65 Gallon Tanganyikan Tank Journal

In order to keep within the three picture limit per post (as far as I understand it now) here is the continuation from the above:

Underside of rock:



I planned out my moves very carefully when adding the rock and removed the 40 breeder underneath the 65 in case of disaster. I bumped the tank as I was picking up the rock and it shifted off the plastic shims I had under the stand. I am glad that happened as the tank would have cracked if it was full of water. I replaced the shims with one piece wooden ones I machined on the milling machine. They won't slip now.

There was only about 3/4" clearance to get that big rock in the tank. I wouldn't chance standing it up. I have another one I am going to stand up on the other side. I was hoping the substrate around and under the rock would hide a lot of it, and if the fish burrow out a cave-even better.

Silicone cement padding on vertical rock:



Rock supports:



Sand and water in to settle and fill in the holes. I'll drain this water and add new if need be.

12/7/09: I have finished the tank to the point where I can put fish in it. I still want to do something with the rock on the left side because I can see the silicone too readily. I am not sure what I am going to do there. I was thinking of siliconing two rocks together so they could hang off the one rock and hide the silicone.

This tank has Vallisneria in the front left and center only. I don't plan on any moss or Anubias. No duckweed or other floaters either.

I have two 65 watt 6700K PC bulbs up top. I am using one Eheim 2213 Classic canister filter and one 300 watt heater.

All real rocks and tried to match the substrate to the rocks. I tried to pick up the colors in the rocks in the substrate, as if it were a naturally occurring sand formed in place.

The substrate is a blend of Carib Sea African Cichlid Mix, Carib Sea Super Natural Peace River sand, Carib Sea Instant Aquarium Sunset Gold sand, Seachem Onyx sand, some fine reef sand of unknown brand with some pink tones, and some Carib Sea Florida Crushed Coral.

The photo is of the tank after pouring in a lot of mulm for the filter to suck up, so the tank is really cloudy:



12-10-2009:

A member of New Jersey Aquatic Gardeners Club, Drew S., is driving over to work tomorrow to deliver 5 Paracyprichromis breeding adults, don't know the sex ratio or locality, 5 Altolamprologus compressiceps-don't know the locality, and one Neo. buescheri. I have 5 adult breeding N. leleupi I could add in and get them out of the 38 they are in, plus my own Alto. compressiceps, but I am not sure. I do like the buescheri and would like to get more, but I also like J. regani Kipili (edit: in 2019 now called J. marksmithi) a whole lot too.

I also have my 4 adult Synodontis lucipinnis, but I am thinking of separating them and trying to spawn them. I'll never get them out of the tank without removing the rocks.

Mike-most of the rocks were all dug up from my back yard over the course of 20 years. I think I bought the first big rock I have in the bottom (the one with the scale on it in the beginning) for a buck at the garden center down the street from my house.

I was looking behind the rocks today and there is a whole lot of room back there very dark and cave like. There is about 6" of space behind the rocks at least. I am guessing the Paracyps will like that a lot.

12/10/09 PM:

I have 3 male and 2 female Paracyps. I think one female is holding eggs. I put the N. buescheri in too. All have settled in well and have eaten some flake food already. I will be looking for a few more females once I figure out the locality of the Paracyps I have. I also want to get some more buescheri. They were all purchased at Absolutely Fish in Clifton, NJ. I did take some photos of the cleared up tank, but the Paracyps are hanging out in the dark areas behind the rocks mostly and didn't get them. One male did hang out nose down right on the surface of the big dark rock on the right of the tank. Looked pretty cool.

I didn't put the Alto. calvus (not compressiceps) in the 37 gallon tank as I am not sure I really want to keep them. Drew S. says they are two years old. One bad thing happened. I didn't acclimate them to the water slowly and they went into stress right away. I checked pH and it was about 7.5. I don't know what Sloot kept them at. I added some buffer-2 tsp and 2 tsp of lake salts. One died anyway. The other 4 are still alive and just sitting on the bottom, but look like they will pull through.

Relatively clear water photo's, with the Paracyprichromis nigripinnis from Drew S., plus one Neo. buescheri.

Full Tank shot, with the Paracyps swimming around:



Right side, with the Paracyps on the flat rock up top:



Center, slight rust staining on right side rock:

Paracyprichromis from underneath, taken through the side glass of the tank, and some other shots: