What would you do with a spare 55 gal tank?

[gatorracer]

Donation to the gatorracer fund?

I am building a sump and I need a donor tank.

 

[Anonymous]

Fill it with beer and ice and have some friends over.

 

[Anonymous]

i hate 55's-they're the worst proportioned tank made, imo-i'd toss it in the garbage, or use it only as a sump-it's not even 'fugeworthy'

110 tall as far worse. 30 tall x 18 wide is not much fun.

 

[Anonymous]

FW planted tank w/ some angel fish and other dither fish.

 

[Anonymous]

Pile up live rock at one end or along the back to form a patch reef. Then add a bunch of mangroves along the top half of the patch. Maybe a sandbed. Keep the water at 2/3 of the tank height. The seahorse idea might work well with the set-up. Other than a light for the mangroves and a powerhead for circulation, nothing else should be required. I have been wanting to set up something similar for awhile.

 

[Anonymous]

i hate 55's-they're the worst proportioned tank made, imo-i'd toss it in the garbage, or use it only as a sump-it's not even 'fugeworthy'

Tank snob! Take your tank snobbery elsewhere Vitsky!

 

[Anonymous]

Pile up live rock at one end or along the back to form a patch reef. Then add a bunch of mangroves along the top half of the patch. Maybe a sandbed. Keep the water at 2/3 of the tank height. The seahorse idea might work well with the set-up. Other than a light for the mangroves and a powerhead for circulation, nothing else should be required. I have been wanting to set up something similar for awhile.

:x

You jerk! Just when I was thinking I would never set up another time draining aquarium again, you have to put an idea as cool as that into my head. Curse you Milz.

 

[Anonymous]

Freshwater. Set it up to resemble a clearwater stream, with inflow at one end, opposite the outflow. Use a thin layer of sandy (or as small as you can get away with) substrate, add some clusters of rounded rocks at either end and a few more closer to the center. Find a nice piece of driftwood that you can weight down and arrange to look like a river snag. Maybe add some vallisneria in clumps here or there. Stock with a smaller species of barb, a small group of loaches, maybe a flying fox or a smaller catfish.

Or you could get some native fish, some darters or shiners or something.

 

[bradl.]

Zoanthids only tank. And Id add a small Yellow Tang .

 

[Anonymous]

i hate 55's-they're the worst proportioned tank made, imo-i'd toss it in the garbage, or use it only as a sump-it's not even 'fugeworthy'

Tank snob! Take your tank snobbery elsewhere Vitsky!

you're welcome to own as many 55's as you want :wink:

 

[Anonymous]

You can all send your 55's to me, I will put them in my basement for a sump!

 

[Anonymous]

Sell it.

Or set it up with pirhanas. if you're going fresh, you might as well get some excitement out of it.

Or you could grow psylobin mushrooms in it. . .

B

 

[Anonymous]

I agree with Vitz. I hate the 55g dimensions. Too deep, not wide enough.
Use it as a sump or go freshwater (down, len! stop chewing on that!!)

At work we have a 55g full of onion plants (low light), black onyx rockwork, congo tetras and rainbowfish. It is a sight to behold. Oh, and Speedy, the world's slowest-growing tiretrack eel :? coming in at a whopping 4 inches....
Someday I should take my camera to work.

 

[owenz]

Live near the ocean? How about a cold water tank? The single greatest method on earth for setting up a cold water salt tank is to take a ride with a scalloper. The scalloping process is rather destructive (it involves dragging steel nets along the ocean floor), but it yields an amazing cornicopia of unique sea creatures (crabs, starfish, anemone, clams, bizarre looking fish...everything) that can be placed in a tank and sustained pretty easily.

It ain't pretty like a reef tank, but you won't get much more prehistoric and downright gothic than watching a spidercrab works its way around a tank.

 

[Anonymous]

Trying to decide what to do with a spare 55 gal tank? Do I do salt or fresh? FO or reef? Help me decide.

Setup a 180 reef and use the 55 for a sump - of course! :wink:

Good idea, but SWMBO would not take very kindly to spending that much money on fish.

 

[Anonymous]

Pile up live rock at one end or along the back to form a patch reef. Then add a bunch of mangroves along the top half of the patch. Maybe a sandbed. Keep the water at 2/3 of the tank height. The seahorse idea might work well with the set-up. Other than a light for the mangroves and a powerhead for circulation, nothing else should be required. I have been wanting to set up something similar for awhile.

:x

You jerk! Just when I was thinking I would never set up another time draining aquarium again, you have to put an idea as cool as that into my head. Curse you Milz.

I agree. Curse you Milz!! Actually, please expand on that idea. It sound very cool. I take it the mangrove would need MH lighting, like a 250 watt HQI? Could you get away with a 150?

 

[Anonymous]

I agree with Vitz. I hate the 55g dimensions. Too deep, not wide enough.
Use it as a sump or go freshwater (down, len! stop chewing on that!!)

At work we have a 55g full of onion plants (low light), black onyx rockwork, congo tetras and rainbowfish. It is a sight to behold. Oh, and Speedy, the world's slowest-growing tiretrack eel :? coming in at a whopping 4 inches....
Someday I should take my camera to work.

That does sound cool! Maybe use Ace's african cichlid idea with it.

 

[Anonymous]

I agree with Vitz. I hate the 55g dimensions. Too deep, not wide enough.
Use it as a sump or go freshwater (down, len! stop chewing on that!!)

At work we have a 55g full of onion plants (low light), black onyx rockwork, congo tetras and rainbowfish. It is a sight to behold. Oh, and Speedy, the world's slowest-growing tiretrack eel :? coming in at a whopping 4 inches....
Someday I should take my camera to work.

That does sound cool! Maybe use Ace's african cichlid idea with it.

I had an African Cichlid tank with my 55g before going reef. It was pretty cool... then I got sucked into SW. :twisted:

~wings~

 

[Anonymous]

Pile up live rock at one end or along the back to form a patch reef. Then add a bunch of mangroves along the top half of the patch. Maybe a sandbed. Keep the water at 2/3 of the tank height. The seahorse idea might work well with the set-up. Other than a light for the mangroves and a powerhead for circulation, nothing else should be required. I have been wanting to set up something similar for awhile.

:x

You jerk! Just when I was thinking I would never set up another time draining aquarium again, you have to put an idea as cool as that into my head. Curse you Milz.

I agree. Curse you Milz!! Actually, please expand on that idea. It sound very cool. I take it the mangrove would need MH lighting, like a 250 watt HQI? Could you get away with a 150?

I don't believe that mangroves need MH lighting - a strong plant light should be sufficient. They do, afterall, grow mostly above the water. I got the idea after seeing the Amazon rain forrest exhibit at the Shed Aquarium with mangroves growing into the "river" and the fish swimming in between the roots.

 

[Anonymous]

I hated having two tanks when I had my 75G and a 38G tank. The 38 started out as a Q tank, then a FOWLR predator fish, then got rid of those fish and redid the thing as a reef. Hated having two reefs to care for but the wife insisted we keep the tank because it looks good on that wall. Then I broke it down and restarted it as a full blown planted tank with co2, VHO lighthing and the whole 9 yardrs. It was quite nice.

The happiest day of my life was when I have that 38G tank to one of my employees. I finally bought some new furniture and the tank was no longer needed on that wall.

Suddenly then I felt the urge to start my 300 since I no longer have two tanks to monkey with.

Louey