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Aquarium Advice Freak
Hi guys, as I posted a few weeks ago I had my tank for sale and then I decided to give it a try and go from African Cichlids to an Amazion Basin biotope, since I've always liked oddballs and monster fish. I know my 120 (60x18x26 with 30 gallon wet/dry sump and corner overflows) will need to be upgraded soon, and I'm thinking on getting a 300 gallon tank (or bigger, maybe even 450) when I move.
I wanted to have some live plants so I decided to go with mineralized topsoil with a thick layer of pool filter sand on top. The plants I have so far are a few Amazon Swords and some Amazon Frogbits, It's been about 2 weeks and I have not seen a real difference in the plants, except that some leaves have died, and one of the plants might be growing, but I'm not sure.
I'm also looking for a nice, big piece of wood for the tank, something as similar to what would be found on the Amazon basin as possible, within reason, of course, so if you guys know where to buy online or where to get it in South Florida I would appreciate your help.
With that said, on Saturday 16th I got my first two fish, a 5.5" Silver Arowana and a 5" Black Ghost Knife Fish. I'm feeding them Hikari Jumbo Carnisticks (broken into pieces) and Hikari Frozen Bloodworms. The arowana now tends to like more the Carnisticks than the bloodworms and the BGK scans the tank for left overs when the lights go out, which most of the time happen to be bloodworms. I also have some Hikari Cichlid Excel sinking pellets from my Africans but I don't like feeding it to the Aro because I want to get her use to feeding off the top, to at least try to prevent dropeye, which I know it might not work. Please feel free to make any suggestions as far as how/what to feed them. I'm feeding them twice a day, but the BGK only eats when he goes out at night, so if there are no leftovers he won't find anything to eat, I'm trying to resolve this by turning off the lights earlier than the time I go to bed and feed them then.
Lastly, last night I got a very nice 9" L330 Pleco (Spotted Royal Pleco/Watermelon Pleco) and I got him a few pieces of driftwood so he can chew on as well as a cave form him to hide, which I think needs to be bigger. I also bought Algae Wafers to feed him, but he seemed to ignore it when fed. The only problem I'm having right now is that when I woke up this morning the water was super cloudy, and it is from the Pleco who has move the sand and uprooted the plants and who know if he got the topsoil on top of the sand, I don't know because the water was so cloudy that I couldn't see much inside the tank. This is not an ammonia spike, it's just the pleco playing with the sand. Is there anything I can do to prevent or reduce this? He was super hyper last night, even when the lights were on. Maybe more hiding spots? Maybe he was hungry? I'm not sure. Suggestions welcomed, as always.
Please see the pictures below with the progress, and I will keep adding pics as I continue with the project.
My possible future stock list: Red or Orange Pike Cichlid (Xingu I or Atabapo I), 3 or 4 Amazon Puffers, Amazon Leaf Fish, Silver Dollars, Red Hooks, Tigrinus Catfish, ??? Please note that I'm NOT saying that I will add ALL of these fish, these are just some of the fish I have in mind and I will have to do further research and see which ones and how many are compatible, etc., etc.
I wanted to have some live plants so I decided to go with mineralized topsoil with a thick layer of pool filter sand on top. The plants I have so far are a few Amazon Swords and some Amazon Frogbits, It's been about 2 weeks and I have not seen a real difference in the plants, except that some leaves have died, and one of the plants might be growing, but I'm not sure.
I'm also looking for a nice, big piece of wood for the tank, something as similar to what would be found on the Amazon basin as possible, within reason, of course, so if you guys know where to buy online or where to get it in South Florida I would appreciate your help.
With that said, on Saturday 16th I got my first two fish, a 5.5" Silver Arowana and a 5" Black Ghost Knife Fish. I'm feeding them Hikari Jumbo Carnisticks (broken into pieces) and Hikari Frozen Bloodworms. The arowana now tends to like more the Carnisticks than the bloodworms and the BGK scans the tank for left overs when the lights go out, which most of the time happen to be bloodworms. I also have some Hikari Cichlid Excel sinking pellets from my Africans but I don't like feeding it to the Aro because I want to get her use to feeding off the top, to at least try to prevent dropeye, which I know it might not work. Please feel free to make any suggestions as far as how/what to feed them. I'm feeding them twice a day, but the BGK only eats when he goes out at night, so if there are no leftovers he won't find anything to eat, I'm trying to resolve this by turning off the lights earlier than the time I go to bed and feed them then.
Lastly, last night I got a very nice 9" L330 Pleco (Spotted Royal Pleco/Watermelon Pleco) and I got him a few pieces of driftwood so he can chew on as well as a cave form him to hide, which I think needs to be bigger. I also bought Algae Wafers to feed him, but he seemed to ignore it when fed. The only problem I'm having right now is that when I woke up this morning the water was super cloudy, and it is from the Pleco who has move the sand and uprooted the plants and who know if he got the topsoil on top of the sand, I don't know because the water was so cloudy that I couldn't see much inside the tank. This is not an ammonia spike, it's just the pleco playing with the sand. Is there anything I can do to prevent or reduce this? He was super hyper last night, even when the lights were on. Maybe more hiding spots? Maybe he was hungry? I'm not sure. Suggestions welcomed, as always.
Please see the pictures below with the progress, and I will keep adding pics as I continue with the project.
My possible future stock list: Red or Orange Pike Cichlid (Xingu I or Atabapo I), 3 or 4 Amazon Puffers, Amazon Leaf Fish, Silver Dollars, Red Hooks, Tigrinus Catfish, ??? Please note that I'm NOT saying that I will add ALL of these fish, these are just some of the fish I have in mind and I will have to do further research and see which ones and how many are compatible, etc., etc.