New Tanganyika-75 Gallon Comments & Suggestions Please

[tripper]

I am going to set up a new tank with Tanganyikans.

Tank information:
75 Gallons
Wet Dry Filter
Sand/Crushed Coral Substrate
Powerhead to increase water circulation
Homemade Cave System

Planned Fish
4 Altolamprologus compressiceps (goldhead)
4 Chalinochromis brichardi (mask cichlid)
4 Cyprichromis leptosoma
4 Julidochromis marlieri (Burundi)
4 Neolamprologus brichardi (Daffodil)
5 Lamprologus sp. (Shelldwellers)
3 Synodontis petricolus (pygmy catfish)

The plan is to add 1.5" juveniles and grow them until sex can be determined. After that and observing their behaviour, I will try to keep male/female pairs, with the exception being m/ff trios with Cyprichromis and a mm/fff (hopefully) group of shell dwellers.

I have a 30 gallon tank also to house excess/troublesome fish.

Thanks for your feedback.

 

[Managuense]

hmm.... sounds good for the most part, but you want some advice right?

i ABHOR crushed coral.... it is a pain in the butt to keep clean, and the jagged little edges bother me. plus, the so-called "buffering" capacity of substrates is far over-rated IMO. unless your kh is REALLY low you will probably not notice any changes in your water chemistry.

and to boot-- if your water is dissolving your substrate to a "noticable" (large might be a better term) extent i would think that you have serious water problems!

i would just stick with silica sand and call it a day.

the fish you have selected sound great, but are you going to risk the comps with the shellies?

i admit that i have done this, but the comps were VERY small and i ended up stripping the tank before they got any decent size, which takes a long long time.
HTH
M

 

[wayne]

Looks fine - I'd get tropheus though

 

[SoulFish]

I see a few problems with this, first you should get more cyps, get a group of 12 or more with 2-3 males, i would also get more petricola and drop either the comps or the shelldwellers as the comps will make a nice snack of them when they get older, other then that seems ok

 

[TaffyFish]

agree with SoulFish on the cyps, get 12 , 3m (one learns not to disagree with SoulFish because he's usually right.)

Don't agree with managuense on crushed coral entriely though he's right about it being a poor strategy for coping with buffering problems - if it's your only strategy that is. Personally I like to mix sand, crushed coral and aquarium gravel which looks great with the sort of rockwork and backgrounds that I have.....and there's the rub. To my mind the substrate has to look credible with the rockwork - if you've got black or green slate with bright white crushed coral it doesn't look right.....though there's no accounting for taste in this hobby!
I guess it depends on where you draw the line in the biotope issue.

 

[Managuense]

(one learns not to disagree with SoulFish because he's usually right.)

suck up! j/k

nah, soul and i disagree on a few issues, but not the majority of them.
M

 

[SoulFish]

i would use all sand, then use a mix of 1 tblspoon instant ocean, 1 tblspoon epsom salt, and 1 teaspoon baking soda per 5 gallons, just add that in in the beginning and add in as much water as you replace during water changes, this will buffer the water fine if you have soft water.

 

[Managuense]

i prefer the more natural look you can get by using large "roundish" rocks like granite in rift lake tanks.

there are so many tanks you see with nothing but slate rock stacked from bottom-to-top and i think it is just an eye sore.

just my opinion though, some people like it.
M

 

[steve535]

try limestone instead of granite or slate.it has soft edges and its a good buffer.if you dont want crushed coral as your sub, filter over it.i also like the multipunctatus over the petricoius.