# Twiggles' Tanganyika Adventures



## Twiggles

Hey guys, I've been putting together a new tank for a bit now and I thought I'd start tracking my progress here in cichlid section. I had been wanting to set a large cichlid tank since the spring and I've been able to set up a good deal of it since August.

The tank itself is 65 gallons with dimensions 18x36x24, filter is an eheim pro 2215 and the lights are coralife T5 dual fixture. Substrate is a 2:1 mix of white silica sand and argonite (the cichlid variety) which is from Menagerie. As for rocks I have about 100 pounds or so of a type of rock which I bought as "Kingston rock" from Betz stone. The rock has a lot of calcium carbonate (I'm guessing its some type of sed. limestone) and was told it will raise the pH which is a plus.

































I could have have gone with something like lace or lava rock but that wasn't available when I went (which was a whilee ago) and I was looking for something more natural anyway. The downside of course is that because it isn't porous it's fairly heavy so I was restricted to the amount of rock I could actually add. the dresser the tank is sitting on didn't like the rocks on the left side and wouldn't have held so I had to have the mass of rocks on the right side instead of the left which is what I planned for.

I really like the look of the rock though and I feel like I did a pretty good job making a nice serious of caves which some fish will surely appreciate. The other thing of course though is all the open swimming space above. I plan on planting Vallisneria in the rocky areas and annubias nana in some of the shaded cracks and crevasses of the rock faces. I know some people strictly say no to having plants in cichlid tanks but why not - the val will provide extra cover and comfort and the anubias will do well wedged in some of the rock cracks, not to mention they'll help clean my water and eat nitrates. I've also decided that I can probably have one rock dwelling species, one open water species, and one species of shell dwellers. That being said I also plan on having a large shell bed take up the majority of the sanding area on the left.

Things I plan on getting: 
-lots of shells, probably around 40 nice round ones
-Vallisneria and anubias, I was thinking maybe tiger or nana? 
-root tabs for the val
-HOB filter, thinking it might be a good idea -> extra filtration + flow ..
...

Possible inhabitants:
rock dweller - julidochromis transcriptus (3-4?), compressed cichlid (2) not sure about that one
open water - some time of cyp., preferably non-jumbo variety, or paracyps? 
shell dwellers - regular multies, n. similis ... I'm looking to get a nice colony going

Let me know what you guys think! questions and comments welcome


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## Darkside

I love the look of the rock. I'm thinking of change the rocks in my troph tank to something like that. As far as the inhabitants go, that tank is a bit on the short side for cyps, 3' is usually okay for paracyps. The others should be fine, but you'll want to start out with 6 of the julies and altos and sell of the extras once you have a pair of each that form. In a tank of that size I personally prefer calvus over comps as they are a little smaller. The shellies will be fine, but become a nightmare for your rooted plants once the colony spreads. You might be better off with Java fern attached to hard-scape items. I personally prefer multies to similis. I have a colony of similis and they really don't have the active personality that multies do, they are pretty mean though. Looking good so far!


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## pat3612

Wow that looks great I love those rocks too now I want to change mine out. Nice job ps If you paint the back black those rocks will really pop


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## Twiggles

Darkside said:


> I love the look of the rock. I'm thinking of change the rocks in my troph tank to something like that. As far as the inhabitants go, that tank is a bit on the short side for cyps, 3' is usually okay for paracyps. The others should be fine, but you'll want to start out with 6 of the julies and altos and sell of the extras once you have a pair of each that form. In a tank of that size I personally prefer calvus over comps as they are a little smaller. The shellies will be fine, but become a nightmare for your rooted plants once the colony spreads. You might be better off with Java fern attached to hard-scape items. I personally prefer multies to similis. I have a colony of similis and they really don't have the active personality that multies do, they are pretty mean though. Looking good so far!


