Planted Rift Lake Tank

[scottseattle]

Hi All, I'm going to try and merge 2 of my tanks, Rift Lake, and Planted. Any thoughts in general? My primary question is on substrate. The rift tank has a soil that is designed to buffer the tank for rift tanks and is comprised of shells and other such things (sorry can't rember exactly what it is). The plant tank has the flourite. I'd like to do some planting in the soil with crypts, but will mostly be using Anubius' and java fern. So i'm thinking a 50/50 mix of the 2 substrates. I think this is a pipe dream overall, as the mbuna's will just chew on everything, but they may go.

Thanks
Scott

 

[malkore]

the plan in general is doable. I have no experiene with the soil you speak of...is it carib sea's Cichlid substrate?

 

[JDogg]

you will need plants with tough leaves to resist the fish... i think a 50/50 mix of the substrate will be a good plan...

 

[Thebluyak]

depends if ur fish are plant eaters, My malawi cichlids didnt bother my plants when I had them so ever fish is different. You could get some that just like to dig up plants to be a pain in ur butt

 

[maxwell1295]

2 words...

Travis Simonson

 

[scottseattle]

planted rift tank

Thanks for the Travis link, that's amazing. I think what I might do, is more of the flourite, maybe a sack of or a tray in my filter (ehiem) of the ph alk buffer for water treatment. I don't test, I don't take out dead fish, I really just kind of let things go, and clean around them. I've got a mbuna mix breed, breeding colony, that really don't eat plants, as long as I feed them. My other thought, is that the rift lake chiclids are really quite adapting to conditions, and should adjust to a more plant centric tank easily. Now my real reason for doing this is I'm breaking down the plant tank, but it has finally started to get some wood with java, and anubias growing out, and that I love.

Thanks
Scott