custum set up???

[donle]

so i've been doing a lot of reading about these concreted styrafoam aquarium backgrounds..i have a few questions..even with the foam concreted will the heater still melt the foam? 2 do you think it's possible to run holes in sections and hook up the air pump to it as to use the background as sort of it's own air stone?.....one more question...what's a good bottom feeder or algae eater to put in with african cichlids?

 

[ryanoh]

I doubt the heater will melt the styrofoam even if it was touching it directly. It'll get up to what, 85 at the most? It's hotter than that outside sometimes and foam doesn't melt. The airstone thing should work. I was planning on doing this with mine but me making the background never panned out.

 

[Dylandrewsdad]

Depends on how big the tank is. The smaller Pleco's-Bristle noise or clown would be fine in anything, the larger tanks-maybe 90 or bigger you could use even a common pleco. They can get 18-24 inches however.

 

[misterking]

one more question...what's a good bottom feeder or algae eater to put in with african cichlids?

How big's the tank?

Quite a few hardy plecos would work.. so it really depends on the size of your tank.

 

[aakaakaak]

Small tank: Bristlenose or rubber lip/bulldog (IMO clowns are clowns and don't screw with algae)

BEEEEEG TAAAANK: Most other plecos.

 

[donle]

tank is a 55 g.

 

[bassbonediva]

I honestly would recommend nothing bigger than a bristlenose pleco for a 55gal. So, basically no pleco that exceeds 5-6" full-grown.

 

[Dylandrewsdad]

Aak is right....clowns are clowns and stay away from algae...I got me a school of Otos!

 

[lstorns]

I like those otos also. But Im a fan of more smaller fish rather than a few choice big ones. the otos and the bristle nose both eat algae and left over food. can't go wrong with either. when I had my bristle nose m son named him sticky and now any algae eater is a sticky.lol

 

[misterking]

I like those otos also. But Im a fan of more smaller fish rather than a few choice big ones. the otos and the bristle nose both eat algae and left over food. can't go wrong with either. when I had my bristle nose m son named him sticky and now any algae eater is a sticky.lol

Otos really wouldn't work with africans.. they're too delicate and wouldn't be able to survive the pH and hardness required by africans. A couple of BN plecos would be a great choice here.