Wednesday, November 11, 2009

Cichlid tank - part 1




One thing I have been playing around with for ages is the following Cichlid tank. I confess that it isn't the best looking tank at the moment. I have totally demolished all the the internal structure in the tank i.e. the hiding holes for the fish (rocks etc etc). I did a bit of a dodgy job of painting the back with standard blue spray paint which is not recommended i.e. as I had to buy some Toxivec to lock up the toxins in the water..... I sprayed the back of the tank whilst the fish where still in the tank! A mistake I will never make again; it was a shortcut that I wouldn't normally take.

SETUP

I am using a standard canister filter which is cycling about 750 Litres per hour - its a standard 3 foot tank (roughly 120 litres). There is a fairly big air pump which is only used because, I am not creating a big amount of turbulence in the tank (not necessary if you break the water surface tension with powerhead etc etc). I also have a power head (2000L p/h) which just circulates the water around the tank.
I have used builders sand I bought from the hardware store and, coral shells (bought from the fish shop) as the tank substrate. I wouldn't recommend that use of garden or builders sand as it is so fine in texture. The reason this is a bad idea is that when you clean the glass with a magnet it is so easy to pick up the sand particles and scratch the glass which can scratch the tank glass. If possible go with some type of substrate that's a few mm's thick or just use your ordinary every day toilet brush to clean the glass.

TEMPERATURE

Tank temperature stays about the 23 - 24 degree Celsius mark (heater is set to about 23 degrees).

FILTRATION

The canister filter is stuffed with biological filtration media (no charcoal at all). There are two trays in the filter i.e. the first containing filter wool/tank sand and, bio-balls of sorts (little ceramic tubes). The second tray contains just bio-balls and ceramic tubes and, lastly on the bottom of the canister I have stuffed a 1 litre bag full of matrix just for over kill.
I am feeding my fish 2 times a day I do a 25% - 40% water change every two weeks however, it looks better and, the fish are happier if a 25% water change is done weekly + I might change the filter wool change every 2 - 3 months (you can tell it is time as the water starts to get a tad murky). I rarely clean the filter material but, when I do I just fill a bucket with aquarium water and give the substrate a really quick wash to get rid of the gunk (never use chlorinated tap water to wash your filter!!).

LIGHTING

I use a 3 foot dual Flouro which has two white Tri-Phosper globes and, for the current set-up it does the job but, I always recommend you use the best equipment you can get your hands on and, that includes lighting.

Cichilds are very easy to maintain they basically will eat anything are quite hardy and tough and, as long as you KEEP YOUR WATER CONDITION GOOD they will stay in good health and look happy. My advice to anybody starting an aquarium is not to get bogged down to much in the complexities of running a tank i.e. there is a lot of misleading information out there - find good advice and follow that.

FISH

2 x Clown Loaches
1 x Talking Catfish
2 x Pakistani Loach
1 x Electric Blue
1 x Marbled Peacock
1 x Red Rubin (female)
3 x Electric Yellow
1 x Bristlenose (male)
1 x Lichnochromis Acuticeps (male)
1 x Synodontis Ocellifer
1 x (not sure of name will update)

Tanks Water Chem parameters:

pH : 7.8
Ammonium : 0 ppm
Nitrite : 0 ppm
Nitrate : 40 - 50 ppm
(fully cycled and set-up for roughly 1 1/2 years)
*Please note that I did a quick water change to drop the Nitrates and the difference was immediate i.e. first pic on the blog.

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