SensesFail
Fishaholic
Ok guys well i think I'll be getting a new tank soon a fluval Osakar and I have a few questions regarding a few things. The tank is 155l and I am hoping to keep angelfish and other American cichlids along with some corys.
I want to properly aqua scape this with real plants. Now I will split my questions up here goes.
Plants: what's the best plants to go for, is it down to personal choice or am I better going with some rather than others taking into account the tank is higher as apposed to wider coming in at something like 60cm wide by 60cm high by 40cm depth (around those sizes). I understand the cycling bit but do you cycle with the plants in the tank? What do you have to add to the tank to feed the plants and what is the best substrate to go for? Substrate wise I have coral sand in my Malawi set up but fancy something darker a complete opposite to the sea style I went for. So darker more natural looking! (add driftwood maybe and rocks any ideas on that one) I was in my LFS today who had some nice real plant in those little pots.
Seeding the tank: when I get the tank how much should biomax from my current tank should I place in the new filter without running the risk of messing the established tank which is currently running over stocked so to speak? (with it being south African cichlids)
Maintenance: how do you go about cleaning the tank when you have real plants in? At the moment with having fake plants and ocean rock I simply just remove bits clean under them every so often but if you have real plants you can't really do that? And how many litres per week should I be changing if the tank was fully stocked? At the moment with my tank I change 120L a week split into 2 changes per week.
Ph: American cichlids like the Ph to be around 6.5 I believe. Mine comes in at 7.5 what should I do about this? Attempt to lower the Ph and if so what is the best method of doing this? Adding peat to the filter etc? I'm not too sure what filter pads the filter comes with think it does come with a carbon filter should I just use everything that comes with it? I'll try and get some info on the media. It's an external fluval 205 canister filter.
I believe that's all I'm sorry if iv added too many questions didn't want to split them into loads of different threads relating to each would get way too messy haha. I'm sure I'll have more questions regarding live plants it seems daunting having the fish and plants to look after!! But really fancy the challenge!
I want to properly aqua scape this with real plants. Now I will split my questions up here goes.
Plants: what's the best plants to go for, is it down to personal choice or am I better going with some rather than others taking into account the tank is higher as apposed to wider coming in at something like 60cm wide by 60cm high by 40cm depth (around those sizes). I understand the cycling bit but do you cycle with the plants in the tank? What do you have to add to the tank to feed the plants and what is the best substrate to go for? Substrate wise I have coral sand in my Malawi set up but fancy something darker a complete opposite to the sea style I went for. So darker more natural looking! (add driftwood maybe and rocks any ideas on that one) I was in my LFS today who had some nice real plant in those little pots.
Seeding the tank: when I get the tank how much should biomax from my current tank should I place in the new filter without running the risk of messing the established tank which is currently running over stocked so to speak? (with it being south African cichlids)
Maintenance: how do you go about cleaning the tank when you have real plants in? At the moment with having fake plants and ocean rock I simply just remove bits clean under them every so often but if you have real plants you can't really do that? And how many litres per week should I be changing if the tank was fully stocked? At the moment with my tank I change 120L a week split into 2 changes per week.
Ph: American cichlids like the Ph to be around 6.5 I believe. Mine comes in at 7.5 what should I do about this? Attempt to lower the Ph and if so what is the best method of doing this? Adding peat to the filter etc? I'm not too sure what filter pads the filter comes with think it does come with a carbon filter should I just use everything that comes with it? I'll try and get some info on the media. It's an external fluval 205 canister filter.
I believe that's all I'm sorry if iv added too many questions didn't want to split them into loads of different threads relating to each would get way too messy haha. I'm sure I'll have more questions regarding live plants it seems daunting having the fish and plants to look after!! But really fancy the challenge!