I'm back! And I've got issues...

Is it going to be a large tank setup? For small tanks I have mixed britta water with tap water with good results, but that would be a pain for a large tank. At the very least you could use britta water to do the acclimation to get them used to hard water.

And perhaps it is time to try cichlids?
 
TKOS said:
And perhaps it is time to try cichlids?
Click to expand...

We're starting to think cichlids these days as well. Our water is very hard and difficult to do much with. kH 260ppm and gH 400ppm I think I tested recently. The pH in the tank was holding at 7.9-8.0 but seems more like 8.5 these days. But at the moment there are still 10neon and 3 glowlight and some guppies in my 40g tank, so I'm looking for a bigger tank to set up for the cichlids maybe. Then gradually convert the 40g over later if the tetra can't cope with the water here. They do seem happy enough at the moment, but the long term is another matter.

Did try to soften the water in the past but got into trouble as we are out in the bush in australia and with the drought we don't have a lot of choice in water. Was using some softer rainwater to try and soften the tank only to find there was an off scale nitrite spike in the water I was using - decaying leaves in the storage tank maybe that I didn't catch due to not testing the supply often enough. Lost a few fish over that so went back to the hard well water which is otherwise 'safer' and more consistant...
 
Aescleah said:
not sure what sort of set up you are going to have you can put them in a sump or a open top aquarium. mangroves can live in all sorts of conditions from saltwater to freshwater they can clean up No3 and phosphate troubles in no time not sure about the laws about keeping them in texas though you might want to do some research on it.
Click to expand...


Mangroves need a high content of calcium to stay healthy, so unless you were keeping african cichlids or something requiring a high calcium content mangroves wouldn't last long. They also require high lighting. Fast growing plants would be a better solution.
 
My experience w/mangroves was that (even with high light) they are not very good nutrient sponges. Lots of other emerse plants are far superior - even spatiphyllum at a fraction of the light.
 
RTR said:
My experience w/mangroves was that (even with high light) they are not very good nutrient sponges. Lots of other emerse plants are far superior - even spatiphyllum at a fraction of the light.
Click to expand...

I agree, mangroves do a good job on nitrates in large numbers, but in aquaria they need other helpful sources of nutrient export to keep water quality good.
 
Actually, yes, I have strongly considered cichlids. And surprise, surprise, they have a very good selection of Rift Lake cichlids at the LFS's. Even though the LFS uses R/O water in their tanks, aparently the local fish breeders realize what they are dealing with.

I honestly like the look of those types of fish...but I am dying to do a planted tank. I would like to have a cichlid tank in one of my smaller tanks, but jeeze... But I still may surrender to the local conditions and put planted aside for now.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
AquariaCentral.com
Top Bottom