225 Build - Funky Style

[Lance]

Originally Posted by lastlight

It's beyond salvage dude! Return to sender.

It'd look a little funny under your Solana Brett.

Nice looking tank Funky!

[Funky_Fish14]

Altitude:
Thanks! Brett definitely gets the credit for the stand and tank & concept though! I just switched up the plumbing, pump, and the contents... etc...

If you think plain colours... you have not seen my fish! (or dont know what they are??) Plus, I already have all the FW fish I'll ever have... bought them all at small sizes and am growing them up (fast too, holy). (the only thing im missing is (Ex)cichlasoma (or Nandopsis) beani... hard to find.

I dont really like most of the 'common' cichlids... JD's look nice but im not into them (same with the EBJD you mentioned). Most of my fish are less common (some very uncommon), the exceptions being my silver dollars as dithers and a couple jaguars because I have always loved jags (they are very blue jags to boot)

Discus are awesome but I just dont have the room and got into these other ones instead. If I had time/space/money i'd definitely get some; but i have too many tanks as is.

Im not going to heavily plant the tank, simply add a couple easy plants that can take the water movement and aggressive fish. (Will try some java fern and annubias anyways).

Thanks about the substrate! It was an accident at first (and was in a really small ratio) but I played around a little while with the ratios and found something that looked the best imo. (just over 1:7 onyx to the Emerald Creek Garnet). I did get an MSDS sheet for the garnet to find out what was in it before I bought it.



Lance: Haha agreed. And thanks!

[lastlight]

Geez I gotta stop posting in this thread people are going to think we're dating.

Oh.

Shoot.

[Funky_Fish14]

Alrighty here is an update of what the tank looks like since adding some decorations (and with the crappy Marina fixtures above it lol. Like I said i'll be getting a tek light within the next couple weeks. Also cleaned up a lot of the junk in the fish room and tools and stuff that were spreading out of the fish room (basement is still in progress, lol. But we are getting there slowly... its tough to get things done cause im in school all the time and my dad retired from a company but then started a consulting/project management company so hes still busy).



Here are some shots of the fish I added yesterday. I also decided to move my Royal Knife from a 112 to this tank (to help 'diffuse' some of the aggression toward the La Ceiba).


The Parachromis sp. "La Ceiba" (She has been picked on and is angry so she looks like crap and is pouting in the corners). She is 8-9" long. Got her at 6-7" last august. She is a couple years old.




Here is my Royal Knife (Chitala Blanci). He is 14" Long. I bought him at 9" long about 5-6 months ago.



A type of Pike Cichlid (Crenicichla lenticulata, "Rio Atabapo" variety). She is 12" Long. Shes the big boss of the tank, but the Argentea spends more time chasing everyone (but her) around. Lenticulatas are known for being one of (if not the most) aggressive pikes. They usually wont kill anything but will definitely not back down for anyone (even fish double or triple their size) and they can legitimately take on much larger fish.







And finally a couple more pics of the argentea for good measure. :P






I need to get someone with better picture taking skills and a better camera (Im using my blackberry storm's 3.2mp camera which is surprisingly good for a phone, but its limiting.). And a better light.

Hey Brett... got a question... do you have any idea what on earth is going on with the overflow there? Its as if the material is bubbling back in there. I pressed against it from inside the box to no avail. It doesnt budge and I dont remember it being there before and I did nothing to it. Anyways if you have any ideas...? Thanks.

Thanks everyone for looking!

Cheers,

Chris

[Funky_Fish14]

Oh the substrate (though hard to see, I'll get a picture tomorrow) is a mixture of a purple-y sand I picked up locally from a place called SIL industrial Minerals (a sandblasting company) and seachem Onyx (which is grain and has a much larger grain size). The mix was accidentally created in a 15g tank I have running, some of the old onyx did not get taken out, and I filled it with the new sand... found out it looks very natural so I went with it (as opposed to that ugly white sand people put in saltwater tanks :P) or black stuff, haha.

Sorry for rambling more.

Cheers,

Chris