The filter that never was

FishDad

Superstar Fish
Mar 4, 2012
1,218
1
38
Cleveland
#23
Here's our new 55 gallon. Its got the one E. Blue female in it now but soon will house the few dozen or so fry that are now in the QT tank. I think the plan is to take the picks of the litter and donate them to our LFS. Then do some intentional cichlid breeding. I like the idea of E. Blues actually ot Venustus. Any suggestions?
DSCN1636.jpg DSCN1637.jpg
 

exhumed07

Superstar Fish
Apr 30, 2006
1,774
0
36
Illinois
#24
i can't remember the brand, but i do remember it had like a drawing of the heads of easter island on the bag. not sure if that helps. and btw ur tank looks great :)
 

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FishDad

Superstar Fish
Mar 4, 2012
1,218
1
38
Cleveland
#26
I have really considered that. The prob is I have really come to enjoy cichlids. Now I may be wrong here but I salt my cichlids tanks and its my understanding that salt will melt plants. I guess thats why I havn't done that yet.
 

exhumed07

Superstar Fish
Apr 30, 2006
1,774
0
36
Illinois
#27
i do lightly salt my tanks as well. live bearers like a bit of salt as well. i have yet to have an issue with plants and the small amount of salt in the water. but cichlids and plants do not get along. i've tried it a couple times years ago. they eat plants lol.
 

Feb 27, 2009
4,395
0
36
#28
I have really considered that. The prob is I have really come to enjoy cichlids. Now I may be wrong here but I salt my cichlids tanks and its my understanding that salt will melt plants. I guess thats why I havn't done that yet.
There are salt-tolerant plants that can work with cichlids. The trouble with plants and cichlids is the digging they tend to do for those plants that are ok with their water. A friend of mine (I wish she would send me some photos and I could post them) does plants in terracotta pots in her cichlid tanks. The pots are about 1/2 full of substrate and then topped off with small rocks. At first, they'd dislodge some of the rocks, but eventually, all was left alone.
 

FishDad

Superstar Fish
Mar 4, 2012
1,218
1
38
Cleveland
#30
(I wish she would send me some photos and I could post them)
Me too!

I'll look into that. The 72 bow is going to be our attempt at some plants. Though we didn't dirt it, wish we had. The dwarf grass we planted is growing however. Problem is its hard to find decent plants in my area. Been looking on aquariumplants.com for a possible online order.
 

Feb 27, 2009
4,395
0
36
#31
Or you can check other forums for items for sale/trade. I got my first plants for my current 40gallon breader tank for $20, and that included shipping. I could not plant them all, and traded about 1/3 of them to my LFS for store credit.

When I did 8 tanks up in Iowa, I sold clippings to friends, just for the postage cost.

If you do a 'grab bag,' you will not be sure of what you get. You need to know a bit about plant structures (so you don't bury rhizome plants in the substrate, etc.), but its fun (to me) to see what you get. You won't have things individually labeled so you must do some research once they start growing to see what you ended up with, if you are curious.
 

exhumed07

Superstar Fish
Apr 30, 2006
1,774
0
36
Illinois
#33
aquaticjungles.com is a great plant site. i belive he is based in cleavland as well. u can watch his videos on plants and dirted tanks on youtube. it's under dustinsfishtanks. also on fishtanktv.com he gets some realy cool stuff in and he knows his crap lol. that is where i got all my info for doing a planted tank. and it's all low tech low cost growing. thats what i love. no ferts, no co2 to remember filling, u can get away with lower lighting then normal high tech tanks i have found out. it's something to look into. also pretty quick to do. i have taken down a tank, dirted, planted, and stocked within a few hours.