55 Gallon African Tank

[jkarlson]

Hello all!

I'm new to the site and new to cichlids, so I thought I'd start a journal of my new experience.

Here's a little about my tank.

1. 55 Gallon, 48" X 13" X 21".
2. Led lighting. Day Light along with 3 blue LED "night lights"
3. Biowheel 150 along with a second internal filter with 2 outlets.

This tank has been running as is for a couple months. The current fish in there are a Spotted African Leaf Fish, 3 Ghost Catfish(who have recently started to come to the front, and play around), 1 Hi-Fin Pleco, 4 Snails, and a Rosy Barb(They sold it to me as a Rosy Barb, but I have my doubts).


I have yet to get the rocks, decorations, plants(I know Cichlids eat/tear up the plants, but I'm going to try Vallisneria and Anubis to see how it goes), substrate, and most importantly the fish.

I plan on going to the LFS later today and look at rocks, and decorations and such. I'll put some pictures up if I get anything!

 

[Judgejudy]

If you could post a picture of the suspected rosy barb maybe we could tell you wether it was or wasnt.

By the way welcome to the forum

 

[jkarlson]

Thanks! I'll post pictures later tonight. Have to see if I can even find my camera haha.

 

[jkarlson]

I'm not completely sure how to upload pictures so here we go....


http/s1049.photobucket.com/albums/s396/jkarlson/?action=view&current=125.jpg

Well I tried using a code like I'd use on any other forum and it tells me I'm not allowed to use it.


So is this a Rosy Barb?

 

[jkarlson]

Tried again, and failed.

 

[jkarlson]

Success!

 

[Judgejudy]

Yes, i think that is a rosy barb

 

[jkarlson]

I wasn't completely sure but I've read that they redden as they mature. The red's starting to come out in her tail. Thanks Judgejudy!

 

[jkarlson]

Aragonite sand has been ordered! A bit pricey, but worth every penny. Also picked up some rock and fake driftwood. It looks real enough so I'm happy with it. I'd go with real driftwood but I'm not a fan of the soaking, and rotting. I'll have some pictures up later or tommorow!

 

[jkarlson]

I don't get how you guys take such good focused pictures! Mine keep turning out dark and unfocused and makes me not want to post any on here haha. I've spent most of my night reading the Species Index on this website, and also looking/researching fish. I keep wavering back and forth between a Malawi and a Tang set-up(I really don't suggest going on online fish stores and browsing because they might make you change your mind about what you want! Haha trust me it happened!) I think I may mull which set-up I want more over the next week and finally decide. Either way I will be one happy fish owner

.

I also want to try and upgrade my camera and then MAYBE I can take decent enough photos to post

.

 

[Alm0stAwesome]

lol, there is a trick to getting clear pictures and really you just need to play around with your manual settings in your camera until you find what works.

Here's a few tips for what works for me:

1. Get the room the tank is in as dark as possible so that you don't have any reflections.
2. Turn off your flash. This is a personal preference, many people use the flash and get great pictures of their fish but turning it off is nicer to the fish and also removes the chance of it reflecting in the glass. I also think the colour of the fish is more natural without but I've certainly seen pictures with the flash used where the colours look great, I just don't know how they do it!
3. Set your shutter speed as low as possible.
4. Set your aperture according to what works with the light in your tank. In high light you can use a higer aperture, in low light you have to use a lower aperture. Use the highest that you can get away with and not have the picture look too dark. This is just trial and error and you'll need to change it depending on where in the tank you're taking the picture as the strength of light in your tank will vary in different spots.
5. Use the highest ISO setting you can without causing the pictures to look grainy (this is just trial and error, on my camera it's 400).

A good camera is certianly a help! But I have a "point and shoot" and I've been able to get some OK ones with it by adjusting the settings

 

[manxjason]

Don't use the likes of bog wood in a hard water tank mate. They leech tannins into the water (acidic). I guess in small amounts it'd be Ok due to your choice of sand

Plants wise, from what I've read it's not so much them eating them, but more digging up the roots. go for plants like Anubias and javafern, which can be tied to rocks. Not Anubias requires dulled lighting or black hair like spots will grow on the leafs.

J

 

[jkarlson]

Yeh it's a hard plastic "fake" piece so no worries there!


I'm also thinking about shoving some potted plants 2 of the holes of my rock. I think they should be big enough to fit. Also was thinking Vallisneria tied down by the driftwood/rocks.




As for the the camera tips, thanks a lot! I only understood about half that, but I'll play around with it later and see what I can come up with. I'm not too camera savvy.

 

[jkarlson]

These Tanganyika fish have taken over my mind! The more I look at the Calvus and Julies the more I want them!

Bad news came today. The sand I special-ordered won't be here until Tuesday

. As Wednesday is my birthday, I'll most likely spend all of Tuesday or Thursday setting up the new rocks/wood and substrate. I have a feeling it's going to be a loonnggg process so I've got extra heaters/filters/buckets ready to go for when I do it.


Still trying for better pictures. Seems to be working! Maybe I'll try to upload some tomorrow if I get some I like.

 

[jkarlson]

The rock that's going in my tank...

The "fake" driftwood(one of them, I didn't picture the other)

I took some pictures and uploaded them. Not bad for my camera phone!

I started a small DIY project. Not exactly hard I suppose.

I bought a few plastic planting pots and cut them in half and am going to make a "multi-cave". I'll probably drill small holes in it so I can attach Java Moss to the top of it with fishing line. I'm getting very antsy on the arrival of my sand. Tuesday cannot come fast enough!