bigfishhead Posted April 26, 2011 Report Share Posted April 26, 2011 I think my tank is heavily stocked..... Even most of my main stocks are fry around 4~6 cm. But still I got about 40 cichlids in my 760L. So I really need a long time plan here to keep the tank balanced. Water change: My tank is running about 5 weeks now. 4 weeks for the water cycling with a few fish in. One weeke with my main stock added. I have not done any water changes yet but adding the water from 60% to full tank when main stock added. Can anyone tell me if I need to do the water change this week or every week onwards? 20% water change for that size of tank? Sucking and bottom cleaning fish: I got a large pleco in the tank at moment about 25cm and a albino rainbow shark 13cm. He is a good cleaner. He sucks on the windows and eats all the leftovers most of the time. Do I need to put in more sucking type fish like bristlenose catfish to help? What about cory catfish? Will they become too small and get eaten later on when my frontosa and giraffe get bigger? I personally not feel comfortable to put in cory catfish.... So what is the best "cleaning force" stocking to go with my current tank setup? Any suggestion? Much appreciated... :bounce: :bounce: :bounce: :bounce: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ryanjury Posted April 26, 2011 Report Share Posted April 26, 2011 For starters your tank is nowhere near heavily stocked I had over 80 fish in a 540L tank including adults giraffes dolphins etc before my tank crash. The fronts when they grow will take up some space in the future so it may look full then. I would change 20-25% a week or even twice a week if you can be bothered, you will probably find that you only need to do them every 2 weeks (really easy to measure nitrate levels and find out how fast waste is building up) but more is always better. I would have been doing them from day 1, or are you trying to say that you had been topping the water up instead of changing the water? Cories are a no-go have seen them in cichlid tanks before most of them had half of their fins missing and eyes missing etc, I have had luck with bristlenoses and they seem to do well in african tanks they do get a bit of a hard time (but so does everyone else) but mine still breed etc in there so they were obviously happy. What are you looking to "clean" is there algae everywhere or uneaten food? You could add some synos to help clean uneaten food and for something different.. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bigfishhead Posted April 26, 2011 Author Report Share Posted April 26, 2011 Thanks Ryan! You are so early I can see you really live on this form I had 4 cory catfish in my 200L tank with cichlids and 3 of them got half fins or something like that and finally died. Now I only got a one cory left in my 200L tank with dems frys which from you...hehe. The reason I want to put cleaning type of fish is for that big size of tank, cleaning the alge on the windows will not be a fun thing to do.... I will try everything to reduce the chance to do that. So a good windows sucker and alge eater like rainbow shark comes in mind. Also bottom fish that eats leftover food. Yes, I mean I top up the tank to full after I added main stock. I will test the water everyweek. I think I will do a 20% water change this weekend and keep the water change everyweek. Even I been told by Mike I dont need to do water change much....as he didn't do any water change for his large frontosa tank upstairs for a few months..... What is synos? clown loach?.... :facepalm: :facepalm: Sorry been so noob... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Matto Posted April 26, 2011 Report Share Posted April 26, 2011 syno's are a group of catfish eg synodontis multipunctatus Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
myfishybuisness Posted April 26, 2011 Report Share Posted April 26, 2011 http://www.google.co.nz/imgres?imgurl=h ... CDIQ9QEwAg Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
myfishybuisness Posted April 26, 2011 Report Share Posted April 26, 2011 http://www.scotcat.com/articles/article24.htm, and this is some info on them Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bigfishhead Posted April 26, 2011 Author Report Share Posted April 26, 2011 wow... interesting fish...I saw them before. Hmm, are they expensive fish? how much roughly? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Matto Posted April 26, 2011 Report Share Posted April 26, 2011 $100 each normally Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bigfishhead Posted April 26, 2011 Author Report Share Posted April 26, 2011 :o I may pass on that one...hehe... probably I will put in a few more albino rainbow shark and pleco..... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ryanjury Posted April 27, 2011 Report Share Posted April 27, 2011 lol wish my luck with breeding them then! I have 8 adults that I have borrowed off a friend, just need to source some more big haps to use as host fish I don't think that rainbow sharks are algae eaters as such? And also would be wary of sticking more than 1 in the same tank (think they are supposed to get quite aggressive towards each other), how well do they handle a high PH? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bigfishhead Posted April 27, 2011 Author Report Share Posted April 27, 2011 cool, good luck man. My albino rainbow has been with me for 2 years now. From the very beginning angle fish tank to 200L cichlids tank. He is VERY aggressive..... He chase my electric yellow and other cichlids everywhere in my 200L tank. He is the boss. But after I move him into my 760L tank he seems a bit shy. He always hiding under the rock and not chasing anyone... I test my PH is about 8.0 ~8.5. Is that too high for him? He still swim around and get crazy when I drop in food. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Adrienne Posted April 27, 2011 Report Share Posted April 27, 2011 Thanks Ryan! You are so early I can see you really live on this form Nah - he doesn't live on the forum - he's got two young children!! :lol: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ryanjury Posted April 27, 2011 Report Share Posted April 27, 2011 Nah - he doesn't live on the forum - he's got two young children!! :lol: lol yeah can be hard at times, but do check new posts and reply when I can, touch typing means it takes me stuff all time to post stuff Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bigfishhead Posted April 27, 2011 Author Report Share Posted April 27, 2011 Tell me about it...I got a 6 month old baby girl....I am so lucky that my wife takes all the heat....HAHAHA... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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