Silvering

I've probably referred to this other tank occasionally in Planted by Accident - but today I actually made a plant purchase specifically for this aquarium. On purpose. Plant-eating, substrate-digging mbuna and all. So I suppose this one isn't an accident! I must be NUTS. And it's all y'all's fault. I don't know if this tank is ever going to be "pretty" - it would take some serious engineering to split my CO2 output and run a line across half the perimeter of the house! I'd have to route it through the kitchen and around a counter peninsula!

This is a 75 gallon African cichlid tank - current inhabitants include acei, rusties, red zebras, saulosi, a BN pleco and a flying fox. Please excuse the red zebra currently in protective custody: all the other red zebras hate that one with undying passion, so I have to isolate it until I figure out exactly what to do with it! The swords are escapees from the 55 - the corkscrew vals are the new purchase. Somewhere in there is a little java fern, but I can't seem to keep that one wedged down anywhere and I can't get any of the rocks out and glue it to one of them because I have a bunch of fry hiding in all the crevices right now.

The lights on this one consist of two "stock" 4' light strips on a 10-hr timer - one of them is ODNO T8 (the one currently lit; the other one wasn't on at the time this photo was taken). I took out the old T12 ballast and rewired it myself this afternoon. Hopefully my house won't burn down due to bad wiring or anything. The substrate is aragonite. I've been using root tabs for the swords; once the vals have a chance to settle in (and if they stay in the same spots - I tried to place them in corners out of the active digging zone) I'll give them some root tabs too, maybe dose traces if needed. I have too much BBA in this tank and I'm planning to step up water changes to both help combat it and drop the nitrates for the fry's sake (they were between 10 and 20 ppm on my last test kit run). I'd put some fast-growing stem plants in there except every time I try that, it turns into this!


They definitely munch on the swords a bit as well, haven't seen anybody take a bite out of the vals yet, but I'm sure they will eventually.

DonaldmBoyer

Lol!!!!

Silvering

I changed the stock list a bit, swapped fish around and added some java fern variants.

YouTube Video

Michael

Good luck with the plants! I like African cichlids, but I hate the tanks most people keep them in. The fashion here in Texas is our chalky white limestone "holey rock" and jet black sand. Just when the stark white of the limestone is toned down a little by some algae, they take it out and power-wash it!

BTW, you don't have to take the rocks out to glue Java fern to them. Dry the rhizome with a towel to get the excess moisture off, put a dolop of gel-type super glue on it, and press it onto the submerged rock. Hold it for about a minute, and it will usually stay put.

Silvering

The African mbuna do present quite the design challenge, with their need for rockwork! I have to say I spent a ridiculous amount of money at a landscaping place just to get something other than the impossible-to-work-with river jack stones most people use. I'm stuck in the Piedmont region and all the rocks around are a crumbly red mess not suitable for aquarium use, or located in some park or other where I'd get into hot water for collecting!

I'll have to remember that tip about the superglue, I've been using small pebbles, which lets me move the plants around if I need to. Still working on placement on the right side of the tank.