265 Mixed African Tank

[The Morning]

35 -40

 

[Cjaco4]

35 -40

Unless your filters aren’t established I can’t imagine nitrates would spike that high within 3 days.

 

[The Morning]

Filters have been set up for years. As I said I test the tank weekly and set up water changes accordingly With 165 fish you don’t have elevated nitrates?

 

[cichlid tank]

Thanks. I have 12 frontosa total. Added them as babies about 3 years ago so right at breeding age now. They’ll likely double in size over next couple years.

yea are they aggressive with the peacocks at all?

 

[twentyleagues]

Filters have been set up for years. As I said I test the tank weekly and set up water changes accordingly With 165 fish you don’t have elevated nitrates?

I was wondering that my self? I have a 300g pond with no where near the stocking density of this tank and lots of plants and still see 40ppm + in nitrates weekly. So I do weekly 200g water changes. My 75 has a ton of plants and fish and that is a monthly waterchange it doesn't seem to hit over 20ppm but every 4th week I change the water 80%.

 

[twentyleagues]

I do bi monthly changes of about 75%. The main FX6 filter gets cleaned both water changes, only clean the 1 with the uv sterilizer in line when water flow is down. I run no filter pads or carbon just stacked with ceramic rings. The rock is Texas holy rock with faux plants. I run 3 air pumps setup beneath the back rocks with 2 additional battery backup pumps in n case of power outage.

you could switch to larger changes bi monthly and get maybe 1 fx5 to replace one of your ac110’s, I swear by the fx series I know they’re expensive but they allow for this large amount of fish. I can add as many as will fit without any worry for equalized distribution of aggression throughout the tank. I also add about 2 cups ocean salt once a month to help with slime coat.

I think I read that wrong the first time. You do large water changes every two weeks. That makes more sense now. Still wondering where your nitrates are on water change day? Not that your fish or tank show signs of an issue. Everything looks great and you are doing a great job! Super nice tank.

 

[Cjaco4]

yea are they aggressive with the peacocks at all?

Yes sometimes but as long as they’re well fed we don’t have problems. I’ve had them kill other fish when I’ve forgotten to keep the feeders topped off.

 

[Cjaco4]

I think I read that wrong the first time. You do large water changes every two weeks. That makes more sense now. Still wondering where your nitrates are on water change day? Not that your fish or tank show signs of an issue. Everything looks great and you are doing a great job! Super nice tank.

Nitrates are undetectable so is ammonia and nitrite. I have a deep sand bed which helps with denitrifying anaerobic bacteria that keep nitrates low. How deep is your sand bed?

 

[twentyleagues]

Nitrates are undetectable so is ammonia and nitrite. I have a deep sand bed which helps with denitrifying anaerobic bacteria that keep nitrates low. How deep is your sand bed?

About 3" currently.

 

[Cjaco4]

About 3" currently.

So 4-5’’ would create denitrication of the nitrates.