good to know about the cyps, I was afraid they might not work. Will the paracyps occupy the open areas like the cyps would, or would they also be exploring the rocky parts? I read that the compressed altos would also like eating fry so I probably won't be getting those guys even though I think they're one of the coolest looking cichlids out there lol. Will 6 julies (calvus or transrcriptus?) all fit for the time that they're in there? and how long does a pair usually take to form? It's hard to tell now in the picture, but I'm going to tweak with the arrangement of the some rocks on the left so that they protect the val that will be planted behind it. Hopefully this little rock "wall" will prevent the shellies from even getting to them but we'll see. As for java fern I thought pretty hard about that one lol. I love the plant no doubt about it, and if I wanted to add it I have it growing in two tanks so I could just collect some baby ones and nestle them in a few of the rock cracks. I was planning not to but I'll give it some time, depends how things go. I didn't know that about similis, I've seen them at my lfs and they look a little bored, there aren't even any shells in the tank  Multies would be perfect, they would probably be better for me too since I've never had shell dwellers before. That's also why I want to have a nice shell bed - so they can keep their colony going and spreading, hopefully feeling at home. Thanks for your advice, much appreciated



pat3612 said:


> Wow that looks great I love those rocks too now I want to change mine out. Nice job ps If you paint the back black those rocks will really pop


Thanks for the comments on the rocks guys, glad they have inspired other cichlid lovers lol. I love em too, the main rock there is heavy as hell but I felt I had to have it in there. I originally got like 150 pound of it for 30 bucks, great stuff. And about the background, you're right they probably would stand out much better. What I might do is just get a regular piece of bristol board, either black or dark blue and have it nice and snug on the back.


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## pat3612

Twiggles said:


> good to know about the cyps, I was afraid they might not work. Will the paracyps occupy the open areas like the cyps would, or would they also be exploring the rocky parts? I read that the compressed altos would also like eating fry so I probably won't be getting those guys even though I think they're one of the coolest looking cichlids out there lol. Will 6 julies (calvus or transrcriptus?) all fit for the time that they're in there? and how long does a pair usually take to form? It's hard to tell now in the picture, but I'm going to tweak with the arrangement of the some rocks on the left so that they protect the val that will be planted behind it. Hopefully this little rock "wall" will prevent the shellies from even getting to them but we'll see. As for java fern I thought pretty hard about that one lol. I love the plant no doubt about it, and if I wanted to add it I have it growing in two tanks so I could just collect some baby ones and nestle them in a few of the rock cracks. I was planning not to but I'll give it some time, depends how things go. I didn't know that about similis, I've seen them at my lfs and they look a little bored, there aren't even any shells in the tank  Multies would be perfect, they would probably be better for me too since I've never had shell dwellers before. That's also why I want to have a nice shell bed - so they can keep their colony going and spreading, hopefully feeling at home. Thanks for your advice, much appreciated
> 
> Thanks for the comments on the rocks guys, glad they have inspired other cichlid lovers lol. I love em too, the main rock there is heavy as hell but I felt I had to have it in there. I originally got like 150 pound of it for 30 bucks, great stuff. And about the background, you're right they probably would stand out much better. What I might do is just get a regular piece of bristol board, either black or dark blue and have it nice and snug on the back.


The only problem with bristol board is if it gets any water on it it leaches through if you do not want to paint it I would just go to BAs or somewhere and get a black one cut that way you can wipe water off and it does not stain.


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## bae

Plants are good in a cichlid tank, even for fish that don't normally live in habitats with plants. Plant can do a lot for water quality. You might consider planting your vals in pots of coarser material, or covering the roots with pebbles to deter the shelldwellers who are tiny but very effective bulldozers.

I have a 10 gallon tank literally swarming with Julidochromis marlieri 'Gombi', a dwarf form of marlieri which is usually called J. transcriptus 'Gombi'. This tank is packed with plants, and aggression seems limited to a little displaying and chasing for no more than a few inches. There's at least one pair in there that produces a batch of fry every month or two. I didn't plan this -- this was my spare tank for new, unplanned acquisitions, but it's worked out really well for a couple of years now. The pair defends an area no more than 4-6" on a side when spawning and brooding.

If you, or anyone else, wants some of these julies, I'm open to offers or trades. I can't sex them. I can't even sex the pair! I need to thin out the herd.

Note that all the fish you list will predate on each others' fry. Comps and calvus are very effective fry predators -- their shape allows them into crevices to get at the fry, and their large mouths help them suck in prey when they open their mouths ('gape and suck' predation). Lamprologine cichlids don't defend their fry well. Their tactic is to defend the area they spawn in. This works well in the lake, but less well in an aquarium full of other fish.

