33G Brichardi And Shell Dweller Tank

[CLOSSIE]

Hi guys, looking for some inspiration for a 33g shellie and brichardi tank. I'm thinking of scaping with white coral sand, shells and rocks. What kind of stocking levels do you think I can get to? I'm thinking 4-6 shellies and maybe the same for the brichardi? Any help would be appreciated.

 

[webbie]

I would be wary of putting brichardi in with Shellie's,they do have a bad rep for pairing up ,spawning and killing everything else in the tank,I would give the coral sand a miss too ,go for play sand ,a lot cheaper or IMO the best to use is pool filter sand,bit more expensive than play sand but far better,what are the dimensions of the tank?,there are much more comparable fish to go with your Shellie's than brichardi,which Shellie you looking at getting?

 

[CLOSSIE]

Hiya, tank is 70/60/30 as it happens I already have pool filter sand. It was what I was using in my old tropical setup. I was thinking coral sand to help buffer the hardness. Wrt which type of shellies, I'm popping down the lfs today to see what they have and get their water parameters so I can match mine up before purchasing the fish. Willl report back.

 

[webbie]

Coral sand not really any good in respect of hardness,get yourself some Epsom salts(magnesium sulphate) from the chemists and bicarbonate of soda ,get mine from the local spar,and some cichlid lake salts,I use seachem,add the lake salts to your tank water as per dosage,check your pH ,kh,GH and add small doses of the other two until you get those levels up to what your tangs require ,pH 8 plus kh and GH around 16,when you do water changes add the required amount of salts to maintain those readings,your LFS prob doesn't add any salts to their tang tanks the fish just acclimatise to the water they are in,but for them to flourish and hopefully breed it is better to get your tank water similar to their natural environment

 

[webbie]

Meant to ask where abouts in the UK are you ? Reason I ask got a mate who,s got a lot of multis he needs to move on ,cheaper than your lfs

 

[CLOSSIE]

Hi webbie. I'm in Essex. Thanks for the info. Will look into it.

 

[CLOSSIE]

Well the good news is that I've been to the lfs, matched their ph, kh and gh , have scaped my tank and am now hoping that by next weekend nothing will have changed water parameter wise and I will be fully cycled and ready for fish.
So was thinking 12 shells to 6 shellies. Is this about right?

 

[webbie]

your tank is cycled isnt it?

 

[CLOSSIE]

Yes webbie, it would appear to be. It's been set up for 3 weeks now, using some media from my daughters tank to kick start the cycle, then some ammonia to keep it running. All numbers look good on my Api test kits. As I said, I've mucked a few things around this weekend, so I will be monitoring to make sure it doesn't kick start another cycle before getting the fish.

 

[webbie]

Hope you didn't mind me asking ,you read of so
many people starting up a tank and think its cycled because they left it running for a couple of weeks,yea 6 Shellie's will be a good start ,which ones you going for?,are you putting anything in with them ?.