ph question and more

[janlo]

yeah it took me all day to do that. It wasnt planified to tare down my whole tank, but yesterday when i saw this driftwood, i coulnt resist to have it. After that when i was reascaping, i decided to tare it down cause it was much easier to try some new designs, and to put the sand etc, also for catching the fishes.

For the rocks i bought 28 lbs of rocks ( dont remember the name... it has small cavities in it, it will be great for the fry) So i think i have enough?. But what im certainly lacking of is caves for the fishes. Anyway i still have some petrified wood left from my old design, so i can arrange something.
Co2: yes ill continue to use it. I dont know about my lightning though, since almost half of the plants are missing now.

I used aragonite in the front (ph is not changing much), and keeped my old gravel in the back, ive created a terrace with the rocks and the driftwood, so the substrate at the back of my tank is elevated.
I didnt pay too much attention for the designs of the plants, i was getting tired at the end of the day...i guess ill wait to see what my tank will look like after some growth, if not ill rearange that... its still in progress.

the water is still cloudy, ill give it a few hours ...

 

[Orion]

What Ph is the tank going to stabilize at? You said that the tap water was 7.6, so how much lower is the Co2 causing it to drop?

I'm guessing the type of rock you bought may be holey rock? Mabey not if its the rock I see under the drift wood. The more caves you can create the better off you are going to be. I know I keep preaching on this, but it is important. I would say by now I've just about got it drilled into your head.

I've never used aragonite or any other Ph altering gravel, but I would say that it may take it a little while before it would affect the ph much. I dont know, I may be way off on that. As for the lighting, with continued Co2 injection it could be very possible for algae to gain a good foot hold in your tank. I would just be very carefull not to overfeed untill the plants seem to be growing good. I really don't think that you will have much problem with that though.

I can't wait to see the finished result!

 

[janlo]

well my tap water is 7.6, and its the same without or with co2 in my tank.
We tested the ph last night with a different test kit..still7.6. Seems that my water is verry stable. I'll test it again in the days to come just to be sure.

Dont know about the hardness though, i guess it has changed with the aragonite.

ok the for tthe caves: ill create more.

 

[Orion]

wow, if it doesn't change with the addition of Co2, your either not adding that much, or your water is hard as a rock! lol No problems either way. Sounds good to go.

 

[NoDeltaH2O]

it seems to me that if you are adding any decent amount of CO2, then the pH must change.

 

[Orion]

Depending on the alkalikity of the water. If it has a very high reading, then its going to take a whole lot of acid to start to affect the PH. And if frequent water changes are done, then that just helps keep the alkalinity up . (I would guess that they were, as that tank looked to be very well maintained)

 

[janlo]

i have 2 hagen nutrafin ladder system for 53 gal, with 20%, 25% water change each week

 

[janlo]

here we go

so what kind of fishes do you see in it?

 

[Orion]

I don't know about what fish I see, but I see a nice rock pile on the right side in the back. And no, this isn't related to the preaching of rock piles and teritories I mentioned earlier, but I just think that a rock pile would be a nice contrast to the wooded/planted area on the left side.

Tank looks wonderfull. As for the fish, what have you thought about? Any plans changed?

 

[janlo]

well i hesitated beetween Brichardi and Leulepi, and i chose Leulepi for the colors.

Well the truth is that i just dont know what would be the perfect mix with them... Theres so much possibilities!

I dont know what to choose: open water fishes like leptomosa, or shell dwellers, and last night i found out about gobies: http://www.cichlid-forum.com/articles/gobies.php
Or even Calvus or Compriceps... even if they dont look verry beautiful, they kinda look cool.
When i went to another LFS i found out that they had tons of cichilds that my regular lfs didnt had... too much choice!
Sometimes i'm even thinking about Mbunas, but then i think about my plants and i fear for them.

 

[Cichlid-Man]

I wouldn't add or take away anything from that personally. I like the open area on the right, kinda like an edge of the woods feel.

Looks awesome, i like this setup better than your old one.

 

[janlo]

thanx
its still and always be in progress though...
But once ill get the cichilds ill have to be carefull to not disturb their territories.
The plants are looking weird right now because they have been transplanted, they are lacking the dense bush look right now. in 2 weeks it will look better, they ll adapt themselfes to their new environment.

 

[janlo]

hey can i mix yellow labs with tangs¿ with like leulepi and julies?
its like the only mbuna specie that isnt herbivore, so i thought it could be interesting. I know purists wont mix the lakes togheter...

also: if you had to choose beetween calvus and shell dwellers... what would be your choice¿ cause they cant go in the same tank...and will the shell dweller dig the sand all over the place¿

 

[Cichlid-Man]

Yes i think it would be possible.

Calvus vs Shellies.....HARD choice. They both will dig, no doubt about it. I'd seriously not know which i'd choose....hard choice.

 

[janlo]

ok lets start with this

a pair of Leulepi (since they cant tolerate more)
1 july specie ( how much? can i put more than one pair?)
+ yellow lab ( only one? or more?)
+ calvus or shellies or leptomosa

sounds ok or am i dreaming?

 

[janlo]

ok well i bought 4 leulepi, 3 julei marilieri, 1 yellow lab

wanted to say thank you to all of you who gave me some tips for my new set up, especially Orion!

 

[Orion]

Sorry, not been around a lot the past couple of days.

Your mix does not sound too bad for now. How big are all of the fish you bought? I think the leleupi will be ok, but you may run into some problems down the road with the three julies. Most are pair breeders, and if you get a pair from the three, then its going to be odd man out for one and it could likley be the brunt of some aggression from the other two. But this is not set in stone. Seems like julies tend to do there own thing sometimes and will break what is known as the 'rule'. You may be fine, but its worth knowing so you can be on the look out for.

I've never kept yellow labs before, but as with most mbuna, they are not as tied to a specific teritory as most of the Tanganyikan cichlids are. I don't think you are going to run into a problem with just the one in your tank, as I would say that there could be enough teritory to go around for a while anyway.

 

[janlo]

yes i ll check for the leulepis and julies as they grow older and will be pairing for a couple. Then ill pull out the left ones.
They are all young fishes, not babies, id say teenagers. I dont think they are ready for breeding and stuff.
the yellow lab is bigger though. I think its a young adult, but he will grow more. He seems to swim everywhere like you said. No problems untill now. He seems to like to pick sand in his mouth though, but nothing serious. I dont think he will harm any plants... crossing fingers
Im planning to buy Leptomosa( 4) verry soon too!