o0Faraz0o

alright guys as I said in a post a few days ago my parents purchased me a 300 liter tank which is like 80 gallons on the calculator thingy lol. its 3 foot but tall that is why it can hold soo much water.

I originally was going with a African malawi cichlid tank and told the guy that i wanted light gravel and white rocks and blah blah. But know im kinda having second thoughts and im picking it up early Jan so I got few days to make some changes to my orders. Sooo can someone like help me kinda decide. From what I know african malawi cichlids are low maintenance? and thats what I was going for from the beginning. But I think the cichlids are equally great, is a amazon themed tank lightly planted harder to take care of than a african one like I would have java ferns and stuff plants that dont need much care and all that jazz.

pros and cons would really help..


oh and is it possible to have an amazonian themed tank without the CO2 thingy and the fertilizers?

Alessa

Ok, I dont know much about cichlids so we will have to wait for someone knowing more about that.

Now amazon, low tech, non co2, should be fairly easy to keep. Just depending on what kind of amazon fish you want in it.

soldieroffortune1974

With the cichlids rocks,driftwood and anything they can't move around and tear up would be a good start,any plants would be destroyed,uprooted,eaten and severely abused.

An Amazon theme would be great with some Angelfish, tetras,and Corydoras

Plant wise,low maintenance,low light,easy to keep I would suggest Java Moss, Java Fern, Amazon swords (of course) and a few nymphae lotus (red) for color and 1 or 2 lillies.Anubias varieties are easy (but not my favorite) Of course,we can't forget the driftwood,some nice pieces will fit in a 300 liter<-----------That's 'moderately' planted in my opinion Then again,if you're going for amazonian,it's hard to see the fish through the plants,and I love heavily planted aquariums. I would plant the rear and sides,leaving the front open,with a few 'interesting' rocks.

None of the plants I listed require CO2,and the fertilisers would depend on the stocking,and allowing the nitrates to increase.Seachem Flourish is an excellent fertilizer to use,inexpensive,and only needs to be added every few weeks,depending on nitrate levels.

o0Faraz0o

yeahh well I dont want it tooo crazy with planting and having more plants than i have fish lol. I was thinking of only using java moss and ferns because I dont want to plant into the substrate too much fuss for me. I was thinking one large driftwood or that other one forgot the name dark gravel about 20 kgs of it and few rocks which i will attach the java's too. Im going into university and im trying to have something nice yet low maintenance.

soldieroffortune1974

With the plants I suggested,all are low maintenance and consume nitrates greedily, The heavier planted it is,the better it controls nitrates,which means less water changes = less maintenance. Adding fertilizer once a month will replace lost nutrients and trace elements.

Now,if you only put a few plants in there,then the plants consume available nitrates and grow faster which means more maintenance by having to trim them a lot,the more plants,less nutrients available,so you get slower growth = less maintenance. (don't worry I am looking out for you)

o0Faraz0o

ok then ill take ur word on that how many umm java ferns and moss should i purchase for a 3 ft 300 liter tank?

oh and should I get bogwood or a driftwood to reduce pH?

soldieroffortune1974

The moss,I would suggest enough to cover a portion of the substarte,a nice moss carpet looks really good. Java ferns,I would plant on both sides, covering 1/4 of the side view and part of the back. That's a lot of green,so I suggest adding some color with the nymphae lotus (red) and lillies in the center,back. The lillies will eventually send up shoots to the surface,and produces flower blooms,very nice looking.How many of each will depend on how heavily planted you want it to look.

What is your PH of the water you will be using? I wouldn't suggest altering the PH,the fish adapt quite nicely to whatever PH they are kept in. Altering the PH can cause serious problems,and definitely should be avoided if you plan to keep it low maintenance.

As far as the driftwood,an 'intersting' center piece would work about 1/3 the size of the aquarium,or a couple smaller gnarled roots with some rocks mixed in. In Australia,you can find some interesting pieces.

o0Faraz0o

nah cause amazon water is acidic so like i was thinking of a 2 week cycling period where i would set everything um and no fish and the bogwood would slowly reduce the pH.

Alessa

The tank will most likely not cycle in 2 weeks; what method are you thinking of for cycling?

o0Faraz0o

putting food into it and using a sponge from my 10 gallons filter

Angela_96

I would recomend the african cichlids, if your tap water is hard water, and ph of 7.8+ then you are set for african cichlids. Also a good buffer for raising ph is using crushed coral for the substrate, and/or limestone.
The amazon cichilds require the acidic ph as above mentioned, if you went with them you can put peat in your filter/tank and driftwood or mopani wood to lower the ph.

o0Faraz0o

the hardness I have no idea but I just tested my water and it was green meaning either 7 or 6 so on the acidic side if it was alkaline it would hit blue i guess or at least greenish blueish lol sooo much ish yeah you get the point.

Slug

Honestly. If you are not getting wild caught fish, don't worry to much over the pH. Fish are very adaptable as long as you acclimate them correctly to your water. Chances are you and the LFS in town are running off the same city/county water. Most of the fish you see in the LFS were born and raised in water not even close to their species wild water. Don't worry about it to much, stability is the key and messing with it can throw it out of whack.

Amazonia will give you more color in the aquascape itself because of the plants, substrate, wood, and rocks all working together. Africa will give you color in the fish but the aquascape usually will be quite bare.

Its really all about what you want to see in there.

o0Faraz0o

hmmm cause the guy gave me these two things for African fish which increase water hardness and another thing. so i shouldnt use it?

Angela_96

If you get "into" cichlids like I ended up I do buy wild caught and some f1's. So I do keep my ph a stable 8.0. I don't use any chemicals to keep the water, I just have limestone and crushed coral in my tank. Using any buffers can cause instablity w/ the ph.

o0Faraz0o

the ones I am talking about are the buffers for the water hardness and stuff. and now I am confused because I dunno pH is different to GH and KH isnt it?

Angela_96

yes the hardness and ph is the same, more alkiline water (hardness) however is your higher ph and what you are looking for. the acidic water is softer.

o0Faraz0o

so in other words by just having white rocks thats what i been told i dunno what the actualy name is probably limestones or what ever I can get my pH and KH and GH and that jazz to what I need without those cichlid salts (buffers) yes?