fair african tank setup?

[señor_pescados_felices]

this is my 40 gallon I use to grow out my africans becouse my eye biters in the 72 kill anything less than about 6" just for the fun of it.
I havent collected enough lava rock and driftwood to do the same in the 72 yet but when the aquascaping is finished there it will look like this and Ill post pics

anyway whatya guys think?

 

[señor_pescados_felices]

oops hit submit before I was finished.

 

[gomezladdams]

looks great lots of rocks and caves.How many fish in there?

 

[señor_pescados_felices]

theres six,two are hybrids.
I have no idea what kind of fish that greyish purple one in the middle is but its one I saved from a batch of fry wondering what they were.Im thinking a fish sold to me as a blue dolphin and somthing else with vertical stripes.....

one of my bumble bees (auratis,no?) mated with one of my electric blue johanni and made an electric purple johanni with vertical stripes but its turned away from the camera.

there is a livingstonni at the top of that picture.

 

[Gr8KarmaSF]

nice

 

[Scotty]

theres six,two are hybrids.
I have no idea what kind of fish that greyish purple one in the middle is but its one I saved from a batch of fry wondering what they were.Im thinking a fish sold to me as a blue dolphin and somthing else with vertical stripes.....

one of my bumble bees (auratis,no?) mated with one of my electric blue johanni and made an electric purple johanni with vertical stripes but its turned away from the camera.

there is a livingstonni at the top of that picture.

Try to buy enough fish of a species to avoid cross breeding. Tank looks good.

 

[amesbien]

BumbleBees are my favorite

 

[Potts050]

I see you have lots of pumice in your tank. Just out of curiosity, what are you're nitrate levels normally?

Looks great by the way

 

[señor_pescados_felices]

I struggle to keep nitrate at about 15 ppm with 25% water changes weekly.
I thought this was becouse the tank is lightly overstocked,is lava rock a factor in nitrate?

 

[Potts050]

Large pumice stones like yours should be able to support anaerobic bacteria populations at the center, where little or no oxygen is present. They would consume your nitrates and help keep them in control. My guess is that it would take as long as six months to naturally establish a reliable colony inside your pumice. and a month or two longer to see a differance.
How long have you had the set-up? How often do you measure nitrates?
Just curious by the way. I mean in no way to sound critical of your set-up. It looks great.