omet Goldfish

Aquarium and Setup

I have a 55 gallon tall aquarium. The tank is 30 inches long, 18 inches deep, and 23 inches tall. I have about 30-35 pounds of tanish gravel. The stand is 29 and 1/2 inches tall. There is a magnetically closed cabinet in the middle of the stand, 13 and 1/2 inches wide. I use a 305 Fluval filter, with the generic 4 sponge pads. The 6 compartments are filled with biomax, and occasionally 2 compartments are filled with clearmax if the water becomes cloudy. I have a tetra whisper deep 10-30 gallon airpump. It's not rated high enough for my tank, but it does a great job of keeping it aerated. My top is a clear marineland hood. My light fixture is a Coralife aqualight 24" high output T5 dual lamp. It isn't long enough for the tank, and I am planning on upgrading it. I have a colormax and 10,00k light set-up. These help my plants grow well. Overall the system is 48 watts per gallon. I have a DIY CO2 setup that outputs 1-2 bubbles per second. My reactor consists of a 250gph pump that blasts the bubbles up a tube, out the tank, and then back into the tank. This does a great job of dissolving the carbon dioxide. The whole system has been running for

Pond Snail

Mystery Snail

Common Goldfish

Fish and Invertabrates

I have 2 goldfish; one common and one comet. I have had them for approximately 20 months as of February 2010. When I got them, they were maybe 3 inches long and they are now 5 and a half inches long. I feed them wardley "petit" pellets and an assortment of fruits, veggies, and some shrimp.

I have 7 stripped corycats. I've had them for 6 months. They range in size from an inch to an inch and a half. I feed them Hikari sinking tablets. Both the veggie and shrimp type.

I also have a couple pond snails. Most of them have been eaten, but i have a few strong breeders so their population stays pretty health. They do a good job of taking care for troublesome brown algae.

I also have a golf ball sized black mystery snail, aka apple snail. I've had it for 8 months, since the tank was first setup. I did not purchase it. It came accidentally with some live plants I bought and I decided to keep it. I feed it a special snail jello mixture, as well as other veggies and some shrimp. I have a hard time feeding him separately, so a bought a breeder container that I put him in to feed him. He can get in and out of the breeder by himself (he can get out of the water) so it is not like I am keeping him in a small container. He can be very active and enjoys "jumping" from the top of the tank, and gliding down to the bottom. Sometimes, he even floats around in the water, a weird apple snail behavior.

Decorations

My aquarium has 2 decorative "Japanese lamps". My mystery snail has fallen in love with the bigger one and likes munching on the algae that builds on it. I also have a fake wooden log. The centerpiece of my aquarium in the two big vases in the center of the tank. The are "broken" (I bought them that way) so that the fish can swim in and out of them. My air pump also hooks up to an air-stone in in the bigger vase, so air bubbles up through it.

I also have an assortment of different plants scattered throughout the tank. Some of them have a very hard time growing with rough goldfish. The pond snails also had a pretty negative affect on the elodea plants I had.