Julies like small crevices, especially vertical ones, and overhangs. Julies have an amusing habit of hanging around with their bellies against the sides or even the tops of caves. You might want to work in more of this habitat, perhaps behind or between the larger rocks. You can do quite a bit with pieces of flat rock.

For background, you might consider getting a sheet of styrofoam and painting it a dark color. This will give a textured surface which looks 'deeper' than a smooth one. It will also provide some insulation to the back of the tank, especially helpful if the tank backs onto an outside wall. You can just tape it onto the back of the tank.


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## Twiggles

bae said:


> Plants are good in a cichlid tank, even for fish that don't normally live in habitats with plants. Plant can do a lot for water quality. You might consider planting your vals in pots of coarser material, or covering the roots with pebbles to deter the shelldwellers who are tiny but very effective bulldozers.


Pots are a good idea, I could get some small plastic ones from somewhere. I don't want to have loads and loads of it growing, just planted sparsely along the back kind of. I'll have to get creative so we'll see how it turns out.



bae said:


> If you, or anyone else, wants some of these julies, I'm open to offers or trades. I can't sex them. I can't even sex the pair! I need to thin out the herd.


great to hear! and very interesting. I might be interested but it's too early to tell now.



bae said:


> Julies like small crevices, especially vertical ones, and overhangs. Julies have an amusing habit of hanging around with their bellies against the sides or even the tops of caves. You might want to work in more of this habitat, perhaps behind or between the larger rocks. You can do quite a bit with pieces of flat rock.


I read about some of that behaviour, It's one of the reasons they caught my attention actually. Unfortunately I don't think my tank can handle anymore rock, I originally had more rock than in the pictures but I had to take some out. I really would have liked to have more rock believe me but the circumstances just won't allow for it so this is what I've got to work with. Also It's hard to tell from these pics but the rock formation has like an interlocking series of deep caves with tall walls and a nice roof so hopefully that can suffice. I'll take some pics of the caves next time, I think it would make a nice home for a pair of julies.



bae said:


> For background, you might consider getting a sheet of styrofoam and painting it a dark color. This will give a textured surface which looks 'deeper' than a smooth one. It will also provide some insulation to the back of the tank, especially helpful if the tank backs onto an outside wall. You can just tape it onto the back of the tank.





pat3612 said:


> The only problem with bristol board is if it gets any water on it it leaches through if you do not want to paint it I would just go to BAs or somewhere and get a black one cut that way you can wipe water off and it does not stain.


You're right I never considered that the bristol board might get wet lol. I'm not sure I could paint the back of my tank tho, especially at this stage in the game. It's an option and no doubt would look awesome but it would kind of be my last resort. A sheet of styrofoam is another really good idea, I could probably do some pretty cool things with it too. I could paint just like a dark blue or maybe texturize it with a knife to make it look rocky and paint it a dark grey or something. I'll have to give it some thought I suppose, great suggestions guys.


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## Darkside

Don't worry! There is no way that any amount of Altos will stop a colony of multies from expanding! Contrary to some of the other lamprologine shelldwellers, multies are fantastic parents with females in adjacent cells helping to care for the brood. Similis do this as well, but aren't as prolific and they don't dig as much. Occies and the other shellies are pretty negligent when it comes to protecting the brood, but N. caudopunctatus usually make pretty decent parents. If you want a black background, there is black Styrofoam (I think its some sort of presentation board) available at staples. I use it as a background on my tanks and so far so good. It seems to be fairly water resistant. I just cut it with a drywall knife and taped it to the back.


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## Twiggles

lol okay good, so does that mean I _do_ have a choice between Julies and Altos? And I think I may be a bit confused, I thought compressiceps was smaller than calvus?  I'd be happy with either one of course, although I do think Julies might be more appropriate for my tank. And that's good news about the styrafoam stuff, I have a staples just down the block from me lol. I think I'll take that route when I decide to address my background.


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## Darkside

You do have a choice between the julies and the calvus. Comps are a little larger than calvus, I've seen some large comps topping out at about 7" in length. Most calvus are about 5" TL. If you carefully aquascape your tank with the shell bed between two rock piles you'll be able to maintain all three species. Again, you could probably use more rock in your aquarium just because the tank is so tall. Without rocks closer to the surface you'll have a lot of unused water as these fish usually stick pretty close the the rocks/substrate. I'll post a pic of my Tropheus setup for comparison.


