Lake Tanganyika Species • pics of my painted tank and frontosa

[cichlidgirl1]

It turned out really good. I am so happy with it. Amazing how much it improves the coloraiton of my fish.

[brettokok]

love the pic of your alpha male!

[KoenEeckhoudt]

nice dude

[Bearfan]

Beauty!

[cichlidgirl1]

nice dude

Thanks, and im a dudette(female) I noticed your from europe , loved it there, lived in germany for six years. (near frankfurt). Beautiful area, we never got to go to belgium but we did see italy, switzwerland,austria and germany of course.

[atajuni]

Very nice.

One question that I would like to ask you, which is the one that you prefer to have a bare bottom tanks or covered the bottom with sands.

Wouldn't it be difficult to do syphoning with sands covering the bottom tanks ?

[flashg]

I prefer sand to try and achieve a natural Tanganyikan look.

[cichlidgirl1]

Very nice.

One question that I would like to ask you, which is the one that you prefer to have a bare bottom tanks or covered the bottom with sands.

Wouldn't it be difficult to do syphoning with sands covering the bottom tanks ?

Well, i noticed that it is easy to vacume sand, just do it like for gravel only do not jam it into the sand like you do for gravel. Debris will sit on top of the sand so there is no need anyway. If you jam it in then it will suck up the lighter sand. Just lightly run it along the surface of the sand. After you do it a couple times its easier than gravel vacuming and twice as fast. (if you suck any up then you just tap it right away and it falls out, if you really get it up there then simply clamp the hose and it all falls back out the tube.

I like the look of sand in the tank compared to empty bottoms. just my own prefference. With african cichlids i like jet black sand and a ton of rockwork and caves, and in community south americans i like a nice yellow sand with bits of larger gravel and river stones in it (looks great with driftwood etc...)

[css virginia]

I liked that 1st. pic. with that lighting. That was interesting.!! The stand is looks good also.

[cichlidgirl1]

Thanks, the stand is in excellent shape. I am going to lightly sand and put some red oak stain/polyeurothane on it. It wont take much to whip it into shape since it looks fine as is. I just like a good waterproofing coat anyway.

[Juan]

Wow Very nice CG turned out really sharp..nice fronts by the way

[cichlidgirl1]

Thanks, the stand is in excellent shape. I am going to lightly sand and put some red oak stain/polyeurothane on it. It wont take much to whip it into shape since it looks fine as is. I just like a good waterproofing coat anyway.

what i thought was water damage was actually just dirty water spots, no need to refinish

Got first box of sand in tonight i will post pic with sand, more should arrive tomorrow.

[cichlidgirl1]

Here is my sand in the tank with new painted background. Money well spent. Turned out good. I can not get over how blue they look compared to before. its amazing the change . They are very relaxed in this tank as well.





This pic shows the difference in coloration between the burundi and mpimbwe. both are just 1 inch juvies.

[Bearfan]

Looks much better with the sand.

[cichlidgirl1]

Thanks. I think so too. Nice sand, so clean too.