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BigRedsReefs10

Aquarium Advice Addict
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Dec 25, 2013
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Hi all, been a long time since I've been on the forums consistently. And it's also been a couple years since I've had a tank up and running and even longer since I've run a fw system. Well I've been getting that itch again recently and have decided to set up a tank or 2 in the waiting room of our shop. Thinking of either a pair of 20 longs or getting one of the center overflow 40b's out of storage. If I did the 2 20s I was thinking a tanganyikan tank with some shellies and an apisto tank on the other. Being as its been awhile since I've thought about stocking options I was hoping you guys could throw out some suggestions to start researching. Really want to keep it simple and don't want to have to do to much maintenance besides weekly wcs and testing. Thanks for the advice and I'm excited to jump back in.
 
Apistos pop for sure. The 40b you could get away with 3/4 m and a bunch of females. Set up a bunch of small clay pots with holes knocked out. In the other 20.long get a fleet of pea puffers and some amano shrimp. Cholla wood and java moss. That's a bi- weekly wc tank and the pea puffers are little water puppies.
 
Apistos pop for sure. The 40b you could get away with 3/4 m and a bunch of females. Set up a bunch of small clay pots with holes knocked out. In the other 20.long get a fleet of pea puffers and some amano shrimp. Cholla wood and java moss. That's a bi- weekly wc tank and the pea puffers are little water puppies.



In a 20 long how should the m/f ratio look for apistos? And any particular varieties you'd recommend checking out? I like the idea of the puffers too, I've always wanted to try them. I can feel the mts coming out of hibernation already....
 
A trio(mff) of apistos usually works in 20l. Sometimes you will end up with a pair.

Put pots/caves on the far sides of the tank to keep the females apart.
 
A trio(mff) of apistos usually works in 20l. Sometimes you will end up with a pair.

Put pots/caves on the far sides of the tank to keep the females apart.



I think that's gonna be the plan for one, thinking either cacatuoides, agazzi, or viejitas. Would a school of cardinals and cories work with them? Planning on making driftwood caves on either end of the tank with a nice piece of spider wood in the middle to break up sight lines between the ladies. Thinking some super easy plants like anubias and Java fern and maybe some Java moss.

For the other tank I'm kinda leaning towards tanganiyikans. Wanted to try (if possible) to set it up so that it's about 2/3 open sand for shellies and make a rock structure for the other 1/3 of the tank and add a small rock dweller/ more open water swimmer.
 
In a 20 long tang tank, no mid water swimmers will work. The Shellie's will torment them. I had good success with a goby cichlid (I had a spathodus sp. but there are 3 genera of them I believe.) have to have a good amount of rock on the one side!!! My multis were little jerks but I miss them so much. That 20 long was my favorite tank and regret ever trying to upgrade them to a 40b.
 
In a 20 long tang tank, no mid water swimmers will work. The Shellie's will torment them. I had good success with a goby cichlid (I had a spathodus sp. but there are 3 genera of them I believe.) have to have a good amount of rock on the one side!!! My multis were little jerks but I miss them so much. That 20 long was my favorite tank and regret ever trying to upgrade them to a 40b.


I loved my multis too when I had them, they were little nightmares though. I was thinking of going with either brevis or occelatus and one of the gobies. Or maybe do a trio of shellies and more rock work and go with a pair of banded julies if you think that may work.

In other news I stopped by the lfs and got a couple pieces of driftwood for the apisto tank. Got a nice piece of spider wood and another piece that will make a nice natural cave. What kind of rocks would be OK to use in an apisto tank? And what are some good low light plant options? Was thinking of doing some Java fern and moss and some anubias, any other suggestions? This is also going to be my first attempt at a fw aquascape so any tips on that would be greatly appreciated too
 
I loved my multis too when I had them, they were little nightmares though. I was thinking of going with either brevis or occelatus and one of the gobies. Or maybe do a trio of shellies and more rock work and go with a pair of banded julies if you think that may work.