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## Twiggles

Thanks for clarifying about comps and calvus, I had it mixed around. And the thing is I really don't think my tank can handle anymore rock. When I added the origonal amount of rock I wanted to put in there the dresser was bowing. Probably because I had all the rocks on the left side which took up most of the room and the dresser is stronger on the right than on the left - hence that's why I had to go with less rock which would be placed on the right. I was hoping that cyps would fill up the open swimming area but since it sounds like they won't work I'd like to know if paracyps share similar behavior. That way the calvus or julies have the rock pile on the right, the shellies have their shell bed which will be on the left of course, and the val could provide extra cover which hopefully the paracyps will take advantage of. Will they tend to school in the open waters and/or explore the rocky area?


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## Darkside

Twiggles said:


> Thanks for clarifying about comps and calvus, I had it mixed around. And the thing is I really don't think my tank can handle anymore rock. When I added the origonal amount of rock I wanted to put in there the dresser was bowing. Probably because I had all the rocks on the left side which took up most of the room and the dresser is stronger on the right than on the left - hence that's why I had to go with less rock which would be placed on the right. I was hoping that cyps would fill up the open swimming area but since it sounds like they won't work I'd like to know if paracyps share similar behavior. That way the calvus or julies have the rock pile on the right, the shellies have their shell bed which will be on the left of course, and the val could provide extra cover which hopefully the paracyps will take advantage of. Will they tend to school in the open waters and/or explore the rocky area?


The paracyps will stick to the rocks. If you're looking for an upper stratum dither you'll have to go with a non Tanganyikan, unless somewhere like Menagerie has the ability to order some of the native killies.


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## Twiggles

Darkside said:


> The paracyps will stick to the rocks. If you're looking for an upper stratum dither you'll have to go with a non Tanganyikan, unless somewhere like Menagerie has the ability to order some of the native killies.


hmmm, maybe if worst comes to worst I can just have the two species (shellies and julies I guess) with nothing occupying the upper part. I'd rather keep it strictly tangs ... would the non-jumbo variety of cyps work (like if I were to get a few of them)? and if not could I keep paracyps and julies together?


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## Darkside

Twiggles said:


> hmmm, maybe if worst comes to worst I can just have the two species (shellies and julies I guess) with nothing occupying the upper part. I'd rather keep it strictly tangs ... would the non-jumbo variety of cyps work (like if I were to get a few of them)? and if not could I keep paracyps and julies together?


3' is too small for cyps to live comfortably. You could do paracyps and julies, but the paracyps aren't as robust as the altos. In either case both species will stick to the rocks.


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## pat3612

Keep us updated love to see tanks from start to finish.


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## Twiggles

Darkside said:


> 3' is too small for cyps to live comfortably. You could do paracyps and julies, but the paracyps aren't as robust as the altos. In either case both species will stick to the rocks.





pat3612 said:


> Keep us updated love to see tanks from start to finish.


Okay good to know, I definitely want my fish to be comfortable so cyps are officially out of the picture lol. I'm gonna guess that when the time comes to add fish that it would be best to add the shellies + a group of julies, then wait till a pair of julies forms and sell the rest. Any other fish, like the paracyps I'll assume would be added after a julie pair forms. Does this plan sound okay to you guys?

And there will be many updates to come , all of your input has already been very useful. If I'm lucky maybe I'll be able to get a few of the things I need and post some pics this weekend


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## Twiggles

Howdy ya'll, yesterday I was able to get a couple things for the tank and thought I'd post a few pics of how it's looking 





















I was able to get the plants I wanted and a small HOB filter which is working well. It's a Marina slim filter rated for 15 gallons or so, it came with these replaceable cartridge like things but I just used regular filter padding. It's doing its job of adding flow and oxygen, plus a little extra filtration never hurt anyone lol. 
As for plants I picked up some Val. Americana, anubias nana, and some narrow leaf variety of java fern courtesy of Menagerie. I know before I said I wasn't sure about adding java fern but I could help it lol, just love the stuff too much. I really like the narrow leaf kind as well, seems to suit this tank. The Val, although you can't see all of it in the pictures is planted along the back where most of the light is. When I planted them I used those little clay rings they give you to protect the roots of the plants from being digged up, plus I rearranged some of those small rocks so that they're protecting the vals as well. I also put in some root tabs since they're in a sandy substrate. They seemed a bit weak when I planted them, so I'm hoping they'll start showing positive signs soon.





















