My next tank

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Enki

Aquarium Advice Freak
Joined
Nov 9, 2003
Messages
418
Location
Pattaya, Thailand
Hey folks. First off I want to say thanks to everyone for all the advice while I have been setting up my tank, first one in decades. Everything is going great so far. You can see my gallery for pix.

As many predicted, I have been infected with MTS. Not long after I got started, two of my friends decided they were done messing with fishtanks, and offered me their now empty tanks, a 10 and a 20 high.

Those are destined to be a QT(10) and a ngara fry grow out (20). I have been looking at a space in my computer/fish room that was almost big enough for the 50 gallon. It is sort of a closet with no doors.

I live in an old, <100years, house. Sort of farmhouse style. Built before anybody had the bright idea of built in closets. The c/f room has a added on little closet space in one corner about 47" wide x 24" deep x 6' tall . I want to put two levels of shelves in, bottom level for the 10 and the 20 and then for the top level I think a 40 gallon breeder, 36" wide x 18" deep x 16" high, would fit perfectly with room for a HOB.

I am thinking shell dwellers for the 40 gallon. I would like to do a shell dweller mix with L. ocellatus 'gold' and N. multifasciatus, but I cant find much info about mixing shellie species.

Anybody here already keep these spunky little guys? Any thoughts on the plan as a whole? This is all very much in planning stages, I want to really take my time on this project. I am happy with how my current tank turned out but I would have done a few things differently if i had found this site earlier :D
 
I guess this maybe should have been in FW getting started :oops:

Mods, feel free to move it :D

The plan has morphed, for the better!

I am going to go with the 50 that has the same footprint, ~ 36" x 18". it is just a few inches taller.

Current stock plan is for the ocellatus as the only shell dweller, different species of shellies don't get along so well according to the experts over on the cichlid forum. Some Cyprichromis leptosoma for the top and Yo-Yo loaches, my new favorite bottom feeder.

I was just recently turned on to the Cyprichromis, they are really pretty fish and hang out in the top parts of the tanks:

Cyp_utinta_07.jpg


I was also thinking I may try out a canister filter, there is this cool looking gizmo for the intake:

pw_790065.jpg


Output plumbing cant be too hard, right? I don't mind a discreet pipe coming in over the top some where.

Any words of advice?
 
No words of advice; just wanted to say that Cyprichromis is a lovely fish! Think I'm needing to do a little research on em; very pretty babies.
 
quick question for you enki...what filtration are you using on the tank that is featured on your website, and why did you decided to run the intake at the bottom right? just curious as i've never seen that done before...not a bad idea. i wonder if i could mod out an emperor 400 to spread to the left and right sides of a 55" long tank... :?:
 
Well, it came out of my natural inclination to improve (read overcomplicate) things, and my lack of research before I bought my equipment :/

I thought that if I had the water going out at one end and coming back in at the other, it would improve filtration. It works great, but I ended up putting a powerhead in with a sponge to move water around anyway, and improve surface agitation. I think if I had built an overflow box to go around the intake I would be happier with it. I have been thinking about how I could add one actually. :D

For my next tank I am going canister. It is much easier to do all the fun plumbing stuff I envision with a canister.
 
Does the fish above school? THose would look awesome going across the top of a tank in a school.
 
Here is where most of my knowledge on this species came from. They sound like fun. The ones I saw at the lfs were pretty, the females are a bit drab but nice in a silvery way.

I watched the ocellatus at the lfs for a while too. They are SO cool! Little orange finny bulldogs!

Checked the price on the 50, I guess the extra few inches requires thicker glass, thus thickening the price :( Sticking with the 40. Fluval 304 canister is looking pretty good right now too.

Gotta get these shelves built!
 
I really like the idea of mixing cyps with your shellies. I have heard many recommend against mixing shelldwellers, but many keep different species together, so who knows! I personally would not mix them, just to keep it simple.

What combination of males/females do you plan for the cyps? They might be a good choice for me to go in my 44 with my shellies, but my source in VA Beach gets a pretty big buck for them, so I am undecided.

I am a big fan of canister filters, since I don't like the equipment hanging on the back of the tank, and they require less maintenance, in general. I am running an Eheim 2215 on my 44, with a Penguin 330 supplemental.
 
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