Help!!!!

[kyman2391]

im new to this and id like some advice. I'm going2 buy 2 convicts; 1 male, 1 female, a 55gal. tank w/stand, an aqua clear filter (60-90gal), and all the other essentials like a heater, thermostat, air pump and a aqua vac. Any ideas of how i should set the tank up, i was thinking sand for the bottom but with the aqua vac how can i clean up the feces without picking up sand, so im still not sure whether to go with rocks or sand. Also i wasn't sure whether to go with real plants or plastic ones. We have a tank in our classroom at school with real plants and i like the way it looks. At school we have 2 tanks 1 55gal and 1 20gal. In the 20gal we have a small jack dempsey because he was getting beat up by the 1 in the 55gal but hes still tough. So what i was thinking was to put all three of the fish(2 convicts and the 1 jack) in my new 55gal at home. Do you guys have any ideas for me on all this.

[Gourami Swami]

two convicts and a jack dempsey in a 55g will work fine, just make sure the tank is cycled. I would not do sand, it gets really annoying to maintain. To clean it you have to hover the vac over the sand, but its hard to do without getting sand.Go for black or dark brown gravel. It tends to look the nicest. Also, real plants will be shredded by the cichlids, but fake plants will do okay.

[kyman2391]

great thanks for the advice