Back to FW, Elephant Noses and Plants

[George Monnat Jr]

As most have you have seen, I'm converting my 125g to FW due to time, energy and money considerations. I'm traveling for a week-at-a-time for work, and my reef tank couldn't handle the lack of my babysitting. I need a FW system that I can pamper for a week or two then leave alone for a week.

I'm actually looking forward to having a low-maintenance tank. I had a lot of freshwater tanks as a kid, mostly tetras and Synodontis cats. As a kid, I added the Cl remover and that was about it. I'm having trouble shifting from the SW testing and additive mindset.

1) What do you use and like to test and modify/buffer hardness?

Last weekend my wife and I went looking at some tanks (I want her to like it as much as possible), and she fell in love with the Elephant Nose Fish. I was thinking of making the tank centered on that one species, so that means sandy substrate, lots of plants and low light.

2) Does anyone have experience with elephant noses?

3) Do you recommend any plants?

4) I was thinking Anubias, because they're African and lower light. Are they root feeders?

I was thinking of adding some color with schooling fish, but most tetras are from South America and prefer a slightly different parameter ranges. The Congo Tetra is African, but it has a much different range than the other African fish we were looking at trying, and may be too small for the fish we were thinking about (ditto killifish). Is there a cichlid that is colorful, peaceful enough to live with elephant noses and African Butterflyfish without being eaten by them?

[jestep]

1. Nothing unless you can use mixed RO water. Chasing PH and hardness with FW is a bad idea. You can keep discus in austin tap as long as the water remains relatively stable and you can keep the nutrient level reasonable.

3. Anubias are good with pretty much everything. They look great, need very little light, are very easy to propagate and since they're very tough, not much will eat them. The main caveat with them is they grow slowly and do not suck up a lot of nutrients so they are very prone to spot algae, brush algae, and GHA. Also, you cannot bury the rhizome as it will rot and kill the plant.

Kribensis could probably be good tankmates as long as they don't start pairing up, they get nasty once that happens. Congo tetras would be good. Dwarf gouramis. If you don't mind fish from completely different areas, blue, gold or bolivian rams would work well. Angelfish and even discus would work. If you want schooling fish, hatchets, neon, cardinal, and rummynose tetras. Again these are if you don't mind a completely un-regionally stocked tank.

Realistically as long as it can't eat them, they'd be fine with most any peaceful tankmates. I typically shy away from most barbs and danios as they can get really nippy with slower tankmates.

[George Monnat Jr]

Thank you for the response.

Do you use Austin tap water, with a standard de-chlorinator? I'm thinking of using RODI to ATO, but I'm not sure about the original and scheduled water-change water. After SW, I wish there was a mix I could add to the RODI like with salt.

I was thinking anubias, banana, java fern and maybe vallisneria as the low-light plants that I've found. I read that anubias don't respond to CO2, and I would like to keep this tank as simple as possible.

[jestep]

I use plain tap and prime and let it sit in a brute trashcan with a powerhead for about 24 hours before doing a water change. I currently do 50% per week water changes so I don't really worry about topping off in the FW tank. If you're going to extend for longer, either RO or treated tap should be fine for topping off.

If you go the RO/DI route for tank water, you can mix 50/50 with tap water and then condition to remove the chloramines. This provides a much softer water, but it still has good buffering capacity, so you wont need to add equilibrium or a similar product.

The anubias grow in just about anything in my experience. Mine went crazy when I was doing high-CO2, and fert dosing. I've since backed off and have been lazy with my FW tank, but they still grow well. There's a ton of crypts that are fine in low light. Java ferns and java moss grow in just about any condition as well.

[+Dustin Blevins]

George, I think FW tanks can be just as neat as reefs. Elephant Noses are Kari's favorite as well. It must be a girl thing

I am planning a freshwater / terrestrial aquarium to set up after we get the 30 cube we won completely set up. I want to do something with local species though. Just have to figure it all out first.

[Nwehrman]

George - I breed Discus (when they cooperate) adults would do fine in Austin tap water planted tank ... So long as your not breeding them. I grow them and keep them in straight tap treated with Safe (Seachem). Age 24 hours and into tank it goes.

Don't buy discus from anywhere in town though - or compare to them cause that's not what I'm talking about. This guy was best in show last year. One of mine was people's choice. I have third place FOTAS discus here also.

[Planeden]

I use tap water and API tap water conditioner. I don't like prime because it does more than I need it to do (ammonia and nitrites should be 0 without prime). I don't age my water, and my tanks are old enough I don't do water changes very often. Just top it off with a hose and add API.

I had a pictus cat in my sand bottom tank for years and he seemed to stir up the bed enough to keep it clean. Since losing him, and a few other user error mix ups, my sand got out of whack and has been growing algae. I got some Kahului loaches to keep it stirred up and then left town, so not sure how they are doing.

