The "55"

Our 55gal Freshwater Planted Tank (recovering from a bout of green water)

Background:  My trip down the road of creating a freshwater planted tank started some time in 1999 when my fiancé's brothers got a bunch of tanks and equipment for free from someone they knew.  They were kind enough to give us a 55 gallon tank and a couple of Penguin 330s, a thermometer and some lights.  From there, through trial and error, books, web sites, time and patience and of course some money; we've now have a "high tech" 55 gallon freshwater planted discus tank, a 10 gallon planted tank, and a 90 gallon tank that will be in the near future a saltwater tank or planted discus tank.

As I mentioned above, the tank has been a planted tank for several years, even after our relocation from Chicago to Minneapolis, MN.  It was a discus tank for a year, but unfortunately they did not survive our move from our apartment to our new house.  That was real upsetting.  We got them from a local fish store that we've always shopped at since we moved to Minnesota and had gotten to know the owners.  They were sadly going out of business and gave us 2 discus for the price of one ($20 for a Pigeon Blood and a Heckel?).    They started out at about 2 inches and they were at around 5 inches in the end.

17JAN06:  Yesterday, as part of an early birthday gift, Monika let me go shopping for discus to put in our 55.  The 55 has been a planted tank for at least 6 years; it's had its ups and downs.  Even now, I'm just getting over (fingers crossed) a several month battle with green water.  I mean the tank was at one point named "The Incredible Hulk".   We picked up the discus (6) from a local fish store, which is probably not the most recommended thing to do; one should go through a reputable breeder, I did have a couple of breeders in mind that I read from some web forums.  The discus looked really good though and the owner did give a good deal since we were planning to buy several plus some food.  So with fingers crossed, we took our discus which we placed in our pre-warmed with hot water bottles cooler home.

Here are some pictures.  Sorry that they're not the best, I took them during the afternoon and our family room where to tank is in has several windows.  Even with the blinds closed, there is still reflection issues.  Also, the green water is not entirely gone; there's still a bit of a haze in the tank.