tootie Posted July 13, 2009 Share Posted July 13, 2009 Hi Folks, Currently I have a few too many tanks. Anyway, addiction tells me as well as urgent need that I need a bigger tank to house my new tang cichlids. I have recently fell in love with the tangs and also shellies. Problem is that I still like the malawi cichlids that I have breeding colonies of. I have 2 x 2fter, custom made on stand for small colonies I have 4 x 2ft tanks - different shellies, juvi Peppermint BN and the new tangs I got (temporary till I get organised) - all in seperate tanks. Several smaller tanks for fry. 1 x 2and a half footer colony 1 x 4fter colony. As you can see too many small tanks and looks a bit untidy. The tanks have either Aquaclear hang-on filters, eheim canisters or sponge filters and all have heaters. The dilemma is that it looks like I may have to get rid of the malawi cichlids to make room for the tangs. My idea is that I keep a standard 4ft and buy a 4ft x 2ft x 2ft. Then I get rid of all my malawi fry so I don't have several small tanks running. Questions are: When people are in this situation how do you make the decision Also the other problem is that a few times the electricity 'trips' which shows obviously that it is overloaded. Is this common for others and are there ways you can overcome it without moving the tanks? I have tanks running of filters and heaters and try to do weekly water changes. I should have said that all the tanks are in my dining room For discussion just wondering what the preference for forum users are between tangs and malawis and reasons? Many thanks in advance. Tootie Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Finn Posted July 13, 2009 Share Posted July 13, 2009 Toots - its a bug that will not go away!! We started with a malawi tanks and we now have: 1 x 3ft - breeding Kribensis and breeding bristlenose 1 x 2ft - 4 peppermints and 6 var. moorii 1 x 6ft - various malawi (venustus, maingano, chitimba bay gold, blue dolphin), 2 dubs, 1 goby, 1 cuckcoo cat and 1 pleco 1 x Aqua One - breeding pair of parots That is just inside the house - lounge and dinning room. We then have the 'converted' garage which has: 1 x 4ft - breeding colony of flavus 1 x 4ft - breeding colony of Brasiliensis 1 x 2ft - growing tank for 25 dubs 1 x 4ft - breeding rainbow cichlids, 8 lionheads 1 x 4ft - breeding colony of maingano; breeding colony of afra cobwe 1 x 2t - electric yellows - start of breeding colony 1 x 2ft - juvie blue dolphins 1 x 2ft - juvie chitimba bay golds 1 x 18 inch - rainbow fry 1 x 18 inch - brasiliensis fry 1 x 18 inch - parot fry 1 x 18inch - miscellaneous tank - odd juvies we have found in the various tanks! 1 x 5ft chamber tank - current only 1 chamber with 1 Afra Cobwe female holding. Am sure there are more somewhere and we certainly know the pain of the electricity bill! It grows and it grows quickly! I love the Tangs and my Malawi's as well as the South American's so we are keeping them all housed somehow!!! Good luck! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tootie Posted July 13, 2009 Author Share Posted July 13, 2009 Thanks Finn, You are certainly worse than me. You're lucky you are both into the fish. I keep getting told 'no more tanks' - 'you can't keep up with what you have'.. Just wanted to clarify that what I mean by tripping the electricity - the safety switch at the mains turns off periodically (if extra appliances, apart from tanks, are getting used such as the kettle) which means that the electricity goes off. THen my partner has to get up on the ladders to switch it back on at the mains - I am too short to reach so need to invest in a taller set of steps. My response was stop using the kettle. Seriously though we are lucky it has happened when we are at home, otherwise the fish would be dead. Cheers, Tootie Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
parkesg Posted July 13, 2009 Share Posted July 13, 2009 Hi Shirley, I had this tripping issue with mine, and got a sparky in to put in another circuit, think it was a few hundred $. It was incrediable annoying when this happened and you have to keep going out and re settting the safety switch. Other things you can do is move onto sumps and reduce the amount of individual pumps/heater/filters etc,... In terms of making the decision you just do it, I have had to do it many times and have never really regretted it once the new fsh were in the tanks and settled in...unless your giving up something thats really hard to find and may never find it again. Cheers Grant Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tootie Posted July 13, 2009 Author Share Posted July 13, 2009 Thanks Grant. Yes, sumps are an option. The problem is that at the moment I don't really know how to set it all up. I have some time to think about it as I won't be doing anything until my tax money comes back. I want to also give it some serious thought so I am happy with whatever new set up I get. If I go for sumps then I will probably drop you a 'PM' if that's ok, ask questions on this forum, at the meetings and also some of the people I have bought fish off. So I can get as much advice as poss then like you said 'go for it'. I think I should blame you for my new 'tang' addiction!!!!! Cheers, Shirley Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
