40g West African Predator Tank - Update Dec2

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Update: first dirted tank has been set up 5 days now...here are my params:

pH - 7.0
dKH - 4
dGH - 5

Ammo - 0.25ppm
Trite - 0.1ppm
Trate - 1ppm

Realistically, due to inaccuracy, those could all be closer to 0 or 0 exactly. I have soil, with a few bit of plant mulm, some old tank water and detritus for cycling. Added a bit of fish food today...

So is the tank not cycling, or is the bacterial in the soil processing the Ammo and the few bits of Duck weed (oops) processing the Trate? I hate stalled cycles!

[wrm130]

My dirt tanks have all cycled themselves....I've gotten all sorts of weird readings as they sort themselves out.  I've never had to use food or live fish to get things going.

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WHAT YOU KNOW ABOUT BACTERIA!

[Peekay]

That stuff is normal on new wood.  You can pull off the ugliest chunks, and over time this will self correct.  No need to 'do' anything. 

[robt18]

More water flow will also prevent the fuzzy grossness. ^^ Try throwing a powerhead in, as nice as it is for things to take care of themselves over time, I always want it fixed now

[dbl_dbl]

Oh I've seen it many times before, this is just one of the more impressive blooms I've experienced lol. My girlfriends calls my tank the "science experiment" now. Thanks for the heads up tho Rob, I didn't realize flow effected it so I may go that route once I get the ball rolling.

[wrm130]

Flow affects it and it can affect flow.

Long story short.  New driftwood went into a tank the day before leaving on holidays for 5 days.  Came back to barely a trickle coming out of an aquaclear 20 running on max.  The grossness, as it let go, completely clogged the coarse blue sponge.  And continued to do so for weeks afterwards.

I now leave new driftwood in my shrimp tank.  I've yet to see a speck of this grossness doing it this way.  Its an option:) If you have shrimp.  And once your tank is cycled.

[wrm130]

updates?

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Nov 23rd Update:

Fauna
1x Ctenopoma acutirostre (African Bush Fish/Leopard Ctenopoma)
1x Pantodon bucholzi (African Butterfly Fish)
7x Asst Platies and Mollies (canaries post cycle, fry factories, will be removed soon)
Asst Snails

Will eventually be adding 9-12 Synodontis nigriventris (Upside-down Catfish). The one's at work are looking a bit under the weather so I'm going to hold off for now.













Everything is growing and happy for now, so I'm happy. And yes, the tannins are there on purpose!

The Bushfish spends most of his time in the various caves, comes out a lot when I turn off the main lights. The Butterfly spends most of his time hiding out under the salvinia and frogbit (thanks to the member who gave me a bit back at the sponser meet up a few months back!).

I built all those caves like that in hopes of creating a suitable habitat for the Upside-down cats. I've read they love shaded overhangs so I made them a bunch. The leaves I just added today just to see how I like the look. I thought it might give the cats some protection from the gravel as I read they scratch easily?

Anyways it won't win any beauty contests but it's practical and a lot of fun to watch!

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Couple notes: this salvinia (thanks to wrm for sharing!) is quite crazy. Some rotted because they were in the corners but for the most part, it multiplies like crazy!!! I had to removed 2 net fulls. I started off with maybe 6'' square inches in area, and it expanded out another 6-8'' over 2 weeks.

Lighting is 2x39w T5HO + a supplemental 24'' T5NO strip that I leave on a little longer to watch their "dusk" activity.

Have had some trouble getting the Bushfish to eat prepared food, probably because the platies are intimidating to him at that size, but he takes fry. Hopefully when I take them out he will cheer up. Butterfly eats flake, pellet, blood worm and fry readily. I made sure to feed them at work and take the one with the biggest appetite for prepared.

[wrm130]

Tanks looking really cool man!!!

Where'd you get the leaves?  Nice touch.  Your plants seem to be loving the dirt too.

The Wood on the left cleared up nicely too.  Did it have any help or was it purely the added circulation?

Looking forward to more pictorial updates!!!  Especially the butterfly:)

Curious, what are your kh/ph readings now?  And how often/much are you doing w/c's?

[sas]

I really like this as well,
always loved the tannin look. Interesting fish can't wait to see this
project evolve.
I'm waiting for some alder cones from a fellow hobbyist, I've used the oak leaves in the
past as well but wanted to try something different.

[76brian]

Awesome choice of fish, I love the leaf litter and tannin look too. Great tank!

[dbl_dbl]

thanks guys. it's a fun tank to watch.

Added some Synodontis nigriventris today. such a great fish.

[fischkopp]

That's a very interesting setup indeed. The beauty of it lays in the devotion of creating an environment for the fish that will spark their most natural behavior. I think you were very successful achieving just that and I am sure the fish will show that as well.

I kept some Nanachromis a while back and found them quite interesting in their behavior, much different then Apistogramma. Maybe that would be a nice addition to your tank as well, but they are difficult to find.

Hope you keep us up to date with regular updates.

[dbl_dbl]

Update:

Slowly removing the Livebearers as i find homes for them. Took a few Platies out (the breeding ones) and put them in a different setup as a food farm, moved my two Golden Panchax over to see how they would do in a larger setup. Will probably remove them eventually for a different setup. Will likely move them once I bring in a few more Bushfish for this setup, or I may find some African Killies. The Indian Killies will give me an idea as to how the Butterfly reacts to competition.

The Ctenopoma "Bushfish" was found a few days ago in very bad shape. Not 100% sure what the problem was, but I think it was partially due to the stress from adding the new fish. Water params all remained in line. Anyways, I put him in a smaller tank with some Threadfin Rainbows to see if he would recover. Been target feeding him with an eye dropper and brine shrimp. As of today he is much healthier and comes out to eat with the other fish. I think I will leave him in there another week, maybe two.

Current stock list:

1x Pantodon bucholzi
2x Aplocheilus lineatus
12x Synodontis nigriventris
A couple Mollies and Platies (temp)

I removed about a square foot worth of Salvania today too in case it was shading my other plants, much to the dismay of my Butterfly.




Panchax


Above water:


and below water:


Synodontis nigriventris out to feed

[dbl_dbl]

That's a very interesting setup indeed. The beauty of it lays in the devotion of creating an environment for the fish that will spark their most natural behavior. I think you were very successful achieving just that and I am sure the fish will show that as well.

I kept some Nanachromis a while back and found them quite interesting in their behavior, much different then Apistogramma. Maybe that would be a nice addition to your tank as well, but they are difficult to find.

Hope you keep us up to date with regular updates.

Thanks, and Nannochromis would be awesome. I'm considering Nannochromis or Pelviachromis. Not sure yet. May wait until I set up the 75g.

[wrm130]

updates?

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Have a small update, stocking list has changed a lot. I've tried my best to keep all fish from the same general area and habitat.

New stocking list:

12 x Upsidedown Catfish (Synodontis nigriventris)
5 x African Dwarf Butterfly Cichlid (Anomalochromis thomasi)
1 x Teleogramma brichardi
1 x Red Kribensis (Pelviachromis pulcher)
1 x Ctenopoma acutirostre

Just tonight I finally trimmed everything way back, restructured the wood and did a bit of scaping. Will be setting up a larger tank sometime in March and I plan on moving all of these guys into there.