my wifes 55 gal Calvus/shellie set up

[jhayes6405]

This is our newest tank. I jumpstarted the cycle with donor media from the mixed mbuna tank I had. The substrate is Primarily Aragonite sand with a little bit of crushed coral and ceramic plant substrate mixed in. The background is DIY textured spraypaint. Right now it has 2 very small ink fin calvus, 2 small white calvus, 1 albino BN pleco,1 ornatipinnis, 2 small eupterus cats, and 20 neon tetras. The tetras are temporary until I can find some non jumbo cyps.






This area is set up for the shellies I should be getting soon.

[angel]

That's cool. I had thought tetras couldn't handle the hard water africans need. How are they doing in there?

[jhayes6405]

They seem to be doing fine. I got them in two batches of 10. One died the next day. So, its actually 19. They eat well, and from what I can tell, are thriving.

[davidtcb1]

Looks good. I've found that Africans can thrive in the same water as most other freshwater fish in terms of temp, pH, etc., especially if/when breeding is not the goal. And with the crushed coral you have in there, you should be fine as it will buffer your water's pH a tad. We are lucky in this area to have good water for aquariums and most freshwater fish!

[jhayes6405]

Lucky here too, the water is extremely hard. You need a high pH kit just to test it! There really isn't much coral in there, the aragonite buffers quite well too.

[angel]

But don't those things raise the Ph? I thought they buffered them up for Africans

[jhayes6405]

Oh yeah, the keep the ph pretty high. Thats why i picked them for 90% of my substrate.

[jtrotter77]

aragonite will buffer Ph to about 8-8.2 on average. They wont raise ph any higher than that. so if you have soft water its will raise it but if your like most around here and water is already hard they will just help maintain the ph but wont make it any higher.

[jhayes6405]

Yeah I have been really lucky as far a water parameters. I have always been able to cycle fast. If I have ever had nitrite or ammonia spikes, they have been short lived and I have never caught them.

[baisley101]

Beautiful tank...

[Tony]

That's a really nice tank you have!!!

[sirknight]

I agree with Tina when it comes to mixing Soft, low ph fish with Hard, high PH fish, they may live together but that is not the optimal water conditions. The neons will not do well in that tank over time.

Joe

[oneyoda]

Different Idea for a background! I like it!