intern1 Posted July 13, 2009 Share Posted July 13, 2009 i have a saying once you do something do it properly so it might be even better for you to get 2 or 4 6 2 2 and build or get some heavy duty steal racks. I would also speak to a sparky like grant said he might have some ideas how to lower the cost of your electricity bill maybe a solar pannel lol Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
parkesg Posted July 13, 2009 Share Posted July 13, 2009 When your ready your more than welcome to visit or PM and I can show you how I do it. Sumps are a great option with tangs as they stabilise the whole setup which is ideal for Tangs.. Cheers Grant Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
intern1 Posted July 14, 2009 Share Posted July 14, 2009 There is a one problem with sumps is that once they is a pathogen in the sump all the sumps connected will get the pathogen and therefore lead to infected fish Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
brucem Posted July 15, 2009 Share Posted July 15, 2009 Hey Shirley, like Grant said, you've made up your mind you like the tangs, so, although it seems really hard at the moment to get rid of the malawi, you won't regret it. Should you change your mind, you should be able to buy most of the malawi's you have, or others, again. Depending on whether the moratorium on tanks is lifted by your partner, you could go for a malawi, all male tank, along with the mix of tang tanks. Just a thought. All the best Bruce Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
benfarrow Posted July 25, 2009 Share Posted July 25, 2009 Why not replace individual filters with one small air compressor suppling air to sponge filters? Provided a water change is performed every week you should never have any problems, just a thought. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tootie Posted July 26, 2009 Author Share Posted July 26, 2009 Thanks to everyone for their input. I am slowly starting to take the plunge and get rid of some of the malawis. Your thoughts exactly, Bruce, in perhaps setting up a male only malawi tank. At the moment I want to downsize a bit as have too 'many fingers in too many pies (so as to speak)' and am starting to see it more as a task than a hobby. I would rather focus on my shellies and other tangs for a while. There are advantages / disadvantages of sumps and not quite made up my mind about that yet. I wouldn't have thought that the sponge filters would be enough in a large tank - has others any thoughts? However, I was thinking it may be an option for the 2 fters. Too many options. Cheers, Tootie Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
benfarrow Posted July 26, 2009 Share Posted July 26, 2009 5 years ago I started with two electric yellows in one 2ft tank with a sponge filter. Today I run around 20 tanks from 4x2x2 being the smallest right up to 8x2x2, I too started with malawi then saw the light. Currently only breeding WC msobos and WC redcaps, the rest mostly WC tangs. Only on the most rare and touchy fish do I run canisters, the rest are sponge filters and I have never had a loss because of ammonia or other water problems, again the secret being regular water changes. Good luck. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tootie Posted July 26, 2009 Author Share Posted July 26, 2009 How many sponge filters would you put in a 4 X 2 X 2? You say weekly changes, so if I had to use sponge filters how much water change would be best to do weekly? You say, you use canisters for the most sensitive of your fish - what ones specifically? Thanks in advance for your help. Cheers, Tootie Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
benfarrow Posted July 27, 2009 Share Posted July 27, 2009 Two large sponge filters is more than enough when you change 25% every week with 10ml of seachem prime added. Though I feel this advice is pretty standard in fish keeping, to avoid any possible problems. The three types that through personal experience I have found that the risk is just too high to run sponges, is Fasciatus, Horei and on some level Tropheus (though I know a tropheus breeder that only uses sponges). To add to my first post regarding, shouldnt have any problems with sponges, generally speaking they are more then satisfactory except for the 10 WC Fasciatus and 15 WC Horei young that made me cry for many nights:( There would be many more than just these three, but it is these three that I have had a negative experience with. In saying this I keep and breed many others with no problem with sponges these include shell dwellers and even boops. Again for larger cichlids like Frontosa you will need something a little better. Anyway good luck and hope this may be of some help. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Archived
This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.