My first planted cichlid tank
- Thread starter tiger15
- Start date
I honestly don't know. I never risked it because I had access to a domestic one.
I couldn't say for sure either way.
I never had any issues with the pet rabbit ones I used.
Do you pick up the first or second round droppings. Rabbit don't digest their food thoroughly, so they habitually eat their droppings to pass through the gut twice.
I have large cichlid that dig, so I keep mostly non-substrate plants and root tab is useless to me. My African fern, Java fern and Anubias are naturally rock/drift wood bound plants. Even my Amazon sword is tied with fish line to a rock instead of planting in substrate. The live plants sold in my LFSs are not planted but weight down by lead, so I 'll wait and see if my Amazon sword will make it. If it works, I may attach other stem plants to rock. I am experimenting with different plants to let them sort out.
So far I haven't seen my Vieja or other fish munch on the plants. They are well fed daily. But I will be away soon for vacation without feeding, so I don't know if they will be hungry enough to eat my plants. Each time I came back from vacation, my tank turned crystal clean because my lazy Bristo pleco did their job. Also, I keep only tough texture fern, annubias and Amazon that aren't palatable to fish from what I read, and I will soon find out.
I haven't seen much algae growth except BBA which I am experimenting ways to control by peroxide or Excel. My plants are on the rock, so I can take them out and spray them. BBA is not new but pre existing in my non planted tank. With tripling light intensity, BBA could have taken over if not because I heavily planted to begin with.
I have large cichlid that dig, so I keep mostly non-substrate plants and root tab is useless to me. My African fern, Java fern and Anubias are naturally rock/drift wood bound plants. Even my Amazon sword is tied with fish line to a rock instead of planting in substrate. The live plants sold in my LFSs are not planted but weight down by lead, so I 'll wait and see if my Amazon sword will make it. If it works, I may attach other stem plants to rock. I am experimenting with different plants to let them sort out.
So far I haven't seen my Vieja or other fish munch on the plants. They are well fed daily. But I will be away soon for vacation without feeding, so I don't know if they will be hungry enough to eat my plants. Each time I came back from vacation, my tank turned crystal clean because my lazy Bristo pleco did their job. Also, I keep only tough texture fern, annubias and Amazon that aren't palatable to fish from what I read, and I will soon find out.
I haven't seen much algae growth except BBA which I am experimenting ways to control by peroxide or Excel. My plants are on the rock, so I can take them out and spray them. BBA is not new but pre existing in my non planted tank. With tripling light intensity, BBA could have taken over if not because I heavily planted to begin with.
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i have no experience with this, but I know many people put root tabs in their filters to make them easier to deal with. I believe it works just as well.
Tiger 15 your tanks are impossible. I have no idea how you manage to make it work but you do. Once again showing off your fish whisperer wizard skills.
It's only semi working. About half the plants I set out at the beginning have either melted or hanging on with zero growth, and the other half are making it with slow growth. The pics look a lot more lush than it really is. It's not hard to set it up to look good with new plants, maintaining it to look good for long term is the challenge. I just received my order of Metricide (Excel substitute) and will start dosing it to see if it helps to promote faster growth and control BBA. It's a learning experience and work in progress.
Not sure if they were round one or two droppings. I just got given a bag and put one per plant.
I used to plant and the surrounding it with heavy rocks so the cichlids could not dig them up.
I've also found mosses very useful in cichlid tanks.It can become quite lush once established.
I also like to let algea take over for a nice green mature look.
Hornwart does well with large cichlids just left floating.
Here are a few examples.
These lotus lily really took off and filled the tank fed on rabbit droppings.
This tank above is planted with moss and a layer of duckweed.
This tank was planted with just hornwart left floating.It soon fills the tank and needs regular trimming.
The tank above has no plants and algea was left to cover rocks and roots.
That last picture is beautiful. I find that the 'algae tanks' are the most beautiful.
The tank above has no plants and algea was left to cover rocks and roots.
markstrimaran
has some. He is really good at planted cichlid tanks, too.
