good tank, plants, tetra for a 55 gallon?
Hi. I been researching for a while for a 55 gallon tank to keep in my room. I really want a big and good fish tank to keep with some bright healthy plants and tetras. I came across the Marineland Freshwater Combo Kit 55 Gallon online for about $250(including shipping). Yet the 55 gallon from top fin cost about 100 dollar less!! I wonder which aquarium I should get. 100 dollar does not matter to me so much if the quality between the two tank is that wide. Therefore, I am hoping I can get some advice as to which aquarium is better.
Also, I plan on getting Neon, Lemon, Glo-light and Blue Tetra for my 55 gallon community tank. I read how Blue Tetra can be a bit nippy so I wonder if the four of these tetra can be kept together. While I do plan on having the tank fill with plants for the tetra, I also read that they prefer a slightly dimmed light. My question is, how am I suppose to have healthy plant that recieve good amount of light when the tetra hate the light?
For a 55 gallon aquarium, I wouldn’t worry too much about who you buy it from. A 55 is still considered a fairly small tank and any company capable of manufacturing them shouldn’t have any manufacturing problems that you’ll need to worry about. The one thing to be careful about is the stand you plan to put the tank on.
Placing a full 55 gallon tank (which can easily weigh over 400 pounds) on a stand that doesn’t bear the weight evenly all the way across the bottom can have disastrous consequences. Taking five minutes to make sure everything is level and not wobbly before you and gravel and water can help keep your room from looking like a river delta.
I like your mix of tetras for the tank, though I would highly recommend more than one of each. Tetras are schooling fish (at least the neon, lemon, and glo-light ones are), and they’ll do much better with a few of their own kind to pal around with. I’m not terribly familiar with blue tetras, but with other semi-aggressive fish I’ve had luck with making sure there are plenty of other fish around them. This won’t necessarily stop their aggression, but they won’t be able to repeatedly target the same fish….they may also need to watch their own back if some of the other fish are their size or bigger.
As to the lighting issues, it is true that tetras do prefer slightly more dim surroundings. They are native to turbid rivers and streams in Central and South America where direct sunlight seldom hits the shallow areas that they frequent. There are numerous kinds of plants you can buy that don’t need bright lighting in order to thrive. Many of the sword plants, cryptocorynes, and anubias plant commonly found in pet stores should suit your needs quite well. Here’s a good site that might supply you with some of the answers you seek: http://www.aquaticplantdepot.com/index.html
I’ve ordered plants from them in the past and had really good luck with them too.
Hope this was helpful, good luck to ya!
I know glowlight and neon tetras can be kept together.
My friend and I got a neon tetra, and an albino and regular glowlight tetra and they’re fine together.