# my 55g pics



## O-Daddy88 (Jan 5, 2010)

It's not much but I'm slowly working on it to get it to be a respectable aquarium. I've been spending a lot of time reading the DIY articles and just finished building an undergravel jet system and will be switching my substrate over to PFS. Any suggestions will be greatly appreciated as I am still relatively new.


















UGJ system completed just waiting on rio 2100 and marinelane reverse flow kit

Now for some of the inhabitants

















My male salvini runs the tank

























My female firemouth

















My male convict..he has a nice size hump on his head already and he's only about 3 in.









My newest addition EBJD only about 2 in... will try to get some better pics but that sucker is quick.


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## tokyo (Jan 19, 2010)

Its my understanding that UGFs don't work well(if at all) with a sand substrate. Maybe some natural colored gravel would be better.

I have never had an UGF before because they seem to be a bigger pain than they are worth. Atleast thats the impression that I get.

Nice looking fish. I always wanted some firemouths. EBJD is a stunning fish too. :thumb:

Keep the updates coming.


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## PepoLD (Dec 9, 2009)

:thumb: i loved it


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## O-Daddy88 (Jan 5, 2010)

Thanks. I think you might have misunderstood. Its and undergravel jet system not an undergravel filter. I saw that in the DIY section the second article regarding UGJ that he is using his under sand and i have been doing resessarch on it and found that numerous people have been using it with sand and have had some great results. I just got a 50 lb bag of PFS today. Its Lighthouse brand...does anyone have any experience with it. It just looks like normal sand no extremely light or dark coloring. Will be taking pics as I go through cleaning the sand and doing the swap.


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## jack lover (Aug 12, 2008)

ugj are great! :thumb:


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## tokyo (Jan 19, 2010)

Ah, my mistake, I misread that.  UGJs are a whole different story.

Where did you find your PFS? I can't find any locally.

Looking forward to updates! opcorn:


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## O-Daddy88 (Jan 5, 2010)

There is a pool supply store i pass everyday on my way to work, and after going to both Lowes and Home Depot and finding out that they don't have any. I figured i would stop by today and pick some up. I just finished cleaning the sand. It was surprisingly already pretty clean. Now im just gonna leave it sitting out in a bucket for a day to get room temperature. Any suggestions on a method to swap the substrate out. I'm still debating whether to remove the fish and all of the water of do it with the fish still in the tank.


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## PepoLD (Dec 9, 2009)

Im just debating the same, switching to sand next weekend


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## tokyo (Jan 19, 2010)

I would take the fish out and put them in 5g buckets(new) while you do it. It will make it a lot easier in the end.

To take sand out of a tank I usually just siphon it into a bucket. It should work for gravel too I think. The problem with scooping it out is that you risk scratching the glass.

It shouldn't take much more than 30 minutes, not including catching the fish.


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## O-Daddy88 (Jan 5, 2010)

True, I have an extra 37g that i'll probably put the current water and gravel in to store the fish while i do the swap.


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## O-Daddy88 (Jan 5, 2010)

finally did the swap last night after work. It took about 2 hours overall I also put in my UGJ system before i put the sand in, and ordered my powerhead.


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## mlancaster (Jul 24, 2009)

Hi *O-Daddy88*,

Looks great with the sand. I am not sure if you are opposed to fake plants, but i would add some tall fake plants to your tank.

Thanks,
Matt


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## Bkeen (Mar 13, 2009)

mlancaster said:


> Hi *O-Daddy88*,
> 
> Looks great with the sand. I am not sure if you are opposed to fake plants, but i would add some tall fake plants to your tank.
> 
> ...


Tall plants and a background and you've got a top notch looking tank. I love the sand! :thumb:


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## Gunn20 (Jun 19, 2010)

can we get a few pics of the fish


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## O-Daddy88 (Jan 5, 2010)

I added a few silk plants today. I might get one more for the foreground when i get a background for the tank. Also i have some pics of the fish as per the request.


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## CiChLiD LoVeR128 (Mar 22, 2006)

Beautiful Firemouth and Salvini :thumb:


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## PepoLD (Dec 9, 2009)

looking good, that background will make it even better!


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## AquaticLove (Jul 13, 2010)

So gorgeous. I'm really jealous! I LOVE the EBJD. But they are so dang expensive where I live.


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## O-Daddy88 (Jan 5, 2010)

Well I have some unfortunate news...I got home from work today and went to feed the fish and noticed that my EBJD wasn't coming out to eat. I waited for over an hour and still no sign. Finally I started to worry and was looking around the tank and even moved the decor and he is gone. All that I can think is that he was eaten by either my sal, FM, or con.


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## PepoLD (Dec 9, 2009)

*** noticed EBJD are very very weak  *** lost 3 to smaller cichlids...

I wouldnt keep one with something more agressive than a Oscar or Firemouths...


