. In the wild fish generally choose places that are hidden. I'll bet your Convicts spoiled you. They'll breed in the friggin’ NYC subway system. I feel your enthusiasm. Get everything if you want but eventually you’ll probably want to dedicate the tank to one, maybe two species.

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