Lighting For 2 Foot Tanganyika Multi Shell Dweller Tank?

[davidjp1982]

I recently acquired a 2 foot open topped tank which I have decided to use as a small Lake Tanganyika Neolamprologus Multifasciatus shell dweller setup. I will be purchasing a Fluval U2 filter (unless a better filter is recommended) and will be using sand / gravel with rocks and shells. I've always had tanks with hoods and internal lights but will obviously need to buy some clip on lighting for this tank. I saw an article on a Tanganyika biotope and the author used marine blue lighting to give the deep blue effect and would like to do the same, So can anyone recommend what strength lighting etc that I need? Also any other tips would be great as this will be my first African setup after having South American cichlids. Many thanks in advance.

 

[webbie]

Hi and welcome to the world of tangs,  I  have kept multis in a 2 footer myself bred like rabbits,but I did lose a couple from them jumping out ,you might consider putting a piece of glass on the top,lighting some pretty good clip on LED lighting about ,APS do some reasonably priced ,some come with  blue and white LED functions,if you are not putting plants in ,and i wouldnt reccomend using plants, these lighting units are fine,myself i would go for a small external filter just personal choice a 2 footer is pretty small without having an internal filter in there,get plenty of escargot shells ,e-bay is a good source,i use pool filter sand in my tang set ups,but dont put too much sand in perhaps half inch in depth,any more they will make great piles of it ,great to watch them moving sand but a pain in the arris,multis are a good fish to start  your tang journey with ,easy to keep and they breed like crazy,start with 2/3 females and 1 male if you can get sexed fish,or half a dozen unsexed and sit back and wait for the fun to start

 

[davidjp1982]

Hi and welcome to the world of tangs,  I  have kept multis in a 2 footer myself bred like rabbits,but I did lose a couple from them jumping out ,you might consider putting a piece of glass on the top,lighting some pretty good clip on LED lighting about ,APS do some reasonably priced ,some come with  blue and white LED functions,if you are not putting plants in ,and i wouldnt reccomend using plants, these lighting units are fine,myself i would go for a small external filter just personal choice a 2 footer is pretty small without having an internal filter in there,get plenty of escargot shells ,e-bay is a good source,i use pool filter sand in my tang set ups,but dont put too much sand in perhaps half inch in depth,any more they will make great piles of it ,great to watch them moving sand but a pain in the arris,multis are a good fish to start  your tang journey with ,easy to keep and they breed like crazy,start with 2/3 females and 1 male if you can get sexed fish,or half a dozen unsexed and sit back and wait for the fun to start

 
Fantastic thanks for the reply I have a plastic tray I could add to the tank to stop jumping - pretty ugly but not as ugly as a dried up fish on the carpet in the morning I suppose. Will look up those lights you mentioned, I was thinking of adding a marine blue effect or white / blue mix. I'm not too bothered about plants but I was thinking of maybe some vallis would look nice with the rounded rocks and sand however I've never managed to keep vallis from melting before. Thanks for the tip on sand depth - I am going out to buy sand today and was going to put a good 1.5 " in as I thought they liked to dig around however if from your experience less is more I will go with that. Tank is cycling now (day 2....) so plenty of time to get it set up - will post pictures soon. Thanks again!
OK I looked up APS LED's on eBay...not really keen on spending over £100 on lighting ! Is that truly a realistic figure for tank lighting? 

 

[webbie]

 APS do some LED  lights a lot cheaper than that, they do a 64 led light with some blue led lights for £26.99 or a 60 cm boyu led lighting unit for a penny under £55.00,both of these would do the job of lighting your 2 footer especially if you give the plants a miss,problem with putting plants in a shellie set up is the shellies spend most of their time re arranging the sand all day long therefore disturbing the plants,some use anubis plants which they attach to the rocks, me I prefer no plants at all ,if you are anywhere near the west mids I have a mate looking to move on some multi  young quite cheap ,I  sold him my 2 foot multi set up and he has quite afew young to move on

 

[davidjp1982]

 APS do some LED  lights a lot cheaper than that, they do a 64 led light with some blue led lights for £26.99 or a 60 cm boyu led lighting unit for a penny under £55.00,both of these would do the job of lighting your 2 footer especially if you give the plants a miss,problem with putting plants in a shellie set up is the shellies spend most of their time re arranging the sand all day long therefore disturbing the plants,some use anubis plants which they attach to the rocks, me I prefer no plants at all ,if you are anywhere near the west mids I have a mate looking to move on some multi  young quite cheap ,I  sold him my 2 foot multi set up and he has quite afew young to move on

 
great thanks that sounds like a much less painful price range I'm not far from Hereford so if I can't source any locally I may chase you up on your mates fish in a month or so when the cycle is done Thanks 

 

[davidjp1982]

This is the tank at the moment just bought some sand only went for one bag and it worked out at about just under an inch throughout the tank - hope this will be enough but can easily add more. Need to get a bigger heater as I'm maxing out my 55 watt heater keeping the temp up at 30 for the cycle. I've got a handful of river stones I collected locally going to add more eventually and obviously clean out all that gunk which I've been chucking in from my other tanks filter to help the cycle. Any tips for what to add next? 
 

 

[webbie]

That's plenty of sand ,multis will soon re arrange it to their satisfaction, also add plenty of escargot shells ,at least 20,get them off e-bay not too expensive

 

[davidjp1982]

That's plenty of sand ,multis will soon re arrange it to their satisfaction, also add plenty of escargot shells ,at least 20,get them off e-bay not too expensive

 
Yeah forgot to mention the shells of course! What about rocks will they appreciate lots of rocks or clearer areas of sand and shells to rearrange? 

 

[webbie]

Any rock work you put in is really only for looks,multis stay in and around the shellbed,but saying that a bit of rock work would make the tank look better