desol

Sounds like you're (fish are) having problems with aggression? Hope you get it sorted...

Good advice guys....thanks.

Great. Hope you got some good deals!

Well, had my eyes opened again in the last few days about my tank; it's maybe a month and a half old? It seemed it was taking forever to see any reduction in my Nitrites. Every time I would check, it would be really purple in the tube (anywhere from 1-5ppm - hard to tell any difference from about 2-5ppm) so I'd add some prime to break it down, do a water change and wait. It would come down a little but not a lot, even with 40 percent water changes twice a week. I've read countless posts about cycling aquariums over the past few months at many different sites. A few days ago, I was reading a post from a women who said to not use any buffering solution for ph, because it will effect the cycle, making it take a lot longer to complete. She seemed fairly resolved in her statement. So I thought what the hell, I have to do a water change anyway. I did a 30 percent water change and decided not to add any ph up. 3 days later, my tank was completely cycled. Zero ppm's of ammonia and nitrite AND algae started to grow. Miraculous change seemingly overnight. It was drastic, almost hard to believe. Both the Nitrifying bacteria and algae were affected by the high ph (~8.3). It's bizarre that throughout all the posts on cycling aquariums across the vast cloud of the internet, I only found one person saying "DO NOT use PH buffers as it will affect the cycle". :eh: It certainly did. Next I'm wondering if I put the PH back up after a while, will the nitrifying bacteria be ok? I don't like lots of algae and the fish seem a bit better at a higher ph...they act and look a bit different. I like the high ph better, but not if it's going to wreak havoc on my cultures.

Are they a menace ck? ...or are they good for things...

Nope, wasn't overfeeding, I don't think. I read up quite a bit before I started the new tank so I was a bit cautious with that. Before, I fed my fish flakes which I don't do anymore. They're too messy. Now I feed them Life Spectrum Cichlid pellets which are much better, but to be honest I like to feed my fish here and there throughout the day, because they eat that way in nature. So what I'll do is periodically put about 10 pellets in the tank so that they float on the surface of the water (If i do a 'main' feed...i'll throw em in a little harder so they sink)...and they float around for a long while. While they float around one or two sink every now and again...so it's like a slow feed over a longer period of time. It's funny, the fish all hand around staring at them floating...and once in a while a Calvus gets brave enough and makes a dash for the top and snags a chunk. Rock Tanganyikans don't really appreciate having to go to the top to eat. But there's never any food left on the sand or anything. It's all gobbled up. Thanks for the pointer on the plankton. I resolved that it was something like that or some weird algae. Strange how it just faded away...

Weird. The strange little globs and alge/fungus things are all gone? They totally died off... Back to normal.

Whatever filter gives me the most filtration per hour. On my 90, my FX6 (rated for up to 400 gallons) is awesome. 90 gallons X 5 turnovers gives me 450 gallons per hour. Fluval FX6 is rated at 563GPH unloaded. Loaded with BioMedia gives roughly 540 gallons per hour, I'd say. Six turnovers... I'll also second CK's post above about the importance of general flow and powerhead as well as surface disturbance....to keep things fresh and moving.

Old thread, but I wanted to ammend it by pointing out that Bio-Spira, i'm assuming by it's name, innoculates a new tank with Nitrospira bacteria which are the main bacteria responsible for breaking down Nitrites. These bacteria take much longer to grow, especially in higher PH tanks. The Nitrospira bacteria are not the same as the ammonia eating NitroBacter that is contained in 95 percent of store bought items. A lot of people confuse the two bacteria strains, and their purposes, but they are not the same. Nitrobacter grow quickly to consume ammonia, whereas Nitrospira can take months to grow and reduce Nitrite levels, depending on conditions. http://aem.asm.org/content/64/1/258.full

Hey guys. Well, I'm pretty sure I've determine that it isn't Hydra. This stuff is all over the walls of the tank and rocks, but it's hardly noticable. It's also not growing past about 2-3mm in length. Definately not the predatory Hydra that i've seen in videos...+ there's just too much of it. This is more like a clear algae or fungus, I'm assuming it came from the rocks I put in. Seems pretty harmless and doesn't distract from the appearance of the tank. I'll be monitoring it over the next while, while I wait for the nitrogen cycle to complete. If it doesn't hurt anyone, I'm glad to have it. It almost seems beneficial.

I think that's the very fish in the video I posted above? Correct me if I'm wrong... Another Cyp I really like is the 'Kiriza black'.

Nice looking tank Jeditait!

Those Cyprichromis are a nice fish. I saw a fish on this video ( ), foolin with the Zaire Buescheri, and was wondering what it was. Now I know.I actually wanted to keep those this time around, but the tank will be at capacity if/when I get the Buescheri. What sub-species of Cyprichromis do you have?

UPS doesn't have in house brokerage...neither does Fedex. So I'm guessing that's why the forms?

As per the thread - Nothin but Tanganyikans. @Jaywho - The sump setup sounds great! and...nice on the Compressiceps. They're kinda like a big Calvus. I kept Julidochromis Transcriptus for a long time. They breed fairly easy and they're nice little fish...like most Tanganyikans, can be fairly aggressive when breeding and move up, down, backwards, etc....like a helicopter. - Lelupi are also a nice little fish. I'm a big fan of Neolamprologus...