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## O-Daddy88 (Jan 5, 2010)

Yeah i guess i underestimated how aggressive my tank was to add a small relatively weak fish. What would you guys recommend replacing him with if anything. My current stocklist is my male sal, female FM, and male con as well as 6 assorted tiger barbs as dithers


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## PepoLD (Dec 9, 2009)

Parachromis Freddy! 

I love this guys 

Or a Red Jewel... or a female Green Terror.. or a JD!

Or a Vieja if you plan to upgrade your tank

... so many great options


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## CichloKid (Dec 22, 2009)

Bad news on your EDJD. Sorry to hear it. That was a beautiful fish


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## O-Daddy88 (Jan 5, 2010)

a JD seems like a good addition. I have another thread about rescuing a 6 in or so JD from petco. Im probably gonna stop by there tomorrow, they get there new stock in and even if they dont have anything else that i could add, i'll rescue the JD.


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## AquaticLove (Jul 13, 2010)

O-Daddy88 said:


> Well I have some unfortunate news...I got home from work today and went to feed the fish and noticed that my EBJD wasn't coming out to eat. I waited for over an hour and still no sign. Finally I started to worry and was looking around the tank and even moved the decor and he is gone. All that I can think is that he was eaten by either my sal, FM, or con.


Sorry to hear that. :[

But, yeah. You should get a Red Jewel or a JD. JD's are my favorite.


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## O-Daddy88 (Jan 5, 2010)

Well I went to Petco today and got the 6in. JD that I was talking about in my other thread. I will be posting pics later on tonight. I'm just glad I was able to get it out of those small tanks.


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## xXGrEeNxTeRrOrXx (Jan 25, 2006)

Nice looking fish there. Keep an eye on the EBJD. They can be quite frail and you've got some pretty tough inhabitants there.


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## Gunn20 (Jun 19, 2010)

xXGrEeNxTeRrOrXx said:


> Nice looking fish there. Keep an eye on the EBJD. They can be quite frail and you've got some pretty tough inhabitants there.


he is already dead


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## xXGrEeNxTeRrOrXx (Jan 25, 2006)

Oops, my bad. Sorry for the loss.


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## O-Daddy88 (Jan 5, 2010)

Here's the pics of my newly rescued JD. I'm not 100% sure on the gender hopefully you guys can help me out.

Just got it home...still in the bag








Freshly released into the tank








































































The JD has really "woken up" my tank. I'm definetly seeing a lot more of all my cichlids.


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## BigJagLover (Oct 25, 2006)

Your Jd is a male. Notice the bottom half of the gill plate has no blue smears. That's usually a good indicater of gender, in my experiance.


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## PepoLD (Dec 9, 2009)

Nice addition!!

he looks like a male to me 

Keep updating us! :thumb:


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## Gunn20 (Jun 19, 2010)

do males have humps on them because my dad has a mating pair and the male has a slight hump on his head like the one in the picture but the female doesnt


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## jamesman_1994 (Jun 23, 2009)

not that i know of. yours might be a cross breed
the new JD looks great, so how big is he?? and the rest of your fish


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## O-Daddy88 (Jan 5, 2010)

Thanks he is about 6 in. the male sal is about 5-5.5in. the female FM is 5in. and the male con is 3-3.5in.


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## jamesman_1994 (Jun 23, 2009)

that is like one of my dream set ups
i currently have a blue acara, very small salvini a female convict and 2 FMs
i am not sure if i could swap the acara for a JD or something because i love JD's and my friend has one of the ones i gave him and it is a good size now i gave it to him at about 1.5 in and now it is about 5 or so and it has only been about 7 months at the most (it is also a female) any way they look great!!!!!


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## O-Daddy88 (Jan 5, 2010)

Haven't updated in a little bit...but I got my rio 2100 in to run my ugj system its installed and working nicely. The only thing is that its a bit of an eyesore in the tank now. I was considering getting a few more silk plants to kind of mask it and a black background. I'll post pics later tonight. Also, the JD is working out pretty well the only thing is that I think he may have ate 2 of my small albino tiger barbs.

I did have a question...is it normal that when the aquarium lights are off some of the fish lose their color but it goes back to normal about an hour or so after the lights are on?


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## Shifty (Jan 18, 2009)

Explain how those fish are 5-6 inches and you have them all in a 55g tank...

How? I'm surprised they haven't destroyed your setup chasing each other around.


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## O-Daddy88 (Jan 5, 2010)

I realize that the tank is overstocked for being a 55g but there are enough caves and such that each fish has its own territory. There really isn't any chasing going on. They all get along quite well.


