New 100g CA Cichlid

[S.Reef]

Sweet tank...the cichlids dont rip up the plants?

[Cichlid-Man]

Niiiiiiiiice! Love it man. That GT looks great in there too, can't wait to see the updates.

SReef, the cichlids will really just uproot them, not really shred them most of the time. Now, African cichlids might eat your plants because they like to graze on algae in the wild.

[Avalon]

About the plants & cichlids:

My green terror doesn't touch the plants at all. He used to tug on them when I had a female Jaguar in the tank, but now that she's gone, he gets along with the plants fine. The severums don't bother them either, but they are still young. As for other cichlids, I've found that Firemouths, Convicts, and Jack Dempsey's haven't bothered them. I've never had a fish actually eat them, but some fish like Jaguars & Nicuarguense would literally uproot anything in their way when it came time to dig a hole. They made huge holes--and huge messes! I would be hesitant about keeping breeding pairs of some fish, particularly those that like to dig, but I do like to take things on a fish-by-fish basis. If you are considering keeping plants with cichlids, do research on the fish in question and see if they like to dig. If they do, then plants are out of the question!

[JeLeAk]

personally i wouldnt add any forground plants

i like for plants and drift wood to almost be the backdrop for the tank and leave the front open

[S.Reef]

Thats really cool they dont rip up the plants...keep up the cool tank.

[ScubaSteve]

Wow... another awesome tank.... nice plants and driftwood.... love the green terror....

[Orion]

Superb Avalon.

I do like the way everything is coming togeather. IMHO, hairgrass would look great if planted along the driftwood on the Rt. side, leaving the left side more open. Hairgrass would make a great addition in whatever way you use it because it will give a good contrast in not only size, but shape as well.

Mabey a small pile of rocks, or driftwood arangement with smaller pieces in the front left to help add depth to the foreground on that side.

[Avalon]

Thought I'd post a small update:

My Gold pleco that I've had for about 4 years died for no apparent reason. Poor guy, he was a fine example of a great plecostomus.

I planted a bunch of hairgrass, but it didn't last long. Not sure who the culprit was. I replanted some of it in my 75g. I think I'll try Sagittaria subulata instead.

I've been having some problems with getting enough CO2 in this tank. I'm pumping it in through my AC 500, but it's causing too much surface agitation to properly diffuse it into the water. I may invest in a CO2 reactor, or build one. I can't seem to rid myself of the BBA, probably due to the CO2 issue, but I have been keeping it at bay recently.

I cannot seem to supply enough nitrogen for the plants! I'm supplying 15ppm of KNO3 every 2-3 days, and this is still not enough! The plants pearl, but every time I test, with 2 different kits, I get zero. I know the kits are good because I pick up about 10ppm when I test my 75g.

My pleco and severums are growing at a nice rate. The severums are fiesty little guys! They are extremely active and fast! They eat everything in sight! I've been feeding them Hikari Cichlid Bio-Gold pellets, bloodworms, mysis shrimp, and beefheart. I've thought about tossing in some extra french fries and Whopper w/ cheese! Nevertheless, their coloration, along with my GT, is excellent!

I'll post some new pictures soon...

[zanoshano]

niiiiice, liekt he driftwood espec.

[Lotus]

Sorry to hear about your pleco

A good reactor can make a big difference in how efficient your CO2 system is.

Just one point. I hear it's bad to add more than 5ppm nitrate at a time to a tank, as it can be harmful to the fish. I think I read it somewhere on Chuck Gadd's site.

I found that in some of my tanks the plants were initially really "hungry" for nitrates, but this trailed off after a while. Maybe it was the growing fish that produced more nitrates as they got larger.