not enough respect for the planted cichlid tank.

[skaaa]

im not reffering dwarf or discus.im reffering to the larger south and central american cichlids. and also some large africans that arnt rock dwellers. I mean who doesnt agree that a beautful Red Tiger Mota in a planted biotype tank wouldnt be totally tubular. I grew up at the Atlanta Botanical gardens with my mother who was a master gardener and an avid florist.
so planting a tank with my mom around isnt hard, she isnt even an aquarist and her 30 gallon is growing 2 by 2 foot sword plants and carpet moss without the help of CO2. granted she does have a killer light. what matters is she has that green thumb and i know how many people have it on here

anybody got any thing like this. I am attempting this with large and small heavily rooted plants. and im more stubborn than my fish so that damn plant is staying rooted. so who feels me on here?

some not great but at least im trying examples lol.

View attachment 338941

 

[Eatsomekiwis]

that looks really good! Nice hardy plants and hardy fish, cant go wrong with that combo!

 

[Danger_Chicken]

I'm trying something similar but surrounding the plant base with driftwood and rocks to keep the cichlids from digging them up.

 

[AtomBat]

I got your back there, currently have a 55gal with cichlid and heavily planted. I just reaquascapped today, ill get some pictures up in a minute...

 

[AtomBat]

Here are mine. Ive had great success with cichlids in my planted. Found outt the hard way NO grass, not too much java moss, and watch out for the wavy plants, they like to bit them every so often...

 

[FSM]

Planted tanks look incredible. I'd have all my tanks planted if I had enough lighting.

I'd like to try planting my 75 which has a male GT in it, but the lighting is 80W 18000k which I doubt would work very well.

 

[dbcb314]

is something like this maintainable with a full grown cichlids?

 

[AtomBat]

is something like this maintainable with a full grown cichlids?

I think if you are capable of doing it give it a try. But I can tell you that my tank shown will not house full grown while staying planted. My tank varies from smaller cichlids like my bolivian ram and bolivian port cichlid which will probly be ok to stay in my tank, but my JD and Nicaragean(spelling?) will definately have to be removed.

But I could see bigger cichlids being in a semi-planted tank.

 

[skaaa]

Here are mine. Ive had great success with cichlids in my planted. Found outt the hard way NO grass, not too much java moss, and watch out for the wavy plants, they like to bit them every so often...

thats whats up. an all out planted tank would be way to hard i guess. such as foreground plants that would be torn up as the cichlid plays. but the rooted plants are the ones that they can live in and dont need spectacular lighting setups to maintian.

 

[Otherone]

Heres some pics of my planted SA/CA/African cichlid tanks -