[petlover516]

i have a 55 gallon tank, soon-to-be an Amazon BioTope once set-up. the main progress will be easter sunday, and if my mom gets me my special aquarium easter basket instead of the wii, which ive been trying to convince her to do. if she does, all i will need will be AquaClear 110 and Lights(What kind)?
my fish stocking list will be as follows(shown in order of introduction to tank):
-100's of shrimp, (cherry red, neon yellows and blue pearls)
-4 black skirt tets
-6 panda cories
-15 cardinal tets
-4 emperor tets
-1 baby koi angel
-1 baby wild-style angel
-MF pair of GBR's

my unfinished plant list is:
-several Amazon Swords(centerpiece accents)
-Hornwort(big tree of the background)
-several Roseafolia(red accents to background)
-Micro Swords(foreground forest)
-Java Moss on driftwood(centerpiece) will be the only non-amazon plant

i need sometype of green, tall, straight plant to form a background plant. like valisneria, except val are not native to the amazon.

thanks in advance for help!

 

[ELewandowski]

Cant wait to see a pic of that tank when you get it set up and stocked.

 

[timbo83]

i dont know if you alredy have all those shrimp in your tank but all those shrimp breed with each other and will make for some ugly shrimp(IMO). I think you would be better off with one of those and have a huge colony.

 

[petlover516]

i dont know if you alredy have all those shrimp in your tank but all those shrimp breed with each other and will make for some ugly shrimp(IMO). I think you would be better off with one of those and have a huge colony.

ok than. i'll stick to cherry red than.

 

[petlover516]

i did some more research and found out that Vallisneria spiralis is found in any tropical river-guess that means amazon! if i can find the cool corkscrew variety-that will be my backdrop plant. otherwise, i'll just go with straight.

 

[timbo83]

that sounds like a good idea

 

[petlover516]

thank u!

 

[petlover516]

yet nobody answers the Q on lighting...

 

[petlover516]

maybe i can get a little more attention if i ask to have this thread moved to FW planted tanks...

 

[timbo83]

i dont know if it would interest you but you i have amazon frogbit plants floating in my tanks. i dont know if it comes from the amazon but i love these plants. you can find info on them here PlantGeek.net - Limnobium laevigatum . if you are interested in buying some i get mine of aquabid.com from a user named John7429. i found him on another forum and his plants are great. here is his auction link if your interested AquaBid.com - Your Aquatic Auction Website or theres anothr auction for amazon frogbit and if you win you get some shrimp also AquaBid.com - Your Aquatic Auction Website

 

[timbo83]

do you have any kind of lights yet? if so what kind are they

 

[petlover516]

no lights yet.
im not really interested in floating plants, im fine with the current list.

 

[timbo83]

you need to find out how much light your plant list needs then go from there. you can do your own light or spend up to several hundred dollars.

 

[petlover516]

from y research, all the plants need 2-3 WPG. can i just use NO fleuresecents ?

 

[timbo83]

you can spend a lot of money on a light system or you can do a diy light like i did for my55. I took a 4 ft. piece of gutter and put end caps on it and installed 8 26 watt CFL's and that gave me 3.78 whats per gallon. thats more then enough to grow what ever i want.

 

[petlover516]

thats what the tank came with-but the plug was broken and the tin foil reflectors were a mess and the hood itself was all rusty. do u any good lighting brands?

 

[timbo83]

you can take the old rusty hood and sand it down and paint the inside white( 4 or 5 cotes will do) and the out side what ever color you want(i did black) then install light fixtures and use CFL bulbs. I used 26 watt bulbs so i didnt have to use as many. as for the power cord you can just make one or use one of a old appliance. ive never bought one of the expensive lights so i cant recommend any

 

[petlover516]

ok thanks! my dads a handyman and currently has his own business in doing garage doors-as well as a very experienced fish-keeper-he can definately help me out!

 

[petlover516]

i just found out that the lighting is on a ballaster-so we can't use it! my dad says i can get the system i need for 79.99 and he is one of those "Always Right" people and he really is always right.

 

[timbo83]

one of my old hoods had a ballast in it also. it had the ballast, aluminum reflector and 48" bulb. theres screws that hold all that in and if you remove the screws the whole assembly should come out. mine was black so i spray painted a few cotes of high gloss white on the inside and was able to install 7 - 26 watt bulbs which gave me 3.309 watts per gallon on my 55 gallon. i already had the hood so with all the fixtures,wire and bulbs and paint it cost me less then 40$