Percilus

I know that most dwarf gourami are very territorial. I would steer clear of putting a gourami with a puffer. It could work but between the puffer being a nipper/territorial and the gourami being territorial I don't see it ending well. You would most likely see 2 injured fish over time with one succumbing to stress eventually.

Hi there welcome to the forum.

If you love catfish you gotta love this tank. Solid channel of great tanks as well.

Thanks all will probably stick to pearl gourami unless I do a semi aggressive tank with fish that can defend themselves against a golden. I've heard throwing in a convict cichlid calms those golden down real quick.

Welcome to the forum.

Why do people hate snails so much they are awesome. If you have way to many cut back feeding simple as that. If they are over populating it is because there is to much uneaten food in the tank.

Not sure why but a cheap plant like duckweed or hornwort would take care of that nitrate real quick. Don't do anything you said at the bottom the only thing that will reduce nitrates besides live plants is water changes. Unless you have that specific set up for the nitrate bacteria to grow (lava rock pvc pipe set up I doubt you have much of it growing in your tank if you have high nitrate). So if a 50 % water change every 3-4 days doesn't take care of them I'd say your messing the test up. Don't change any filter media you'll just mess with yer ammonia and nitrite bacteria that way. I also wouldn't change more than 10-20 % water a day until the levels go down. Large water changes anything over 50% once a week can mess with your balance as well and should be avoided. For now if your worried about it just dose some prime after a 20 % water change.

Welcome to the forum.

Try getting some duckweed, lots of it. I'm assuming you have goldfish/koi, they will eat it but its great for sucking up nitrogen (ammonia, nitrite, nitrates). Will need some light but it reproduces like crazy and is a healthy food for goldfish, they may poop a bit more though so keep up daily or every other day WC.

Or hornwort looks better in my opinion and will grow under almost any light. My guess is just that the bacteria that eat and change nitrite to nitrate just take longer to multiply. You mentioned pond fish in a 55 so the bio load on that filter is probably excessive and the nitrite bacteria have not caught up to the load yet. See if you can pick up a cheap sponge filter rated for a 55 gallon or higher and use that with your pump that's coming in the mail get another bio source going. Continue to gravel vac but I would leave the algae alone. It may be ugly but it's feeding on the bad stuff to. When things level off just get rid of it than.

Dun, dun dunna! Here is the final result thus far on the 55. Couldn't quite make the rocks fit, but I got my hands on a nice piece of wood. Thanks for everyone's input.

Lookin good

Welcome to the forum.

How about 15 pygmy corys, 10 daisy blue ricefish. The rice fish are extremely active, brightly colored except males go blue/black when ready to spawn. Look lovely against a planted back ground.

This would work really well. The pygmy's if you plant the tank heavy won't be shy or scared of little rice fish and will school like crazy if you have 10+. They look very cool when they school.

Planning some future tanks out. Looking for some advice from owners of this fish or more knowledgeable people than I. Would a single Pearl and some stiphodon blue goby's be happy in a 20 long heavily planted into adulthood? Or perhaps a male + female pair?

How about pearl and golden gourami's they get along? 2 in a 20 long with nothing else?

If not what size heavily planted tank would you recommend for a pearl+golden or perhaps 2 pairs of golden and pearl. Minimum as I don't have the space some of you guys do. If the fish would not be content in the size of tank I can provide I'll have to wait till my living arrangements change to own these beauties I guess.

Thanks

That's actually very reasonable. Hopefully that big boy doesn't smash the glass with his head though haha,

If your just looking for a lid for a lids sake and wanted to save money check out what the king of diy on youtube does for a tank cover. Would cost you nothing on a tank that size compared to glass. If it's a planted tank you might have some issues with what he does though getting light through the canopy stuff. But hey it works for greenhouses. Maybe jvision knows more about that than me though for sure I was just looking for cheap tank cover ideas and saw what he does and it's by far the most affordable and practical alternative to expensive acrylic/glass lids. Especially on a huge tank.

If I had Joey's tools I don't think I'd ever buy anything hardware related for fish/pets again haha.

I would just starve the tank. Spot feed your fish carefully. I love snails and actually over feed at times on purpose if I don't see tonnes of them everywhere. Most people would think that's nuts and I get it. But all it takes is a week or so of low feeding for things to go from high population to normal again I find. You could also try a pea puffer. The guppy's wouldn't defend themselves to well from him, but the rest would probably be ok. Assassin snails work well. Or a couple apple snails would liven up the tank and out compete pond snails for a lot of the waste as well if you did not want to starve the tank.

Was trying for a natural river bed look. The stones are very cheap and awesome looking at Canadian Tire right by the soil.

Finished my betta's 8 gallon tank this is about day 10.

Welcome to the forum!

I'm broke but if they are going to hit the garbage let me know I'll takem off your hands again.

I'm going to come check it out tonight. Don't gotta be a member to attend apparently I'm sure I'll join later.

I might check it out. Have to see what the wife had planned tonight first though. Is there aquariums set up etc? Kid friendly? I've never gone before so just wondering what to expect. A room full of fish nuts with some coffee or something is fine by me regardless haha!

I've got your vals growing in my betta home right now thanks again for those

Welcome

Welcome