I agree 100% with Bruce. I have just set up a 6' x 18" x 18" tank in the
hotel/motel where I work, or should say occasionally put in an appearance.
The tank is situated in the foyer and catches a couple of hours of early
morning diffused sunlight. It also catches the guests ;) ...
As this tank is for *amatuers* I have 100ml depth (4") of 2-4 ml gravel.
About 100 kilo's in all. Filtration is by a reasonable Fluval filter (404)
used in this instance. Two 300 watt heaters are used to maintain around 25
deg C temp.
I personally use no filtration on *my own* display tank...
I have not used laterite because of the lack of fiskeeping knowledge by the
owners.
(laterite IMO can be messy and cause problems for amatuers).
This community tank has been set up since late January '97 and a small pair
of Kribs - Yeah I know P. pulcher (they're still Kribs to me) already have
fry. The tank also contains about 10 juvenile 'bows, a pair of 3 spot
gourami, a small red tailed shark, 4 mixed Platys, some Corys and
Bristlenose. I will add 2 small Angels when and if the baby Kribs survive
and not much more.
The tank is heavily planted at the back and sides. I am currently
maintaining the tank for them and at the same time teaching them how to keep
their fishes alive. A 25% water change is carried out *every* week. Gravel
is washed once per month. Driftwood is used for effect.
I feed the plants regularly with a concoction of plant food made and sold
locally by Peter Hughes' and myself. The plant growth is impressive even
without C02 and laterite etc.
Lighting is 4 x 4' TDL fleuro (sp?) tubes (Philips TDL 36/95's) and they are
kept on 12 hours per day.
Please note - no airstones are used. Airstones and plants do not mix well.
I hope this helps you.
Cheers
Alan
At 07:58 AM 2/24/97 +1100, Doc wrote:
>Hi Roger,
>
>My suggestion would be for no UGF , deep substrate ( dark coloured), plenty
>of plants (especially tall perimeter planting), sufficient swimming room
>for display by your school of fish, consider keeping a power head in action
>producing a current along the front glass ( both the fish and the plants
>will like it), plenty of light for at least 12 hours a day. Good luck.
|__________________________________\|/_________________________________|
Alan Ford aford at pcug.org.au Canberra, Australia
Perfect Love and Perfect Trust.
Homepages: http://www.pcug.org.au/~aford
http://www.pcug.org.au/~aford/angfa.htm