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My Tank - Any suggestion is welcome

1K views 6 replies 4 participants last post by  Pablo 
#1 ·
Heres a picture of my set up.

Some Info:
The tank has been running for a little over a week now. The fishes I currently have are listed on my signature. I'm currently trying to get rid of my 2 lava rocks to accommodate the loaches I recently purchased ( I heard Lava rocks were not recommended for them). The two plants in the back ground are fake and cost me a lot of money. There are 3 driftwood (1 Mopani, 2 Malawi) and 2 inches of flourite substrate. Tank is filtered by Fluval 404 with 2 baskets containing biomax, 1 basket eheim floss, and the last basket contains carbon. I have a total of 80w of light, 1 power glo, 1 light glo.

I piled up the driftwoods in the corner to give my new loaches some place to hide. I know its not exactly aesthetically pleasing.

Its been over a week and the ammonia level has not risen, but the water is starting to get cloudy (bacteria bloom?). I'm also looking for someone to adopt my loaches :( while my tank cycles (stupid mistake buying them). I'm not very artistic in terms of what color and type of rocks will match my substrate (and plants). Any suggestion is welcome.

P.S.I'm on a student budget, so in other words, I am poor. :(

Thanks
 

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#2 ·
IMHO, don;t worry too much about the lava rock and loaches if you are planning a peaceful community set-up. If they were w/more aggressive fish, the lava rocks won't be good for CL as they will have to dash into the pile risking scrapes and the lot.

To help w/the cloudiness, SeaChem Clarity works very well but w/the Fluval canister, the foam pads are pretty coarse and will take a bit longer to collect the clumped floating particles. I find keeping the lights off helps if you are adding a bacterial filter supplement.

If NH3 is zero and you are using a bacterial supplement, don't worry about it. The products do work provided that stocking is done in small increments over a period of time. When you have NH3 and NO2 issues, most do not work very well as high NH3 and NO2 are harmful to bacteria. Wait at least 2 weeks before adding more fish and keep an eye on NH3 and NO2 if you don't want to part w/the CLs.

IMHO, the DW and lava rocks are a good match w/the substrate color. Use real or plastic plants to highlight the DW and rocks. Seeing that it's used as a "room divider", I recommend stacking/placement along the centre and the "peak" on the left third. Aquascaping like this won't make the right side seem too obstructive/heavy visually. Also, when you are looking from the right side of the aquarium, the gradual sloping does look nicer.

JM2C/HTH
 
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