55 GALLON FRESH
This picture was taken with a Nikon 35mm camera and then the picture was scanned.



55 Gallon Fresh Water with Cichlids
This was the first fish tank I set up after I was married. I think it was in late 1998 or early 1999 in Lenoir, NC. I think we bought the fish tank at a Petsmart in Hickory, NC. I didn't like any of the stands that were available so I decided to build one of my own. I got the idea from a friend to build the stand at 4 FT so that you can stand in front of the tank and look at the fish instead of always bending over. This tank had 2 Convict Cichlids, a Green Terror, 2 Jack Dempseys, a Parrot Fish, a Firemouth, and a Midas Cichlid. I didn't know what I was doing at the time and they quickley outgrew the tank and began eliminating each other. The right side of the tank had shells on the bottom and this helped to keep the hardness of the water high which cichlids prefer. It had two Topfin 30 hangon power filters on the back and kept the tank at about 78-80 F. I think I kept the pH around 7.5 or 7.6. I changed 50% of the water every two weeks.