I'm pretty happy with how it's turned out so far, the roots of the java fern and anubias have already started to grow and attach themselves which is great. Dividing them up into many small plants makes the rocks feel like a little mountain lol. All I really need now is shells, lots and lots of shells ... and fish of course 
lemme know what you think!


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## Twiggles

I just found out that Vallisneria spiralis 'Tiger' grows "virtually in all light conditions", as in low light I guess. I'm thinking it might do better than americana ... can anyone say that about this plant, and if so does anybody know where I might be able to get some?


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## KhuliLoachFan

I'm a little worried that you have your tank on a dresser. If you can add 30 pounds and the legs bow out (frommore rock) then the dresser legs can still fail over time. Remember that stress here is a slow thing over time and that wooden dressers are not meant to hold up all the weight of that water. That tank, when full of water is only slightly less heavy than one completely full of rock.

W


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## Twiggles

KhuliLoachFan said:


> I'm a little worried that you have your tank on a dresser. If you can add 30 pounds and the legs bow out (frommore rock) then the dresser legs can still fail over time. Remember that stress here is a slow thing over time and that wooden dressers are not meant to hold up all the weight of that water. That tank, when full of water is only slightly less heavy than one completely full of rock.
> 
> W


I've spent many many hours thinking about that, and let me say I appreciate your concern. I agree that if the legs were to bow after adding more of rock, the risk of the legs failing would be high. That's why I'm just leaving it as is and not adding anymore rock. Its hard see from the pictures but the rock is very dense, and If it were to be completely full of rock It would be much more heavy than it is now. That's why I have less than the ideal amount of rock in there, I want to avoid adding the amount of stress that overtime will do exactly what your talking about. I'm trying to compensate for the open space with the val for extra cover and the fact that I'm only going to have two species in total.

I'm going to see about using a small jack inside and underneath the dresser where their is less support to ensure that the top of the dresser stays level over time. If I see any stress starts developing I have no problem with buying a solid metal stand or something, how I would swap it with the wood one I have no idea.


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## cichlidfinatic

Your tank looks awesome. Its looks uncannily like mine haha. When I first saw it, I had to do a double take. Great job! I can't wait to see it fully stocked! I have a colony of trophs kirizas in my tank !


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## Twiggles

cichlidfinatic said:


> Your tank looks awesome. Its looks uncannily like mine haha. When I first saw it, I had to do a double take. Great job! I can't wait to see it fully stocked! I have a colony of trophs kirizas in my tank !


Haha no way! That's so weird, perhaps their parallel universes lol. Thanks for the compliment though, I can't wait either. I might actually be getting my fish this week  There's one or two things I need but I think it's ready for fish, or one species at least. I believe it's cycled but I'm planning on testing the water of course.

Recently I got some shells, and swapped the Americana for some Val. 'Torta' so I took a few pics;





















I like the waviness of the Torta, seems to be more vertical as well. The shells are awesome too, but I'm planning on adding more to take up the open sandy part.

As a side note, advice would be welcomed from anyone about a diatom problem I'm having. there's been a diatom population for a while, nothing serious but it's started to spread to other areas of the rock a little faster than I thought. I may also be misinformed about diatoms; I know they're expected in new aquariums but do they thrive in conditions where there's an excess of something or because of a lack of light? I only have one dual coralife lamp with a 10,000k and an actinic that are 21 watts each. I realize that's not enough light for the val. to grow properly so I'm planning on getting another fixture of the same kind, with no actinic .. will that make the diatoms subside or am I completely off??? Oh and to add My lights are on for 8 and 1/2 hours a day and I do a 10% water change the same day of the week every week.


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## Will

Your tank is beautiful! It really reminds me of a tank of mine too! I have some Kingston weathered stone that I also bought from Betz.

