cjerrom

No one sells wild stock much anymore - they are just as colorful and the fish are agressive eaters. Red Alenquers, Royal Blues and Greens, Red Spots and Coari are so amazing even when compared to the highly bred colored morphs. Just like anything, the more intense the coloration the more inbreeding to get there, wilds are still the strongest. Best advice is to invest in books, read them a few times, visit the stores at different times and ask questions. I have boughten off of both sides - breeders, local pet shops and right from the origins in South America. It comes down to you watching the fish in the tank - fish behavior is subtle but definitive. Many fish whisperers in hear can list off what to look for. At the end of the day create a relationship, do your research and go from there

I have been using a Turbo Twist for my tanks for some time but I am always interesting in seeing what other experienced keepers have been using. I have Panaques and with their waste load I am wondering if there is a better solution as I think that the biofilm that builds up on the glass tube is quite substantial in a short time frame. Now I put the UV after the filter inline but are their better and bigger UV's out there? I have heard of Lifeguard as an inline but also the Hagen tank mounts are gaining popularity. Any and all thoughts appreciated.

I have a few Milwakee systems and one thing to note is that after 3 yrs the probe will start degrading as does the regulator switch where the brass valve screws into it. If you see your PH start to creep up or down you can adjust with the fin tuning but it will get to a point where you need to replace it. The sure way of finding out whether or not the seleniod is gone is that you will hear a loud buzzing noise - time to replace it. Unfortunately Milwakee does not sell the selenoid by itself but they do sell the probe. I have a few of these monitors and regulators in my house because it is actually cheaper to by a whole new system than to get a piece, smart marketing on their part. If the brass valve starts to stick due to build up of sediment (Ca2) then they recommend drilling the small orfice out. Problem here is that the valve does not regulate very well.

CO2 with pH at 6.6-6.9, 4 - 65W 6500K and 10000K Power compacts. Lots of plants - tank dimensions 4ft L X 30" H X 18" W Filtration with XP3, inline Hydor 300watt heater, and 18 watt UV Turbotwist Powerheads in back circulating forward to minimize dead zones and keep circulation high with an air pump and 24" air stone operating 24hrs as I need a lot of aeration to keep the plecos and this level of stocking when using CO2. Fish: Altums - 8 months old (10) Red Spot Discus - 6 Royal Blue Discus- 4 Alenquer Discus - 1 Coari Discus- 1 Rummy Nose- 160 Cardinals- 60 or more Plecos - Gold Nugget, Mango, L200 - Green Phanton, Tiger Pleco, 3- L007 juvies, 3- L-201 Inspectors, 2- LDA-19, 2- Pitbull Plecos Plants - Lots - I like the fish to be pushed to the front so the plants are heavy towards the back!

http://s1301.beta.photobucket.com/user/cjerrom/media/90%20Gallon%20Planted%20tank/IMG_2239_zpsbed296be.jpg.html?evt=email_share Here are the photos of my 90 gallon planted - heavily overstocked with fish of course. Keeps me honest with the maintenance and water changes!

FX5's will out perform the Eheim's any day especially for Pleco or large fish. The Eheim's are quieter, and use less power but cost wise I see the FX5 as the better value pricepoint vs performance. Cannisters are the way to go on large tanks as it keeps the filters out of site and also allow easier service since you aren't reaching over the back of a large tank to clean a filter. If you add a 20ft section or more of a ribbed hose to the extra fluval valve with the FX5 you can drain and clean the tank in 30 mins removing 100 gallons of water with the filter motor.

http://s1301.beta.photobucket.com/user/cjerrom/library/Fish%20Tanks%20-%20Plecos%20and%20their%20roomates?evt=email_share Here is the list to the Photobucket. I have about 10 more to upload as the L91, L007's, Golden Nugget and Mango Pleco's come out to eat. As I cleaned out the two FX5 filters again this week I realize one thing I need to sell off some of these plecos as they have really put a strain on my filters. After a week of eating 5-6 large zucchinis, 2-4 yams and a bag full of Spinach/Kale they pump a lot of waste out. It was not this bad three months ago but the big 191/330 and LDA-31's have really grown a lot (supposed to be slow growers!!) and as a result have pumped out a lot of wastes! I moved some of them to my 90 gallon planted tank and have seen that filter really bog down as well in only a week! Oh well my passion has to have limits and I have another batch of L190, L239's and L24/25's coming in so I must sell some of these off. Even the tetras (60 Bleeding Hearts, 80 Red Tail Hemiodus and Geophagus) are game at this point, I think that I will just add another FX5 to help out but getting some of these big fish out will definitely help.

