55 Gallon sorority

[doggyhog]

Originally Posted by CodeRed

My mom is the coupon queen! lol She has BOOKS of coupons. It's amazing, and yet aggravating. I love seeing the looks people give her in the check-out line :D

LOL! That is amazing. :)

Do you know what kind of plants your going to get? I HIGHLY recommend at least a big of HornWort. AWESOME plant.

What kind of filter? What kind of heater?

[ChristinaRoss]

a medievel theme sounds fun. cant wait to see pics
i recommend sword plants and wisteria

[CodeRed]

Thanks! I don't actually have the filter or heater yet, but I'm pretty sure I'll be getting those tonight. Any recommendations in that area? And I'll look into those plants :3 So far, I just have a couple of small ones, but I'll be buying more after the tank cycles.

[ChristinaRoss]

actually putting live plants in now will help the tank cycle quicker. youll need a 250 to 300 watt heater. best bet is probably walmart for the cheapest, but i got a 300 watt heater at petsmart for 30. i think they just lowered their prices, well here at least. the filter i have 2 actually on my 55. they came with it. so i use them both, it cant hurt. anyway i use an aquatech 30-60 gallons filter. i think they carry same size at walmart too.

u do have a light right? or at least indirect sunlight? id get wisteria and swords very soon, and u can get seachem fluorish to fertilize the water. its like $9 a bottle and will last a looooong time. makes ur plants grow like crazy, mine at least. i keep my lights on 5 hours then turn them off for 2 hours and turn them back on for 7
it keeps the diatom algae at bay.

[CodeRed]

Thanks for the info! I, luckily, have an amazing LFS that sell their heaters at about 10-15 dollars. It's great. I got my 50 wats there for 8 bucks, which is 4 dollars cheaper than I got my hydro mini heater from Petco, and it's 10x more effective. I'd read the plant thing online while looking up cycling, but I've heard so many different sides that I decided I would rather just do it the normal way, with maybe a bit of Bio-spira if I can find it.

[ChristinaRoss]

ya ive used that too, as well as cycle, it didnt speed anything up. was more like a waste of money i think. the second time i set up my 55 gall all i did was use live plants and fishfood. completly cycled in 3 weeks

[CodeRed]

Huh. Everything I've heard about Bio-Spira was that it worked wonders! Good to know this before I go buy it (:

[ChristinaRoss]

im sure it works for some, but it didnt in mine.........and ive read that it has mixed reviews with people