I just recently got my 135gal setup and wanted to share a pic. I am pretty happy with the aquascape as of now considering I had a limited amount of things to work with. Once I gather more rocks and driftwood I will add to what I already have. For now though, I didn't want to make it to complicated as I will be growing fish out which will involve me having to remove some.
Specs on the tank...
135gal (72x18x24)
Filtration: Marineland C-530, AC110 and a HOT Magnum
Lighting: 48" BeamsWork "Bright" LED
As of now the stocking is only a single Nicaraguan and a Sengal Bichir. I am waiting on an order I put in to my LFS to arrive. Final stocking will consist of 1x Vieja Synspilum, 1x Hypsophrys Nicaraguansis, 1x Thor. Ellioti, 1x Crypt. Sajica, 1x Hero. Multispinosa, 5x Filament Barbs and maybe my Bichir.
Thanks for looking, and please feel free to post your compliments and/or criticisms!
That is art.
Honestly. The whole thing you've done there with everything is art. It could be something you swam up to in nature.
My head screams red head geo and rotkeil severum when I look at it.
But your list is nice also. I like the denison barb over the filamentosa. Then again if you do a filamentosa perfect, few non cichlids that size can touch it, denison included. I just find growout filamentosas a crapshoot.
Then again if you can aquascape like that you can pick good stock .
What am I looking at? Is that a real plant species? It's a great scape.
I honestly didn't think the scape was all that special, as I was really getting frustrated not having a better selection of stones and wood to choose from! To answer the questions... The plants and twigs are actually FAKE! I bought them at Hobby Lobby (crafts store) and then cut them to size and zip-tied them together. The massive piece of driftwood I found at a near by river. It was a lot larger and I cut it down as a lot of it was uninteresting. The whole thing floats, but I just wedged it in place between the front and back walls of the aquarium. As far as stocking goes... Denison Barbs are indeed awesome! But they come with a huge price tag. I think my LFS was asking something like $26 a piece, and I would want a large shoal. So, I think I am going to try the Filament Barbs. Geos, again, are awesome! I was very tempted to get a shoal of them... and actually still kinda am. :?
I'll be sure to keep this thread updated with more pics when I get more fish in there and if anything changes with the scape. Thanks again!
beautiful setup. looks like alot of work went into it and i know your fish will be happy.
i got a 6" red hump geo that would love this. let me know if you're interested.
The large piece of driftwood floats on it's own, so I simply wedged it between the front and back of the aquarium. If you want to suspend a piece and not wedge it in place, you can use zip-ties. Just drill a small hole in the plastic rim/brace of aquarium and a small hole through the piece of wood you are using and zip-tie it in place. I just used this method in my 40gal that I'm currently setting up and it worked very well.
I decided to stop by my LFS today to see if any of the fish I had ordered came in yet. Unfortunately, they are having a hard time finding them. A lot of their cichlids come from individual local breeders, so it takes time to get in special requests. This works against me, as I have little patience and am tired of looking at an empty tank! So, I caved and bought a few fish that were not on my original stock list (nothing out of the ordinary for me).
They did have a nice shoal of Filament Barbs, which were on my stock list. But, after seeing them fully grown, in person, I decided against them. They get quite large and would take up a lot of space. I also wanted something that was more "Central American-ish", so I decided to go with a shoal of Buenos Aires Tetras. Although not Central American, they closely resemble Astyanax Mexicanus which IS native to Central America. Unfortunately, they are very hard to come by in the trade. So, I now have a small shoal of 6 BA Tetras. I would have gotten a few more but that's all they had. I will most likely bump their number up once they get more in.
As far as Cichlids go, I went ahead and picked up a nice little (2.5in) male Jack Dempsey. I saw him the last time I was there and he had really colored up nicely. I have high hopes that he will be a stunner in a few months. I also caved and decided to pick up a small (2.5in) Vieja/Paratheraps Hartwegi. I believe they are not very commonly seen in the trade so I thought I'd give them a try. They only had three and they were all still to small to sex, so I watched them for a bit and picked out the one that was showing the most dominance and color. Hopefully "it" will become a "he" in a few months. If not, my LFS said I could always trade it in down the line.
Once everyone settles in I'll be sure to post up a few pics! Hopefully a few of my original choices will show up soon so I can complete my stock.
You tanks looks awesome. I am in the process of setting up a 96x24x24 Malawi Cichlid tank. Do you think 2 of these would okay? Does anyone know if you could grow plants with these lights?
Thanks! As far as the BeamsWork lights... It really depends on how brightly lite you want your tank. I like a more subtle/dimmer look, others like theirs very brightly lite. In my opinion 2 of the 48" "freshwater bright" fixtures will work great. As far as growing plants, this again can vary. What kind of plants are you trying to grow? If your sticking to simpler, low light plants, I think they will do just fine. But, if your wanting a heavily planted tank you may want to look into the brighter "reef bright" model.
Very nice tank! I am going to change my 90 gallon tank from Africans to New World cichlids
in the future, and that is the kind of look I have in mind. Thanks for sharing!
Current stock:
1x Male Jack Dempsey
1x Femle Nigaraguan
9x Buenos Aires Tetras
1x Bristle Nose Pleco
**If you read my previous update I had gotten a Vieja/Paratheraps Hartwegi. I have since returned it to the LFS as it refused to eat for the week I had it and was flashing quite a bit.
In the pic you can see my little male Jack Dempsey in the bottom right along with my school of 9 Buenos Aires Tetras. My Nic was probably busy digging out one of her caves...
All I did was rearrange and add more rock. I also removed the small branchy twigs as the finish on them (they were fake) seemed to be coming off from being submerged in the water. I'm not sure if it would have caused any harm, but better to be safe them sorry I suppose. A couple days ago I found two more pieces of driftwood that I may use. One is kind of a chunkier piece I would set on the bottom and the other is a longer single branch. I need to soak both of them for a few days before I attempt that though. I can hopefully gather a few suitable twigs as well, as I really liked the look of the other ones resting on the bottom.
I made another stop at my LFS store today and it was relatively unproductive. I actually went to 3 different places and NONE of them had anything of interest. All I came home with were 3 more BA Tetras to add to the 6 I already had... Hopefully my luck with finding fish will take a turn here soon!
Let me know what you all think and thanks for looking!
Since I last posted, I have added 3x Thorichthys Meeki and 7x Herotilapia Multispinosa. The Multispinosa are actually in a 15gal quarantine tank at the moment. I will add them to the 135gal in a couple weeks once they put on a bit more size. I will eventually narrow it down to 2x Meeki (pair) and 2x or 4x Multispinosa depending on how many pairs I end up getting.
I've had a couple pieces of driftwood soaking for the past couple weeks as well that I am planning on working into the aquascape. I'll be sure to post updated pics here soon!
I had read this post a while back but must have missed the part about the hartwegi. I am so jealous! If I would have ordered fish online this what I would have got. Even though I have never seen one in person, I fell in love with them while doing my research.
How is yours doing and do you have any pics to share so I can live vicariously through you?
Yes, unfortunately I returned the Hartwegi. It simply was not doing well from day one. He was refusing every kind of food I offered for the week I had him and was constantly flashing. I think it worked out for the better though, as I'd much rather have a few smaller pairs than a couple of larger unpaired cichlids. I think it makes for a much more interesting and active tank.
A few updated pics... Not sure why, but for some reason I couldn't get them to turn out as good as the other ones. They are a bit out of focus and look kind of grainy to me... :?
I added two more pieces of driftwood and removed a few rocks, as I wasn't to fond of the arrangement of them on the right side.
Thanks for looking!
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