My 90g tank needs some life in it 56k beware

[steve007]

I've got bored and fed up with my tank. It needs new life in it. The trouble is i have not been very sucessful with my fish and think i may need to get rid of them all and start again. I did have a lot of ciclids in the tank, my oscar died recently but these are the survivors.

Can you make any suggestions on what i can re-stock my tank with without starting again.

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[jm1212]

add some giant danios

[cohazard]

With the driftwood covered in algae, you could start a very good looking planted tank.... a large group of cardinals, or rasboras (you can find galaxy rasboras through tfd.com) and some platys for more color.

Small fish, but plenty of color and activity, which would really boost your interest in the tank again. Oh, don't forget snails and shrimp.

[llamabob]

On a side note, perhaps figure out why you didn't have success before getting more?

[Burtess]

With the driftwood covered in algae, you could start a very good looking planted tank.... a large group of cardinals, or rasboras (you can find galaxy rasboras through tfd.com) and some platys for more color.

Small fish, but plenty of color and activity, which would really boost your interest in the tank again. Oh, don't forget snails and shrimp.

Looks like you have a blood parrot, a jewel, couple plecos, and a nice male sajica in there. The above suggested fish would be food for sure :eek:

What are your water parameters? What is your cleaning regime? You should find out why your fish aren't thriving before adding more (like llamabob suggested).

But, I think a firemouth would go well as well as some bigger barbs or the giant danios previously suggested.....

Burt:)

[Ghost_knife]

wow, you got some big fish there, what are all of them?

[steve007]

Looks like you have a blood parrot, a jewel, couple plecos, and a nice male sajica in there. The above suggested fish would be food for sure :eek:

Thats what I thought, I want some fish which are large enough to stay alive as these seem to be the most barbaric which hae survived.


What are your water parameters? What is your cleaning regime? You should find out why your fish aren't thriving before adding more (like llamabob suggested).

Water is generally good - ph is 8 from the tap but after a week the tank shows about 6 - constantly.

I had a texan, some firemouths, and other fish before however they seemed to have teritorial type fights and one by one they were each picked off.

I'm keen to plant the tank but with the plecs and the other fish about they have constantly been uprooted. Have thought of a large java fern on some driftwood for now.

Also thought of building up some more rock in order to create a hideout etc to stop further fish becoming food.

All these fish in the tank are about 2 to 3 years old.

Steve

[Rbishop]

That large of a pH drop should have some reason with it?

Could you fill us in with exact amonia/nitrite/nitrate and pH readings? What kind of filtration and water change schedule?

Any guesses on why you lost the Oscar?

[steve007]

ph 6.2
nitrate 5
nitrite 0.1
ammonia 0
Phosphate 5

these tests have just been carried out - following water top-up yesterday. The Phosphate level has been constantly high but hasn't caused any specific problems to my knowledge.

Oh, and i think i lost the oscar because following the summer i forgot to plug the water heater back in - my bad but don't tell the missus!

[Kyohti]

Maybe it's the driftwood that's causing the drop in pH? Or something in the substrate? How often do you perform water changes and how much? Do you have pH stabilizers? They make ones specifically for keeping pH for African Cichlids (7.8-8.4)...

[wataugachicken]

the poster, i am assuming, is testing the water right as it comes out of the tap. if he lets it sit for 24 hours, it will probably go down into the mid 7's, and then the acidity of the driftwood and the biological cycle are bringing it down into the 6's. water in the tap is under pressure, and there are all kinds of gases dissolved in the water that affect the Ph. When you give those gases time to come out of the water, then you can get an more accurate reading from the sample.

don't use any kind of chemicals to stabilize the ph, that will make things worse. you have mostly (if not all) new world cichlids, and so the ph products for african cichlids will cause more trouble, not less.

[cohazard]

My mistake, I thought you were going to finding new homes for the current stock... heh