240 litre aqua one

[Andy fish]

Hi this is my current setup a aqua one 240litre 4 foot tank running a sun sun canister filter with fake plants

 

[CaptainBarnicles]

Lovely, a real mix you have there

 

[Andy fish]

Lovely, a real mix you have there

Yes love a bit of everything

 

[Wills]

Its a nice looking tank! Aqua One do some nice set ups these days. I am a bit concerned about your fish though, that is a lot of fish for 240 litres. From a quick head count I get

2 Parrot cichlids
5 Severums
2 Geophagus Brassiliensis
2 Electric Blue Acaras
2 Regular Blue Acaras
1 Chocolate Cichlid
2 Keyhole Cichlids
1 Rainbow Cichlid
1 Satanoperca sp.
1 Geophagus Stiendachnari (I think in the middle?)
Red Rainbows
Auralis Barbs
Silver Dollars
Clown Loaches
Opaline Goruamis
Congo Tetras
Pleco (possibly a BN?)
Costae Tetras

Thats 19 cichlids in there, 8 of them can clear a foot as adults so will require a much bigger tank and the waste they produce must be sending your nitrates sky high? The territory requirements in there are massive and just too many fish to really deal with in what I think is a 4 foot x 15 inch foot print?

What are your plans with this tank? Is it to go bigger or split them up?

Wills

 

[Andy fish]

Its a nice looking tank! Aqua One do some nice set ups these days. I am a bit concerned about your fish though, that is a lot of fish for 240 litres. From a quick head count I get

2 Parrot cichlids
5 Severums
2 Geophagus Brassiliensis
2 Electric Blue Acaras
2 Regular Blue Acaras
1 Chocolate Cichlid
2 Keyhole Cichlids
1 Rainbow Cichlid
1 Satanoperca sp.
1 Geophagus Stiendachnari (I think in the middle?)
Red Rainbows
Auralis Barbs
Silver Dollars
Clown Loaches
Opaline Goruamis
Congo Tetras
Pleco (possibly a BN?)
Costae Tetras

Thats 19 cichlids in there, 8 of them can clear a foot as adults so will require a much bigger tank and the waste they produce must be sending your nitrates sky high? The territory requirements in there are massive and just too many fish to really deal with in what I think is a 4 foot x 15 inch foot print?

What are your plans with this tank? Is it to go bigger or split them up?

Wills

Hi mate cheers for the advice yes am going for another 240litre aqua one in the next couple of months

 

[Wills]

Hi mate cheers for the advice yes am going for another 240litre aqua one in the next couple of months

Great to know, you need to go bigger than a 4 foot tank for some of these though. Especially bigger than 240, maybe a 300 or 350 litre four foot but ideally moving towards a 6 for things like the Geophagus and Chocolates. Have you had this set up long? The tank looks quite new but lots of adult fish in there.

Also are the fish always stripey like that?

 

[Andy fish]

Hi yes the tank is only about 6 months old but fish came from my previous tank that started leaking yes some of the fish look stripey sometimes

 

[Wills]

Hi yes the tank is only about 6 months old but fish came from my previous tank that started leaking yes some of the fish look stripey sometimes

Cool ok, do you have like some long term goals from this tank? Like I say I think you are pretty overstocked even in two 240 litres I think its too many fish and especially cichlids and a couple of tank size issues for the bigger guys in there.

I think if you stick with what you have now you are going to have really stressed fish that are susceptible to diseases. If the fish are showing bars like this regularly that is a stress thing. It can just happen sometimes when they are about to be fed as they get excited but outside of breeding they should be quite a solid colour, maybe with a stripe before the tail depending on species.

Do you know what your nitrate levels are like before a water change?

And also just to check do you know your hardness? A lot of London members say its quite hard water (and high nitrate out of the tap) and nearly all of these cichlids are softwater fish, this is important in some of the species you are keeping as again it can make them quite sickly and susceptible to things like hold in the head which is not a nice situation to be in.

Wills