New Tanganyikan set up

Here's my new Tanganyikan set up. It's nothing fancy, but the shellie tank had no room for the leleupi so I went ahead and threw this one together. There is no substrate, but I do have egg crate down due to the heavy rocks. It's only half filled, I may attempt a pseudo-riparium, planting plants in the holey rock. Filtration was tough since I couldn't use HOBs, so there's an internal whisper filter and a sponge filter. The bioload on this tank will be low so that should be sufficient. Right now it's housing leleupi juvies, multies, and some julidochromis transcriptus fry. Ignore the biowheel and filter cartridge, they're just there for cloning purposes.

Thanks! It's a 50g tank. I'm a little nervous about so much weight on my 3rd floor apt floor, that's a lot of why I've only filled it halfway. If I don't end up moving in May I'll probably add sand substrate then.

Jill-O said:

Interesting set up. Do you plan to add substrate?

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Answered that above. Substrate will be added only if I don't move in 8 months, don't feel like messing with it and the fish don't need it. This tank is set up purely for function, not for aesthetics.

user_name said:

that looks awesome already, how much did you pay for the holy rock?

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Thanks! Bought the pieces on the left and the center at a local fish auction, so lets just say I paid a whole lot less than I would have had I bought it by the pound.

rufioman said:

My buddy lives on the 3rd floor and has a 150g...are your apartments super old or something?

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Nope, built about 4 years ago. But they build these apts quick and cheaply. I've got a 75g, 55g, 29g, 24g, several small tanks, and now this half filled 50g in a 1 bedroom apt. I've spaced the tanks out and the 75g, 24g, and this tank are on exterior walls, but still...

jpappy789 said:

Some tangs wont use much of the upper 1/2-1/3 anyways unless you plan on really building up the rockwork...at least when it comes the the julies IME since they mainly stick to the rock. The multis, of course, could care less. Heck, you could always add some riparium plants in baskets attached to the back glass to add more dimension to the tank.

I dont see a whole lot of shells though (although I could be mis-seeing)...how many multis are in the tank total? Make sure you've got 2-3 per fish.

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I actually added some riparium plants today. Made my own version of ghetto riparium planters by taking the AC sponges I've been using as prefilters and using them as planters. I figure they're loaded with all sorts of mankiness the plants will like, plus I needed to replace them anyway. I shoved 2 of the plants into the holey rock and 2 I suction cupped to the back. We'll see if it works.

There aren't a lot of shells in there, but my multies are weird. Even in their old tank they didn't use the shells much, they preferred the holey rock. I do plan on getting some more shells when I find some. There are only 4 multies in there right now (the ones that hid when I was catching the colony to take to the auction) and 6 shells. The male won't use the shells at all.