Here's a photo of the past 220 Moba Frontosa tank I had/have. I always wanted to keep plants in it, but the wildcaught fish wouldn't do well with bright lights, let alone any light at all.










I wouldn't consider that minute amount of diatoms a problem at all. Once you have some tangs in there, they may eat it- species depending. I used a 36" (centered of the 6' tank) low output T5 Coralife double-aqualight with a 10K and actinic. Most of the time I only used the actinic light and removed the 10K bulb, but this was solely for keeping the wildcaught moba frontosa (who live at great depths) happy and less skiddish. the tank grew everything from white diatoms, brown diatoms, green spot algae to even pink coraline algae. None ever affected the tank greatly or lasted very long- aside from coraline.


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## pat3612

Great looking tanks Guys. Iam just in the process of doing a 125 will post when it is done.


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## Twiggles

Will Hayward said:


> Your tank is beautiful! It really reminds me of a tank of mine too! I have some Kingston weathered stone that I also bought from Betz.


Thanks! And interesting, I feel like its the kind of rock you might actually find there, It's just so cool looking eh? The large pieces they have there are awesome and it looks like you have a bunch of those nice sized ones in there. If I ever end up setting up a much larger Tanganyika tank I'd definitely want to use lots of large pieces of this same rock like you have.



Will Hayward said:


> Here's a photo of the past 220 Moba Frontosa tank I had/have. I always wanted to keep plants in it, but the wildcaught fish wouldn't do well with bright lights, let alone any light at all.


Your tank blows my mind, it's incredible! And those fish are beautiful, the fact that they're wildcaught is something special. I can see how having wildcaught fish would be an extra challenge, did they ever attempt to breed?



Will Hayward said:


> I wouldn't consider that minute amount of diatoms a problem at all. Once you have some tangs in there, they may eat it- species depending. I used a 36" (centered of the 6' tank) low output T5 Coralife double-aqualight with a 10K and actinic. Most of the time I only used the actinic light and removed the 10K bulb, but this was solely for keeping the wildcaught moba frontosa (who live at great depths) happy and less skiddish. the tank grew everything from white diatoms, brown diatoms, green spot algae to even pink coraline algae. None ever affected the tank greatly or lasted very long- aside from coraline.


Yeah my diatom issue is probably nothing, I'm just able to notice the patches that aren't there in the pics like around the back of the rocks and on the glass. I'm planning on having well, shelldwellers for the to-be larger shell bed, and a species of Julidochromis for the rocky/val section. I also wanna get some nerite snails, hopefully they'll munch on the diatoms. The upper portion is to remain empty, unless I decide to add something else down the road. I wanted have the nonjumbo cyps in there but I don't have the room. But I don't mind the open space cause it means a little cleaner water for the rest of the fish, plus you probably wouldn't find cyps in the same habitat anyway. 
I can understand how you wouldn't be able to have any plants in your setup, but I think for my plants to grow I need some more light. I hope the fish don't mind a little extra light either, but when I think in terms of wpg my current lighting is below "growing level". Because when I look at the val, the new growth is more transparent than the old. So I'm hoping a little more light will let the val grow in and once it gets tall enough maybe it'll help shade the rest of the tank to keep a bit of a hold on algae and whatnot.



pat3612 said:


> Great looking tanks Guys. Iam just in the process of doing a 125 will post when it is done.


Aw sweet, you must be having a lot of fun with that. I'll be sure to check it out!


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## dorramide7

Twiggles said:


> lol okay good, so does that mean I _do_ have a choice between Julies and Altos? And I think I may be a bit confused, I thought compressiceps was smaller than calvus?  I'd be happy with either one of course, although I do think Julies might be more appropriate for my tank. And that's good news about the styrafoam stuff, I have a staples just down the block from me lol. I think I'll take that route when I decide to address my background.


You do have a choice between the julies and the calvus. Comps are a little larger than calvus, I've seen some large comps topping out at about 7" in length. Most calvus are about 5" TL. If you carefully aquascape your tank with the shell bed between two rock piles you'll be able to maintain all three species. Again, you could probably use more rock in your aquarium just because the tank is so tall. Without rocks closer to the surface you'll have a lot of unused water as these fish usually stick pretty close the the rocks/substrate. I'll post a pic of my Tropheus setup for comparison.


