55 Gallon Beautiful and Easy

[Jennie]

I have the possible opportunity to acquire a 55 gallon from a friend, and I need ideas. It's 24x24 (not sure of the depth).  I'm relatively new to the hobby, and I'm loving all that I have learned from keeping two separate bettas. One is in a 3 gallon. One is in a 5 gallon. I have just recently started live plants....anubias nana, java fern, amazon sword, pink flamingo crypt, banana plant so far.  I have been researching all things 55. It's a bit overwhelming.  I would love to see pictures of your 55 gallon, and tell me what you have in them. I really want beautiful color, easy, low maintenance, and peaceful.  I'm looking into angelfish (although I'm on well water. Not sure how that would go). Or, maybe a really colorful cichlid tank. I really love discus, but I'm pretty sure they are out of my league. Thanks!

[Scapexghost]

This will be a cube tank, or very close. This is very different than a traditional 55, which is long and narrow. I would think of it more like stocking a 20h, and just doubling everything. I wouldn't recommend african cichlids, since they are neither peaceful nor low maintenance. If you did want to do african cichlids, your best bet would be small mbunas. You could do angelfish. 

I would recommend finding one small schooling/shoaling fish, one group of bottom dwellers, one centerpiece fish, and one algae eater. For the schooling/shoaling fish most tetras, rasboras, psuedemogil rainbows, livebearers, or danios would work. Four the centerpiece an angelfish, dwarf gourami, dwarf cichlid, or betta would work. For the bottom dwellers small loaches or cories would be good. And for the algae eater i would add a bn pleco, although i would wait a couple months before adding it.

Bc its a cube i would plant it. I would plant it anyway but with a cube you can more easily do background, midground, and foreground plants.

Edited November 30, 2021 by Scapexghost
Bc your on well water, dwarf cichlids(rams and apistos) might not be ideal.