The skull has returned!

[shawmutt]

Well, as some of you know, I have been having cichlid problems. To try and alleviate the problem, I have punished the alpha male by giving him a tank of his own . In doing so, I found that my jaguar skull from South America, which I had to take out of my tank when I changed from a S.A. black water tank to an African Lake Malawi tank, has magically turned into a lion skull from Africa!

He's in a 10 gallon tank, with a 1:3 mixture of aquarium pebbles and aragonite sand substrate. I put a few rocks from the old aquarium in the tank to kick-start the nitrogen cycle. Heater and airstone are conveniently hidden behind the fake rock decoration. I have a regular HOB filter. I'm thinking of moving the thermometer or getting a different type.

I'm going to see how he does for a couple weeks, and then may add another cave and an upside-down catfish. Here's a pic of the setup, I'll get better pics to put in my gallery at a later date:

By the way, if someone wants a sand substrate in a small fw tank, I wholly recommend buying aragonite from the lfs. I grumbled a bit, because Home Depot was actually out of playsand, and I had to spend $17 for 30# of aragonite from Petsmart. But when I got home, I was amazed. It's much easier to clean, and didn't cloud the water as much as the Home Depot play sand. If 30# or less is all that is needed for a sandy bottom, I recommend the aquarium sand.

 

[shawmutt]

Jeez, no comments?

Must have rendered everyone speechless

 

[alrmc4]

thanks for the memory of my days before green took over looks great

 

[MT79]

Get a floating hydrometer/thermometer, the kind that measure SG for SW tanks and put it in your HOB filter.(no digging to find it!) Costs like 6 bucks at petco. Or just throw the one you have now in the HOB.

 

[medge00]

Looks good!

I should probably know this, but does aragonite change the ph or hardness of your water at all?

 

[shawmutt]

Get a floating hydrometer/thermometer, the kind that measure SG for SW tanks and put it in your HOB filter

Good idea, thanks!

does aragonite change the ph or hardness of your water at all

If the water was very acidic, it would, but as the pH increases the substrate has less effect on the water. I definitely wouldn't recommend relying on it for the sole source of pH control. I use store bought ro water, which I make ready for the tank by dissolving salts and Proper pH 8.2. Some people have had luck using crushed coral for filter media. Chemically it would increase the hardness--one of the byproducts of the reaction between aragonite and an acid is salt, which is what is measured when we measure hardness with those little test kits. But, like the pH, the higher the hardness the less the sand will react to the water.

In a nutshell, the lower the pH and hardness, the more an aragonite substrate will affect the water parameters.

 

[Verse914]

cool setup. I like the ornament on the right best. Looks like a cocoon or hive or something