I will start with the pics first as I could only upload three due to their size. Any help with this process as I would like to have uploaded 10 more 500Kb but they were too large? L-330 - He is my tank master at over 12.5" - there are some large L-191/190's as well that he likes to push around as well as my Blue Eyed Pleco (P.Suttoni) which is 10.5" L-200 - Green Phantom new addition (group of 5) LDA-31 - 4"-5" - Mustard Plecos - (group of 5) I will post more but you can see there are also Bleeding Heart Tetras, Red Tail Hemiodus, Congo's, and many Eartheaters from Suramenis, Jurapari, and a few odd ball varieties. Plecos are really my thing and I have to probably get another tank soon as I have filled this 300 gallon to capacity with fish. Landscape - to large 48" pieces with natural gravel - looks yellow in the pictures but its natural brown Filtration - two FX5 filters that have to be cleaned weekly - seriously the plecos clog these filters up (2hr clean up) Water changes - 25% weekly - cannot be missed! UV Sterilizer - 18W Turbo Twist keeps the tank water clear Tank is kept at 27 C with one 300water Inline (Hydor) and Two older style 300watt Jager Heaters before they went high tech! as back up Two powerheads to circulate and two air pumps to keep the water aerated to its maximum - Plecos love oxygen! Lights are LED's with night time blue lights for moonlight glow - don't really know why I have this as I am not at the office at night! Feeding daily - four ,med Zucchini's - sliced and attached with elastic bands, one yam sliced, kale and Spinach anchored to stones and algae wafers. Looking forward to trying the Repashy food shortly for the rave reviews I see on CanadaPleco. Other plecos with no pics yet: LDA19- Mega clown pleco (10 @ 2.5") L91- Three Beacon Pleco (1@ 3") L007- Galaxias- babies (3@2.5") L128- Blue Phantom (5 @ 3") L200- Green Phantom (6@ 2.5-3") L201- Inspector Pleco (4@2") P.Suttoni - Large Blue Eyed Pleco (10.5") L127- Wood Pleco (8@4") - mistakenly ordered these thinking they were 129's!! Not very pretty but sure eat a lot of plant material!

LDA-24 -Pitbull Pleco? I have some very similar to that in my tank and they fade in and out depending on if they are trying to intimidate the others. Just my two sense.

How do I attach a file like a word or exel document in buy and sell (I have a few Colombian Wholesale Fish lists) - I had worked down there briefly and I now import fish in my spare time when the inventory looks exciting. Plecos/Discus/Angels/Stingrays are quite abundant this time of year. Lots of corys and tetras as well but I like passing on the savings if people want to order in bulk.

Wow theese are all quite amazing tanks - nice job - I like that a lot of people put the PH, KH, GH and whether or not there is CO2 and fertilizer being added with the tank dimensions. Can we ask that everyone does that along with light output as in what type of lighting is used (LED, HO, daylight bulbs with 6500 or 10K and so on). I see a lot of experienced hobbyist here with picturesque tanks and I am sure many of us would like to know some of the secrets to these setup so that we can replicate these. Petshop staff I find are harder to really talk to with regards to anything outside of the fish side of things, planted tanks seem to be the escheleon of tanks in my thinking, I could be very wrong in thinking that though. Any one using heated substrate? What type of substrate works best and what type of root fertilizers seem the best for Swords and stem plants (Cabomba, Red ludwigia and such)? Curtis

Exaclty what I was looking for - Thank you again for this. Curtis

Hi I am new here as well. I live in Calgary and I do fancy the cichlid side especially the Discus and Altum Angels - I love the wild stock as they are so interesting to see them act like fish and not ornamentals. I love watching the Altums coral the smaller tetras (cardninals and Rummy's) and try to pick them off in the community tank. Not into this side of things with watching fish get eaten but if you have had Angels in the past or now they do not exhibit a lot of these characteristics. Currently I am housing Discus in a planted 90 gallon tank (Royal Green and Red Spotted- F1 fish about 5-6" each) with 250 cardinals and 50 rummys) Second tank is Geophagus and Plecos with large tetras in a 300gall tank with Drifiwood - Plecos are the stars here with Royal Pleco - broken and soon to be Blue Eyed with many others (I get many fish from my friends in Colombia who are wholesalers). Anyways that is my intro for the fish but I have been playing around with tropical fish since I was 10yrs old - over 30 years. Curtis