#9: 76L Biotope/Natural Aquaria

Helen Hastings Dallas, United States

Comments

Most attractive planting diagram of the show. This tank lacks a maturity that I look for and shows signs of resisting balanced control.
— Jeff Kropp
This is another attractive tank that makes a perfect home for its dwarf cichlid family. The plants are well chosen for a hard water aquarium and look to be in good health. The small amount of algae is hard to avoid in a tank like this and probably serves as good grazing territory for the fry.
— Karen Randall
Anubias and Cryptocoryne do not originate from Lake Tang. Suggest algae Potamogeton schweinfurti Hydrotriche etc. There is a Vallisneria aethiopica in this Lake.
One might question the choice of coral sand for these purposes.
Bolders in LT are generally are more rounded than the stones used here.
— Pim Wilhelm

Aquascape Details

Dimensions 76 × 30 × 30 cm
Volume 76L
Lighting Dbl hood; 24-inch PowerGlo in front, FloraGlo in back, 12 hrs/day
Filtration Penguin Biowheel 170 power filter
Plants Left: Cryptocoryne sp.
Back: Vallisneria sp. (Corkscrew Vallisneria)
Right: Anubias nana
Animals -Lamprologus speciosus (Tanganyika shell-dwelling cichlids); breeding pair and their young

-Small Malaysian Trumpet and Ramshorn snails
Materials Coral sand in foreground serves as shell dweller real estate--includes purchased shells (some Neothauma from Tanganyika); gravel in back is the planting area; sandstone rocks separate nesting and plant zones, some rocks stabilized with epoxy putty.
Additional Information At the time these photos were taken (July 2001) this tank had been "running" for 10 months. This is the second
spawn of the L. speciosus pair (Boris and Natasha). A species tank for these elegant
little cichlids, it is characterized by the term "natural" as opposed to true "biotope"
because of the crypts and anubias. These micropredators love to hunt among the plants.


-Temperature 82 degrees F
-pH: 8.4
-Water source: Tap (Dallas, Texas) conditioned with Seachem Prime and cichlid additives


I mixed Fluorite and Laterite in the gravel in the rear of the tank before planting, and use Kent Freshwater plant food with weekly water changes.

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