Help stock a 110gal.
- Thread starter Dnaren
- Start date
It's better to have consistent water than water being altered to raise or lower a parameter. With that said and your report I would stick with South American's.
A cheaper way than canisters is a pair of AC110'S. Two are about the same price as a lower end canister, and they will turn over a thousand gallons an hour.
Now you were wanting a big single fish right. You have a good selection to pick from. Always the lovable Oscar. Very personable basically a swimming puppy. Plus with some of the beautiful colors some breeders are bringing to the trade, Chilli Red, Super Red, wild ones and on and on.
Could also go with a female Red Terror (Festae) a Uara cichlid. If you wanted could go with a pair of Green Terrors. Or go with Blue Acuras a bit smaller than GTs but still beautiful. Or possibly Sevrums, with some smaller geos.
A cheaper way than canisters is a pair of AC110'S. Two are about the same price as a lower end canister, and they will turn over a thousand gallons an hour.
Now you were wanting a big single fish right. You have a good selection to pick from. Always the lovable Oscar. Very personable basically a swimming puppy. Plus with some of the beautiful colors some breeders are bringing to the trade, Chilli Red, Super Red, wild ones and on and on.
Could also go with a female Red Terror (Festae) a Uara cichlid. If you wanted could go with a pair of Green Terrors. Or go with Blue Acuras a bit smaller than GTs but still beautiful. Or possibly Sevrums, with some smaller geos.
This may be a topic for another thread, but the conventional wisdom is that CA cichlids prefer hard water is a bit questionable in my mind. After doing some digging I have found some anecdotal evidence that would suggest that many CA species are very tolerant of hard water but can thrive in a wide range of hardness. For example in Honduras which is part of the native range of many species listed on this thread the hardness can range from 25 mg/L to over 362 mg/L according to a study I looked at concerning potable water systems in rural areas.
So if I am reading the chart right a 8KH is equivalent to to 137 mg/L which would make it moderately hard and pretty good for central americans.
I have never seen test results presented in this way. Are you using some kind of software to track your cycle?
And why not if i have them available?
Im using JBL proscan... Its a stripe test, and you use an APP on your smartphone to read the stripe trough the phone camera.
Im not seeing a problem with this either. I typically send in a crack team of dithers to test the conditions of an all new tank and monitor the efficiency of my filtration.
I'd say cichlids in general are adaptive, and most of the more common CA's will do fine in softer water. I have a large male pananmesis who grew up in harder water, who is now living in a planted tank using 100% RO water, and thriving. And of course there are exceptions, the entirety of central America does not have one consistent chemical makeup of freshwater. But in general, there is lots of limestone in CA, and the water tends to be much harder than, say, a blackwater stream in SA. So, the fish are pretty adaptable, but I tend to recommend what their natural environment would provide.
On the dithers to cycle, nothing necessarily wrong with it if you don't mind losing the dithers. Some people would consider that mean, some don't think it's a big deal. Personally, I use extablished media to cycle new tanks, and will often use dithers to stabilize the population of bacteria. so they are not going through the whole toxic cycle, but still are at some risk.
I agree, but a 7dGH and an 8dKH is at the high end for SA and the low end for CA so either would most likely do well. I do think a central american like a parachromis or amphilophus is more adaptable than a fish like uaru or other blackwater species.
