Looking for some input

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Shadowbear559

Feeder Fish
MFK Member
Oct 12, 2010
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Ok guys, I'm looking for a bit of input. After a long hiatus from the freshwater side off the hobby, I'm diving back in with both feet. I have narrowed down what I'm looking for to two different things and having trouble choosing. I have a 125 gallon tank and the two I have narrowed down are either red bellied piranhas or rays. I have exp south rays before but it ended badly. I had a beautiful juvenile pair of motoro rays in a nice 75 gallon a few years ago. I was doing some maintenance on the tank when company stopped by unexpectedly. My cat took this cue to jump up and play with the water. I know this is what happened due to finding litter from his paws on the sand bed later. Needless to say, the rays didn't make it due to a very harsh ammonia spike, I'm guessing from the litter (cat urine) and/or other toxins associated with it. I learned a very big lesson that day and I have been nervous about rays since. I'm fascinated by piranhas and have always wanted to keep a shoal of them but I have always been in a state in which they were illegal until now. I have been in the hobby in some shape or form since I was 8 and now I'm 33 on Oct 18th.

Here are a couple of questions I have. Does anyone know a good website that sells black sand and driftwood. I plan on having a 55 gallon sump/refugium and a wet/dry filter as well as power heads for circulation as I know RBPs like a good current. I have been doing lots of research and reading on here and look forward to your opinions.

Oh one last thing. I read that RBPs like lower light levels. My lights are the Marineland double brought LEDs. Which live plants will thrive in this lower light?

Thank you in advance, Jeff
 
sounds like a plan.. id go RBP all the way, rays are interesting but IMO just kinda 'meh' - in low light id pack the bottom of that tank full of anubias and amazon swords along with some water sprite, i had a lot of growth success with those plants in my 75 using basic T8 fluorescent lighting. as far as a site that sells driftwood look no further than the vendor section, manzman provided me with some pieces last fall i believe and man are they quality, can't recommend em enough. plus cheap shipping
 
Awesome, I'm still exploring the site (pain in the arse on my EVO) and I will def look up that vendor. I have been literally dreaming of a huge driftwood center piece with some nice plants. I'm really into biotope type tanks so that's good info for sure. I just needed to make sure what plants didn't need such bright lighting.
 
yeah i hear ya, i had great success with the ones i listed, the root system of the biggest amazon sword literally stretched to all 4 corners of my 75 when i took it out and grew to be about 17" high so its definitely one to consider IMO
 
They will do ok in sand? I love the look of them too. Lol my last freshwater tank was a 220g with only 4 small oscars, 2 large plecos, and a red tail cat. 6 months later it was just a red tail cat, all the rest was a meal for him eventually, even the plecos. Last I seen he was a three foot monster in my best friends basement pond in florida lol. Man I miss him but hes happy in a 1k gallon pond :)
 
yeah buddy mine were in sand, mix of pool filter sand and some black sand i got from petsmart, that absolutely thrived. i still havent decided in the sand vs gravel debate for the return of the 46 to fresh.. leaning towards gravel though simply cuz i already have it :P
 
Nice! I appreciate the plant info. Man I'm super exited about this, I have always been fascinated by piranhas and seeing the videos and pics from other hobbyists on here has me amped. I may just have to plan a ray tank too, best of both worlds lol, this time with no cats.

Also in the sump I'm thinking of doing plants in there too on a reverse lighting cycle, similar to the way its done on a saltwater sump. Is that a good idea?

And I have been reading about black water extract. Won't adding some kind of peat moss to the sump do the same thing or am I wrong?
 
im not 100% sure on the peat moss so definitely do some research on it but i THINK it does the same thing. once again i THINK. haha - plants in the sump are an awesome idea, the sump i have now for saltwater has the side chamber set up with live rock, once thats all out i plan to absolutely load it down with java moss, eat up nitrates like nobodies business from what i understand
 
Thats what I was thinking. The reverse lighting cycle means that there is always some plants using nitrates. I was thinking of also having some fish, maybe white clouds or the like to help with the nutrients there. Also borrowing from saltwater, I have heard of people using live rock rubble in their HOB filters as a "biological filtration addition." I was thinking along those lines by maybe adding lava rock or some other porus rock (help me out with suggestions here guys) and experimenting with the same ideas. The java moss is an awesome suggestion. Maybe ghost shrimp in the sump too. Something like a mini eco system on a reverse cycle. I dont know, just tossing out ideas.

I want this system as close to their natural habitat as i can get. Well minus the skull im going to have to add somewhere... thats just a must have lol. If nothing else its a good tool to keep the kids out and away from the tank, just explain to them that is what happened to the last person that tapped on the glass 0.o
 
haha. awesome idea with the skull, honestly the plants should have enough waste through the filter pad to eat off of but if u really wanted to i dont see a reason why u couldnt put a couple little white clouds or something in the sump
 
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