In other news I stopped by the lfs and got a couple pieces of driftwood for the apisto tank. Got a nice piece of spider wood and another piece that will make a nice natural cave. What kind of rocks would be OK to use in an apisto tank? And what are some good low light plant options? Was thinking of doing some Java fern and moss and some anubias, any other suggestions? This is also going to be my first attempt at a fw aquascape so any tips on that would be greatly appreciated too
All sounds good, i like my lace rock for dwarf cichlids, it's almost like coral rock in that it has all kinds of cracks and crevices. Clay pots with holes knocked out and coconut husks are good too. I'd say easy plants. I can't prove it but the apisto I've kept didn't seem to like the high tech tanks. Probably a combo of intense lighting and ferts? Subdued lighting with a slightly tinted water from dw or almond leaves, the leaf litter on the bottom is also classic. Crypts are good for rooted plants. They don't seen to mind sand, just throw a few root tabs around the root structure to keep them happy.
 
All sounds good, i like my lace rock for dwarf cichlids, it's almost like coral rock in that it has all kinds of cracks and crevices. Clay pots with holes knocked out and coconut husks are good too. I'd say easy plants. I can't prove it but the apisto I've kept didn't seem to like the high tech tanks. Probably a combo of intense lighting and ferts? Subdued lighting with a slightly tinted water from dw or almond leaves, the leaf litter on the bottom is also classic. Crypts are good for rooted plants. They don't seen to mind sand, just throw a few root tabs around the root structure to keep them happy.



Nice, I like the look of that lace rock, almost grabbed a couple pieces last night but I was worried about it messing with the ph to much. I'll grab a few pieces when I check out the new dw shipment this weekend. What's the best way to attach miss to the stone and wood, can I use loctite gel like I do with coral? And what do you think about cories with apistos brook? I've read they're ok with smaller tetras and rasboras but haven't really seen anything about bottom dwellers with them.
 
Nice, I like the look of that lace rock, almost grabbed a couple pieces last night but I was worried about it messing with the ph to much. I'll grab a few pieces when I check out the new dw shipment this weekend. What's the best way to attach miss to the stone and wood, can I use loctite gel like I do with coral? And what do you think about cories with apistos brook? I've read they're ok with smaller tetras and rasboras but haven't really seen anything about bottom dwellers with them.
I've heard it raises ph? Hasn't seemed to play out in my tanks. Maybe 1lb./gallon would have a different outcome?? I've used zip.ties in the past, now that I've played with the loctite gel I'd think that would work well. The corys and tetras will work, they may harass the females in spawn. Makes for an exciting tank imo, can stress females. Creating intriquite cave systems with the lace rock helps, male will guard and female will have ample space to swim with her brood. I like dwarf corys like habrossus and smaller tetras like ember or green neons. The larger corys can literally plow through smaller female apistos. Celestial pearl danios are pretty docile but can be hidey and scary.
 
I've heard it raises ph? Hasn't seemed to play out in my tanks. Maybe 1lb./gallon would have a different outcome?? I've used zip.ties in the past, now that I've played with the loctite gel I'd think that would work well. The corys and tetras will work, they may harass the females in spawn. Makes for an exciting tank imo, can stress females. Creating intriquite cave systems with the lace rock helps, male will guard and female will have ample space to swim with her brood. I like dwarf corys like habrossus and smaller tetras like ember or green neons. The larger corys can literally plow through smaller female apistos. Celestial pearl danios are pretty docile but can be hidey and scary.



I like the look of the harborus, I think they're a winner. Really want to try cpds but I've read they can be tricky, might have to just go for it. I'm thinking the rock and driftwood should cancel each other out ph wise and am going to stop thinking about it. Haven't chased oh in years. Thanks for the help brooks
 
And the best thing about the habrosus, they're very active, you can get a bigger troop and they seem to be hardy. I have a group that has to be almost 5 years old.
 
And the best thing about the habrosus, they're very active, you can get a bigger troop and they seem to be hardy. I have a group that has to be almost 5 years old.



Nice, they're officially on the list. Now just gotta decide what school to add and this ones pretty much ready to build. Going to check out the new dw and pick up a few rocks from the lfs tomorrow so I can start making some practice scapes.
 
So what's everyone using to post pics these days? Photobucket isn't letting me use the img links and I used up my forum share long ago
 
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