Need some help figuring out filtration. Nothing crazy though.

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Thank you celebrist but I’m not worried about eliminating how often I have to do my water changes. I’m worried about how many fish the tank equipment can hold and there waste raising ammonia, nitrite, and nitrate levels and my fish dying because I don’t have enough filtration. I’m just asking with extra slots for filter cartridges and adding some plants if that will be enough to keep my fish safe I plan on doing my water changes every week and if I add more fish twice a week. I did twice a week for my 40breeder I had a 9inch Florida gar, a 6inch Senegalus, a German blue ram, 2 gouramis, a 10 inch comet goldfish, and a brittle nose pleco. With just a large anbiaus and a 50 gallon filter, a 30 gallon filter, and a 10 gallon filter with a air pump and my water was great. I’m just nervous because it’s been a long time and I never had 2 Senegalus before or a 55 gallon. So I want to make sure everything goes right and nobody drops dead on me.
 
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2 Senegalus in a 55 will be fine though. I have heard of people that have done this and added one extra but I don’t want one extra fish. Since Senegalus are bottom dweller most of the time I know I can get away with mid swimmers I just don’t want any annoying cichlids.?
 
If you would like my suggestion then I would go with some african butterfly fish, try to get around 6-8 as I find they are a bit aggressive with each other is kept in a small group, and a leaf fish. Perhaps come congo tetras. It just so happens to be an african themed tank as I find I like a lot of african fish.
 
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If you would like my suggestion then I would go with some african butterfly fish, try to get around 6-8 as I find they are a bit aggressive with each other is kept in a small group, and a leaf fish. Perhaps come congo tetras. It just so happens to be an african themed tank as I find I like a lot of african fish.

I completely agree I like African fish as well as far as the butterfly fish I’ll look into it but I’m not sure because they are aggressive I’m looking more towards semi aggressive. But Congo tetras are beautiful but they get about 3 inches you think my polys will end up picking them off?
 
When I say the african butterfly fish are a bit aggressive I mean they'll occasionally nip at each other and in my experience if kept in too small of a group the dominant one may harass the smaller ones into not getting enough food and you'll have to step in and make sure the small ones get enough to eat.
I'm not quite sure about the congo tetra question as I personally haven't kept congo tetras with bichirs yet but those who have I've read that it works out better if they're pretty much grown when introduced.
I'd take what I said about the congo tetras with a grain of salt and wait for some poly keepers who have kept the combination to chime in.
magpie magpie J jaws7777 Vancouver_98683 Vancouver_98683
I;m not exactly sure who has as it's been a while since I read about the combination but if the 3 poly keepers I mentioned above haven't then they can @ the right person.
 
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Where you are in the polys you have Congo tetras would be a great choice. Get a group of 6 to 8 and your polys it'd be a nice tank. If you want add a sponge filter. The extra cartridges will be good for mech and the ones in front bio then when you change them out move the front ones back and the back ones get new and go up front. Its been about 20years since ive had one of those filters but I think thats how its set up.
 
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Where you are in the polys you have Congo tetras would be a great choice. Get a group of 6 to 8 and your polys it'd be a nice tank. If you want add a sponge filter. The extra cartridges will be good for mech and the ones in front bio then when you change them out move the front ones back and the back ones get new and go up front. Its been about 20years since ive had one of those filters but I think thats how its set up.

Won’t the polys eventually eat them the Congo tetras though?
 
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