I seemed to have trouble getting plants to stay in sand long enough to root. So, weigh them down or buy them in pots.

[jestep]

I seemed to have trouble getting plants to stay in sand long enough to root. So, weigh them down or buy them in pots.

You can get lead or plastic anchors that work really well for cheap.

I always use pots for sword plants and other plants that develop massive root systems. I had a marble sword a few years ago that had almost 10 lbs of roots once I finally dug it up. Literally covered the entire bottom of a 75 under the substrate at least 2" thick.

[George Monnat Jr]

Looks like tap water it is. Does anyone do anything to alter the hardness of the tap water?

[Nwehrman]

I have RO for my breeding pairs but do nothing for hardness in growouts/non breeding adults. They only need the soft water for the eggs to hatch... What they prefer is stable water. So the less you mess with the better.

I age my water and use Safe (powdered version of prime - much more cost effective) because sometimes Austin and my little water supply place puts chloramines in the water with no notice. I do large water changes on my discus and male Bettas, after almost killing several tanks that were better off before the water change due to the ammonia released when you break the chloramines bonds. I started to age my water - haven't had a problem since.

[George Monnat Jr]

With Elephant Noses we're supposed to have a soft, sandy substrate for them. Jake at RCA recommended that I save some money and buy jacuzzi filter sand. With the anubias and java ferns, does that work? Or is there a dirt-like substrate people use?

[jestep]

The caribsea FW sands are really good. Torpedo beach, crystal river and sunset gold are great FW sands with completely round grains. http://www.caribsea.com/itempage_freshwatersubstrate_supernaturals.htm

The sunset is the smallest grain of these types. I have used torpedo beach in my planted tanks for almost 10 years. You can use substrate fertilizer tablets if you need to, but neither anubias nor java ferns need them. The grain size is small enough in both of these for discus to blow food from the substrate as they like to do.

No idea how the cost or grain type compares to pool filter sand, so I can't comment on that.

[George Monnat Jr]

Jake said the filter sand was equivalent to caribsea but $12 instead of $30.

Are any of them dark? I'd like darker sand.

[jestep]

The eco complete planted substrates are very dark. http://www.caribsea.com/itempage_freshwatersubstrate_ecoplanted.htm

The texture is not quite sandy but I've never heard of any problems using it with any type of FW fish including stingrays which are very sensitive.

[George Monnat Jr]

Thanks for the link, it's perfect for showing my wife the choices. I looked into pool filter sand (PFS), like this, and it seems a lot of people really like it. I'm guessing it isn't sharp, because a lot of discus breeders rave about it on various forums. This site says the standard PFS grade or grain size is, "...usually a .45 to .55mm sand which is available at any pool store or pool service company." It's going to all come down to color preference.

[jestep]

Is that really $8 for 50 lbs?

I bought 50# bags of caribsea, which is still probably 5 - 8 times more expensive.

[Nwehrman]

Going dark and discus is usually a recipe for dark discus - they try to blend in with their surroundings.

[Planeden]

I seemed to have trouble getting plants to stay in sand long enough to root. So, weigh them down or buy them in pots.

You can get lead or plastic anchors that work really well for cheap.I always use pots for sword plants and other plants that develop massive root systems. I had a marble sword a few years ago that had almost 10 lbs of roots once I finally dug it up. Literally covered the entire bottom of a 75 under the substrate at least 2" thick.

That's a lot of root.

George,

The plants I got at the dome have pots and the grass came with lead weights. I wish I would have gotten the shorter grass they had, though. My grass is about 3" tall. Once it grows in to fully cover the surface I may keep it shorter. But if you are thinking of grass go for the dwarf stuff (ever-so-helpfully, I don't remember what it's called).

[Planeden]

One other thing about sand. I switched to eheim filters because the water goes through the filter media before going into the pump. I went through several HOB filters that the sand killed before figuring that out. It is mostly with water changes, so you can help a lot by turning the filters off for a while with water changes. But the Rheims work great because even the fish stirring things up won't get into the pump.

[Bpb]

Very true about the eheims. When I clean mine once every 6 months or so there is a good cm of sand at the bottom. Never touched the pump. Back when I had sand anyway. Pool filter sand is super popular on alot of planted tank forums. I used play sand and liked the natural look of it. If you want sand and like dark substrate, you can do black diamond blasting sand from tractor supply co. That's dirt cheap and very dark and uniform in color. Looks to synthetic for my taste though.

[Planeden]

Wow, I've never had nearly that much sand in mine. Although, I do get it all up in the media chamber, so maybe there is more than it seems. My sand is pretty fine, though. I have no idea what kind it is.