55g African advice

  • We are currently upgrading MFK. thanks! -neo
mike dunagan;4773003; said:
Just a heads up, petland is a national chain as well.


oh okay wasn't sure. But i jus saw that it's no longer petland, it's called PAWS, but it's way over priced....but got better selection and it's close.....but bottle of Seachem's Stability was $14 and at petsmart around the corner was $9. lol
 
I live in deep south Texas where the selection for fish is very limited. The Pet Smart down here does carry africans at reasonable prices $5 ea for the small ones. I just set up a 65 gal and have well over 25 fish in there. But I did buy them on the small side. I find this works well because they grow up together and somewhat crowded so agression is kept to a minimum.

I think the trick to africans is high filtration, good flow, and over crowding. In my 65 gal I have two emperor 400s and two air lines with no airstones to help bring flow to the surface. Let us know what you decide!
 
so tank is basically cycled.....havin trouble wit ammonia though. it's flirting b/w 0-.25, but does the API test actually get to a yellow color like the card? Gonna do a 1/3rd WC tonight to see if i can get it to 0......legs for the 48" CA light fixture came in.....they're a POS and friend said all fixtures that use those legs are wobbly. same friend is cleaning holey rock and finishing the stand doors (have a kid who jus learned to crawl and 2 curious cats) so need to get the chemicals locked up. should be ready for fish on Sunday. :) shoot, forgot i need to go get a heater and power strip with light timer on it....don't trust the wife to turn lights on every day, and would like to have lights on while at home at night, so will prolly set it for 10a-10p or 9a-9p.

found another LFS (Keller Farms in Haltom City.....it's in DFW metroplex). Cichlids and 'monsters' are their specialty. had some +12" oscars, couple +12" plecos, had a 18-24" arrow, and some others that were over a foot long. A bit pricey, but think i may end up just buying from there instead of online cause i know exactly what i'm getting...plus if i get an overly aggressive one, i might have a chance to trade him out....
 
Sounds like you have a plan going. Only recommendation would be to reduce the number of hours the lights are on. I generally only set my timers on my non-planted tanks to be on from 6 PM until midnight, when I'm around to watch the tanks.

More than that is just a waste of power to fuel algae.
 
tank finally cycled and i've got holey rock in the tank and heater been up and running since Friday, so i should be makin a trip to the lfs that specializes in cichlids n prolly picking up 3-4 of 2 species and a syno cat, then adding 1 or 2 more at a later date.
 
ps - on the light issue. i got the surge protector w/ timer and set the days for 10 hours, and nights for 14 hours.
 
went n bought some fish! got a hi-fin cat, electric blue johanni (i think) and 5 other assorted cichlids.....the johani is startin to get impatient cause dumb ****s put 4 others in same bag as johanni....will be starting new thread w/ pics soon
 
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