Will this filtration and maintenence schedule work for my 75g?

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mrlucky923

Feeder Fish
MFK Member
Jan 22, 2013
25
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Ofallon, MO
Hi All, I have a 2 part question related to maintenance and filtration of my 75 gallon tank. First let me start by supplying some specs about my tank

Tank parameters - 75 degree water, 7.0 ph, 0 amonia, 0 nitrite, 10ppm nitrate
substrate - sand and gravel
decor -fake plants and driftwood
Fish:
Jack Dempsey - 2.5
2 convicts - 2" each
leporinus - 4"
Elephant nose - 4"
8 rosy barbs - 1.5" each
Red tailed shark - 2"
3 Irridescent shark - 2" each

Filtration - XP2 canister filter and aqueon 75 hang on tank filter
water changes - 25% every 3 days
water conditioner - prime

my plans will be to remove the barbs and the irridescent sharks at some point and possibly the red tailed shark as well and make this tank a permanent home for the remaining fish. this will be in approximately 9 - 12 months so my questions are aimed towards the upcoming 9 - 12 months.

my first question is pretty straight forward, will this filtration combined with my water changes be sufficient?

my next question is related to the decor that I have. I have built up many caves in the tank and have about 50 lbs of rock in it. When I do my water changes there is no way to effectively vaccum the entire substrate without moving a bunch of the decor wich would be a ton of work. I was thinking maybe i would need to move a portion ( 1/3 )of the rock and vacuum the substrate on a monthly basis and rotate that every month. what do I do? is that necessary? if it isnt I really dont want to because it would be a huge pain. I have never used this much rock so im in uncharted waters (pun intended) lol..
any advice will be very welcome!
Thank Youuploadfromtaptalk1360541266869.jpg

uploadfromtaptalk1360541266869.jpg
 
THATS A NICE SET-UP....xp2 and hob should be enough... thats a lot of stock to start a tank how long has it been running? that gravel vac schedule may work... see if it is keeping tank clean and params good...the fact that you have sand should help..
 
Tank has been up for about two months... I have never had a tank with this much rock or stocked this heavily so I just wanted to be sure... Fish are doing great, no issues as of yet and they are really thriving..

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For filtration and water changes you are fine. I really like the look of your tank, great job.
 
Good looking setup!

As far as filtration is concerned, you have plenty enough to keep the future permanent inhabitants in good shape when grown, so you should be fine with the current stock at it's smaller size. You'll know over the next 9-12 months when you've crossed that border :)

As far as having to move the decor is concerned, I'd say you only really needed to get in a deep cleaning every month or so; This would of course entail removing a significant portion of the loose rocks (the easiest way, the more space the better) and cleaning around the base rocks and under the drift wood. With weekly water changes and vacing the substrate on a regular basis you may be able to stretch this out a bit.

The tank looks awesome and it sucks to think about having to move stuff around but in the end you may realize you've come to enjoy it. I actually like tweaking the deco in my display tank when I get under it for deep cleanings.

Keep us updated! :D
 
In my experience if you add some good sand sifters in there like malaysian trumpet snails then they will stiff everything up enough so you wont need to completely disassemble other than every 6 months or so, and sometimes not even that much.

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Thanks for all the replies and the compliments, I have put quite a bit of effort in this tank and I am glad to hear that others like it.
@pdred... You bring up a good point, I would probably enjoy moving things a bit to keep the look fresh.. I really enjoy the aquascaping so that may work out perfect.

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mrlucky923 said:
Thanks for all the replies and the compliments, I have put quite a bit of effort in this tank and I am glad to hear that others like it.
@pdred... You bring up a good point, I would probably enjoy moving things a bit to keep the look fresh.. I really enjoy the aquascaping so that may work out perfect.

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Click to expand...
You might enjoy moving things around a bit, but your fish won't.
 
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