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## zimmy

Nice work, Twiggles. I had some Kingston weathered but ended up going with river rock. You've done a really nice job with it.

Will Hayward, your tank is a thing of beauty! I love the lighting. You've inspired me to use less lighting on my 135g.

Thanks for sharing your photos.


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## Twiggles

dorramide7 said:


> You do have a choice between the julies and the calvus. Comps are a little larger than calvus, I've seen some large comps topping out at about 7" in length. Most calvus are about 5" TL. If you carefully aquascape your tank with the shell bed between two rock piles you'll be able to maintain all three species. Again, you could probably use more rock in your aquarium just because the tank is so tall. Without rocks closer to the surface you'll have a lot of unused water as these fish usually stick pretty close the the rocks/substrate. I'll post a pic of my Tropheus setup for comparison.


Although I dig the Calvus, I'm pretty decided on the getting some Julies, specifically transcriptus 'gombi' - they're awesome. I hope on getting them this week but who knows, maybe I'll get something else. And I might be happy just one rock dwelling species actually. I'm kinda hoping to have them breed so if I were to get another species it would probably be best after a pair has formed and the male kills off the others I would imagine. But yeah who knows lol.



zimmy said:


> Nice work, Twiggles. I had some Kingston weathered but ended up going with river rock. You've done a really nice job with it.
> 
> Will Hayward, your tank is a thing of beauty! I love the lighting. You've inspired me to use less lighting on my 135g.
> 
> Thanks for sharing your photos.


Thanks man. Yeah I love the stuff, river rock is awesome aswell. What kind of tank is/was is it?


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## Twiggles

*Update!*

Haven't posted in a while, I've been pretty busy but I have some sweet updates.

































I didn't feel the dresser the tank was sitting on was taking the weight very well so I got a jack to sit underneath and positioned where there is the least support. I forgot to take a picture of it, but it's sitting on some inch thick square foot pieces of wood on booth ends to spread it around. The jack is rated for like +8000 pounds so I'm pretty confident that now that the jack is there in place it won't be collapsing anytime soon, knock on wood.

With it there though I was able to add some more Kingston rock and change things up a bit. I was hoping I could find a tall slender piece for the back right but it just didn't happen lol. As you can see I added some nice pieces on the left to sort of balance things out. I also replanted the val in it's own little area which I think looks better. The other thing I did was basically make the rock pile a little larger, and added some smaller pieces on top to create a peak. Let me guys know what you think of the new arrangement!

You can Also see that there's a colony of multies in there, they've had the tank to themselves for a while and they've been loving it. They're feeding in one of the pictures I believe, and have been digging constantly as you can see. They are awesome little fish


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## Twiggles

hey guys, I know the thread has lost a little momentum, I've just been really busy with essays and things of that nature. I wanted to add that 2 weeks ago I got my Julies, went with 6 of the 'Bemba' which are very handsome fish. I forgot to mention that I've been getting my fish from Finatics, Mike's an awesome guy and has given me some good insight, so thanks Mike. The multies were giving them some trouble at the start but they seem to have started to settle down which is good.

So far things have been running smoothly but there are 2 things I would like some advice on if ya'll don't mind; First off, the algae situation hasn't been so bad, but I have started to get a dark green algae that is growing on top of the sand near where the shell dwellers live. It seems clump the sand a bit and I'm worried if I try and do something it'll just spread even faster ... does anyone know how i can contain it or will it eventually disappear??
The other thing is that until I went in to get my fish I wasn't planning on getting any cyps but Mike was saying they'd be fine as long as I went with the non-jumbo ... I personally think they would be a nice addition, but I recall someone saying they might not have enough room? What do you guys think??


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## zimmy

Here's a useful link to better understand your algae and whether you need to do anything about it.

http://www.cichlid-forum.com/articles/algae_types.php


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## Darkside

Cyps will survive in a 3' aquarium, but they won't thrive. I'd avoid them and shoot for some of the small lampeye killies for dithers if you feel that the open water is wasted space.


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## Al-Losaurus

This tank look great really making me want to make some changes to mine. i bought the eco complete salt and pepper sand for the ph buffering in it but im really starting to dislike the salt and pepper look even tho it matches my julies and calvus. Your tank really gave me some great ideas thank you


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