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## FishOnLand (Jul 10, 2010)

What kind on lighting do you use? It really brings out the coloration on the JD. :drooling:


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## O-Daddy88 (Jan 5, 2010)

I'm not too sure what the bulbs are they came with the tank when I originally bought it I'll take a look at the bulbs later on and let you know what they say. I do have a question though. I recently got a pretty big brown algae bloom. I regulate the lighting to about 10-12 hrs of light. Could the switch to sand have brought it on? What are some possible things I can do to prevent it aside from scrubbing it off. Would you recommend corys to help?


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## tokyo (Jan 19, 2010)

Brown algae is actually diatoms. Less light does nothing to remove or prevent it. In fact many people say that more light is needed to get rid of it.

It does feed off of silica so the sand could have something to do with it. I find that the more nitrates you have in your tank the worse the diatoms are. I have had diatoms in my 55g for the past 8 months and have found that after water changes alot of it dies off.

I have been looking for a way to get rid of diatoms for a while now and nothing I have tried has worked. I have heard that if you wait long enough it will just go away. I find this hard to believe, but I'm hoping its true.

The one thing I can think of that would work to get rid of the diatoms is live plants. If you don't want to deal with live plants in your tank you could also try a "nitrate removing algae filter". Basically its a small sump(plastic bin or 5g bucket will work) that provides an ideal environment for algae to grow, so it will grow there instead of in your tank. Thats just a generalization, but you get the idea.

I have never tried this but I hear it works great. I am going to be adding one to the sump for the setup I'm working on now.

Here's a link that someone shared with me a while back with more info.

http://www.monsterfishkeepers.com/forum ... =aquaponic

_**EDIT: I went back and looked to see who it was who shared the link with and it was LSBoost. Thanks LSBoost! :thumb: **_


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## O-Daddy88 (Jan 5, 2010)

Thanks for the info...I have since done a waterchange and cleaned the glass really well getting almost all of the brown algae. I guess now I'll just give it some time and see if it goes away by itself. I'm goin to be deploying soon so I don't have the time to go all out and build a new project like that but its definetly something I'll consider when I get back and upgrade to a bigger tank.

Another little update: My penguine 200 crapped out on me. So I'm just running my rena xp2 for now. Perfect opportunity to go and get an Aq70. Will post pics and give a brief review when I get it. Also, all of the fish are doing great.


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## O-Daddy88 (Jan 5, 2010)

Just a little update. I am now running an aquaclear 70 along with my rena xp2. The aq has been working out great. I am still dealing with the brown algae issue. I was doing a little research and found that otocinclus catfish eat brown algae. I was considering them to assist in getting rid of this annoying problem. All of this fish are doing good.


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## Chubbs the Jellybean (Jun 16, 2009)

Don't get the ottos, I PROMISE that they'll probably be eaten by any & all of your cichlids as a snack.

If you want something that will help with the algae perhaps a bristlenose, otherwise I'd just personally keep scrubbing it off the tank, and also when you do a water change, check the rena, sometimes if you just rinse out the filter media it helps a LOT (but leave the other filter alone so that the bacteria colonies don't get decimated)


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## mitshui (Aug 26, 2010)

wow nice photos. Those are pleasing in the eyes. good job for you guys for having beautiful those beautiful fish. If all people are like you guys who love fish and other sea and water living things we can save our fish and other living things in the sea. Keep up the good work I guys, I know many people will encourage to have aquarium fish in their house.


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## O-Daddy88 (Jan 5, 2010)

I'm going to be doing a water change today and will churning the sand and cleaning the rena. Hopefully cleaning the rena will help.

I thought that plecos don't eat brown algae i thought they only like green. Thats why i suggested otos.

More responses would be very helpfull. This issue is making my tank look horrible. :-?


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## O-Daddy88 (Jan 5, 2010)

Did my water change, gave the sand a good churning, cleaned out my rena, and scrubbed the **** out of the tank. Then i decided to do a little rearranging. Will keep you updated with the whole brown algae issue. But for now here are some pics of the newly rearranged tank.


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## kered (Aug 2, 2010)

where did you get those plants? none of the fish stores around here have the long blades...they are all the really fake looking plants...yours look pretty natural


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## Chubbs the Jellybean (Jun 16, 2009)

So just wondering, how long did it take your firemouth to get that big? And what about your convict with that hump?

Tank looks absolutely gorgeous btw opcorn:


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## O-Daddy88 (Jan 5, 2010)

kered: I got the plants from petco they are silk I think that help with the natural look.

Chubbs: I got the FM at about 4 in. almost a year ago now she is about 5-5.5 in. And the con I got him at about 3 in. with a very small hump and I've had him for about 4-5 months. He hasn't grown much in length but i have definetly noticed a drastic growth in his girth, hump, and long flowing fins.

My 2 big guys were hiding when i took these pics, I plan on taking a few pics of all the fish tonight at feeding time. Will post them later tonight.

Thanks for all of the compliments.


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## Chubbs the Jellybean (Jun 16, 2009)

Awesome - would love to see how the jd is doing in the tank and how the salvini is coloring up


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