Need Ideas for a 55 Gallon Aquarium

[Wiggles92]

As the title states, I need some ideas for my dad's 55 gallon aquarium. He doesn't want to deal with saltwater any more, so he wants to convert it to a reasonably low maintenance freshwater set-up that looks great.

At minimum, the filtration will be an AC110 and Rena Filstar XP2; I planned on loading the AC110 with bio media & a sponge and the XP2 with filter pads & chemical filtration (maybe carbon and/or Rowaphos). We may also add on another canister filter as well as a 20 gallon sump; I also have a bunch of HOBs sitting around, so those can be added if need be.

I was thinking of doing a nice hardscape with some driftwood, rocks, and maybe pool filter sand or some other nice-looking sand; I'm going to avoid both live and fake plants if at all possible. I'm open to suggestions as long as the scape is low maintenance and high impact.

I'm not too sure what to go with for the stock. Colorful, unusual, personable and/or predatory fishes are preferred, and I want to avoid having just one fish if at all possible. The stock doesn't have to consist of "beginner" fishes, but it can't consist of fragile "expert" fishes either. I want to give him several options to choose from, so I'm open to pretty much any and all suggestions.

 

[oscaroo]

1 Jack Dempsey would be a good idea

maybe 3 blood parrots would fit the bill.

 

[bbortko]

Put the bio in the canister and mech in the ac, mech gets dirtier much faster and the ac is easy to clean. 2 pairs of dwarf pikes with bleeding heart or Columbian tetras would look nice.

 

[Wiggles92]

1 Jack Dempsey would be a good idea

maybe 3 blood parrots would fit the bill.

The jack dempsey could be cool. I'm thinking that the blood parrots are out, though; he thought they were kind of dumb when I showed him some at a pet store before.

Put the bio in the canister and mech in the ac, mech gets dirtier much faster and the ac is easy to clean. 2 pairs of dwarf pikes with bleeding heart or Columbian tetras would look nice.

Okay, I'll keep that in mind; the idea was to keep the water nice and crisp, so I'll do whatever needs to be done to achieve that goal.

Dwarf pike cichlids are pretty cool as are the tetras. Would we have to worry about any spawning and increased aggression as a result?

 

[bbortko]

I would expect some aggression but nothing too terrible. I would setup territories at opposite ends on the tank that way if they do breed the have plenty of room between territories.

 

[HungDang]

2-3 pair of Angel fish!

 

[oscaroo]

Adult BPs are smart. My 2 BPs (1 3 incher and 1 5 incher) are pretty smart.

 

[oscaroo]

1 severum.

 

[Wiggles92]

I would expect some aggression but nothing too terrible. I would setup territories at opposite ends on the tank that way if they do breed the have plenty of room between territories.

Ah, okay. I'll keep that in mind if he chooses that option.

2-3 pair of Angel fish!

Hmm... That could be interesting.

Adult BPs are smart. My 2 BPs (1 3 incher and 1 5 incher) are pretty smart.

I guess I should have said that he didn't like the way that they look.

1 severum.

Those are pretty cool.

 

[Wiggles92]

Any other ideas?

I saw the scomb payara that I had before the other day when I was at the LFS and thought that might be a cool fish for in there. Before anyone says "that's too small of an aquarium," that scomb has been alive for at least four years which is about two years longer than normal for a captive scomb and has been living in the same 55 gallon at that LFS since they got it (save for when I bought it only to return it when it refused to eat in a larger aquarium than a 55 gallon).