As some of you may know already I have 15 x silver dollars and 1 x Jardini in my 180 gal. Then 7 x Geophagus Tapajos in my 40ish gal.
As of now everything is balanced, no aggression, great water quality (water change once a week as soon as nitrates reach 20ppm, sometimes every 5 days if its a heavier feeding regime), I know I have ample filtration now for my stocks.
I was thinking of moving the 7 x Geos into the 180gal with the Jardini. (I really like my geos and don't want to get rid of them.). Reason for the move is that the Geos will need a larger tank long term, and I am planning to make their old tank a Marine Aquarium. So I have one freshwater and one marine.
A few options I was considering below, please let me know what you think, potential issues or other ideas I have not thought of.
1- Jardini + 7 Geos + 9 SDs. Removing a few SDs and replacing these with Geos. Do you think the bioload will balance out? Geos don't eat as much as the SDs, but they are bigger/chunkier. What I don't like about this idea is that the tank may look too "cluttered".
2- Jardini + 7 Geos. Removing all the SDs. This option worries me a little as the Jardini may start to show aggression and can in time harass/kill the geos. With having those extra SDs mentioned above there is more fish to distract the Jardini as he cant target them if there are more distractions swimming around. That being said he hasn't shown much aggression yet, but I am waiting and preparing for the day it does. I also don't like to see a tank that is too stocked. This will clear up swimming space. Do you think the 7 x Geos are enough to disperse aggression? The geos tend to stay to the lower part of the aquarium and the Jar the top. Keeping everything clean, neat and simple.
3- Everyone just lives together in an overstocked tank. Not ideal, but I have really grown to love these guys.
Originally this tank was set up for Geos and SDs. The problem was my impulse buy of my Jardini a few months back of whom I couldn't bear to part with now. I have since stopped browsing the LFS due to these problems I give myself haha.
What is a given for any option I may choose is that I will be adding more filtration. I will be installing a 100cm x 12.5cm diameter PVC pipe in the corner above my tank. This will have a 2000Lph pump that will pump water to the top and let the water trickle down through all the media back into the tank (the base of the filter will almost be in the tank). The pipe will be packed from top to bottom with small size ceramic tubes. There will also be the additional of the all the pothos from the small tank into the large ones current pothos vines.
So the 180gal will have in total 3 x sun sun 304B, all loaded almost to the brim with ceramic tubes, the new filter mentioned above, and my wall of pothos which will get thicker with the new plants.
As of now everything is balanced, no aggression, great water quality (water change once a week as soon as nitrates reach 20ppm, sometimes every 5 days if its a heavier feeding regime), I know I have ample filtration now for my stocks.
I was thinking of moving the 7 x Geos into the 180gal with the Jardini. (I really like my geos and don't want to get rid of them.). Reason for the move is that the Geos will need a larger tank long term, and I am planning to make their old tank a Marine Aquarium. So I have one freshwater and one marine.
A few options I was considering below, please let me know what you think, potential issues or other ideas I have not thought of.
1- Jardini + 7 Geos + 9 SDs. Removing a few SDs and replacing these with Geos. Do you think the bioload will balance out? Geos don't eat as much as the SDs, but they are bigger/chunkier. What I don't like about this idea is that the tank may look too "cluttered".
2- Jardini + 7 Geos. Removing all the SDs. This option worries me a little as the Jardini may start to show aggression and can in time harass/kill the geos. With having those extra SDs mentioned above there is more fish to distract the Jardini as he cant target them if there are more distractions swimming around. That being said he hasn't shown much aggression yet, but I am waiting and preparing for the day it does. I also don't like to see a tank that is too stocked. This will clear up swimming space. Do you think the 7 x Geos are enough to disperse aggression? The geos tend to stay to the lower part of the aquarium and the Jar the top. Keeping everything clean, neat and simple.
3- Everyone just lives together in an overstocked tank. Not ideal, but I have really grown to love these guys.
Originally this tank was set up for Geos and SDs. The problem was my impulse buy of my Jardini a few months back of whom I couldn't bear to part with now. I have since stopped browsing the LFS due to these problems I give myself haha.
What is a given for any option I may choose is that I will be adding more filtration. I will be installing a 100cm x 12.5cm diameter PVC pipe in the corner above my tank. This will have a 2000Lph pump that will pump water to the top and let the water trickle down through all the media back into the tank (the base of the filter will almost be in the tank). The pipe will be packed from top to bottom with small size ceramic tubes. There will also be the additional of the all the pothos from the small tank into the large ones current pothos vines.
So the 180gal will have in total 3 x sun sun 304B, all loaded almost to the brim with ceramic tubes, the new filter mentioned above, and my wall of pothos which will get thicker with the new plants.
