Rock Work or no?

[ryanc2106]

well i got a good amount of rock work in my 60 gallon but im haviing inssues with my water right now being clear is clear but a lil cloudy what will haappen if i take most of my lava rocks out for a week? or is take the rocks out a bad idea? i was just wondering imo..??


my fish consist of

2 OB peacocks
1 Red Emp.
1 Sunshine Peacock
1 Kenyi
1 Common Pleco

 

[addicted2cichlids]

take out most of the rocks. your fish need swimin room. how long has your tank been setup?

 

[cichlidgirl]

Instead of a "rock pile" like you would use for mbuna use just well shaped larger single rocks placed strategicly around the tank, add a bit of driftwood and a fake plant or two if you like them and your water should stay cleaner and have more swim room.

 

[Peanut_Power]

When you take your rocks out it is probably going to cloud up your tank a bit. You might want to clean the filters and add some polyfiber or the like for a few days to all the filters to 'clean' up the tank. Then remove the polyfibers when the tank is clear. Works for me!

I wouldn't add any driftwood unless it is either fake or cured, otherwise you are going to have the same problem again except your tank is going to be brownish...haha...tannins can be a bugga

 

[ryanc2106]

my tanks been up for more then 7 months started with barbs and molys then goldies and 2 terrent sharks then all cichlids and previous owner had angels so everything is cycled long time ago and i dont have rock piile just like one longe cave with lava rock kinda like hard to eplian but my red emp will swim threw thwe whole thing and scare the others out

 

[cichlidgirl]

I picked up some malasian driftwood and it is super heavy (sinks right away) and in the 6 mo i had it has not leached a single drop of tannins that i can see with my eyes anyway. It also did not develop any of that terriable white fuzz. I highly recommend it. I understand that african root is the same. They are a bit pricey but i just got mine on clearence. If you dont want tannins avoid any grape vine products and also regular driftwood. You can go out and collect your own whitened aged driftwood and simply boil it in a big pot then attatch it to a drilled slate. works good and that is how they make the fancy driftwood centerpieces.

 

[fsc46]

How about a complete tank photo. That would help a lot.

 

[JamesRiggs]

I guess I differ from most, to me with mbuna the more rocks the better, I use the back half of the tank from top to bottom with rocks, that way they have all the swim room they will need in the front.

 

[cichlidgirl]

How about a complete tank photo. That would help a lot.

I did notice that my water clarity went up drastically when i installed a second hob on my big tank. I had been running a eheim 2217 and one aqua tek 500 , then i added a second one and it helped alot. So in the same frame of mind i went and upgraded all my filters on my smaller tanks to more than what was required. Example on my 75 gallon i got two cheap aquatek filters from walmart instead of just one, and for tanks with one filter i got a big one on the tank, my 30 gallon has a filter for a 60-75 gallon etc.. and my 10 has a 30 gallon filter on it. that helped so much i cant even tell you. I have sparkling water in all my tanks now.


Here is a cluttered "busy" tank with driftwood, rocks (big and small) and fake plants.

Here is same tank with more fake plants and marine glo blue lights

Here is the same tank again with a "rock pile" in the center and single rocks placed out to ends, i worked in fake plants. This was one of my favorite ones:

Here is the same tank in my least favorite design. It was too stark for my taste but other people told me they really liked it so here it is (marine glow lights again):

Here is a tank with only driftwood and gravel. (the two pieces on the ends are malasian, the big center piece is one that i had for 7 yrs and has no more tannins (it did when new, thats when you boil it out like a tea bag)

 

[ryanc2106]

nice pics i did a water change and took everything out and trying to get my aqua cler mini to go for i cna have a lil extra filtration maybe it will help and im only adding about half the rocks i had back in the tank and some around not as rock piles...

thanks..

and my aqua clear mini doesnt suck water all the way threw the tube anyone know whats wrong with that happens..? it worked fine in my small 6 gallon eclipse...