New Tank setup. Please tell me if it looks ok.

[alfon76]

Hi all:

Here is what I have set up for my group of 2.6 Zebras and some juvies (about 4 or 5). The tank is 55 gallons and has 2 Emperor 400, 1 75 gallon Wet Dry filter with a Rio 2200 pump, 300 watt heater, 2 air stones, 1 Powerhead and several pieces of driftwood, slate and caves.
I tried to take some pics that show most of the setup but feel free to ask for more pics or anything else. I am basically looking for what I am doing wrong, if anything, so I can fix it.
I added about 30 gallons of RO water and the rest was tap water without chlorine. Tomorrow I will be reading the pH, hardness and temperature once the water has been thoroughly mixed and settled.

Look forward to the comments.

Ivan


Overview of the tank.


One of the 3 cave arrangements and 1 airstone in the background behind the driftwood.


Second 3 cave arrangement.


Powerhead and second airstone in the background.


Two Emperor 400 filters and the wet-dry overflow box.


75 gallon Wet/Dry filter with Rio 2200 pump and 300 watt heater.

[crazie.eddie]

I always believe in extra filtration, but your tank seems to have allot of filtration. Of course, I shouldn't really talk, since I had my Eheim Pro II 2128 canister filter (rated for 150 gallon tank) on my 55 gallon tank. I did have plans on moving it into a 125 gallon tank.

The tank looks fine, except the caves look a little too structured, organized...can't really think of the correct word. I would suggest placing the caves so that they look a bit more scattered.

[alfon76]

So too much filtration is bad in this case? SHould I eliminate the wet/dry or the powerhead maybe?

I have a total of 10 caves at my disposal (bought them from aquabid) so I can scatter them like you said but you mean not to stack them or do you mean to have them all over the tank instead of just on those 2 sections?

Ivan

[dave]

Your tank looks fine, and the caves look fine and IMO you can't have too much filtration.

As for cave positioning, I would suggest rearranging them or leaving them alone, the fish will occupy them if they are in the right positions, so adjust to suit.

I have had broods in 2 caves next to each other, and in caves at the opposite end of the tank.

So far breeding this fish is not an exact science, good quality water, 82F to 86F, well oxygenated water and some form of current are the only consistent parameters I can find throughout this site.

These fish are bred in BT and with a substrate, I personally have bred them in caves of two different sizes.

Dave

[alfon76]

Thanks for the info Dave. I will leave the tank as is. The temp is reading 85 right now so I think it should be ok. Have not gotten readings on pH and hardness but will do so later on when I finally get the meters working. From what I ehar the Zebra is not really picky about pH or hardness as long as they are not extremes (too high). Am I right on this?

Ivan

[dave]

You are right to avoid extremes.

These fish will live and grow in most tap water, and mine breed in it with regular water changes.

My PH is usually between 7 & 8.

My water out the tap is soft, but I have sea shells in the tank which probably buffers it.

There is a lot of talk about using RO on here, my philosophy is to keep it simple and if this doesn't work then experiment.

Dave

[alfon76]

Thanks once again Dave. The reason I used RO water is because I already have a big RO that makes water for my other tanks and figured it can't hurt to have the Zebras in softer water. My tap water comes out with a pH of 8 and I know it is hard, although not sure how hard.

As far as the caves go, do you suggest adding even more caves. I have 4 more caves I didn't put in for some reason. Should I add them too more scattered throughout the tank? How important is it to have the flow of water with the caves or something like that. Most of the water flow in my tank comes to the front glass (the same flow the Emperors or other hanging filter would do) but the powerhead is aimed perpendicular to the flow of the filters. Should I change that or just wait and see?

Thanks again,
Ivan

[dave]

My thought is just wait and see, you can change it later.

Dave

[alfon76]

I will wait and see then and not change anything. However, should I add the other 4 breeding caves anyway? Or is it better to just leave the 6 and see what happens?

Ivan

[crazie.eddie]

The reason I stated to move the caves, is becuase you can almost draw a straight line from the right side to the left side, with all the caves, wood, rocks staying on the line. I just suggested moving things around, change the angles of the caves, so it looks more like a natural setting.

[dave]

Crazie Eddie, your point is taken, but I was just commenting on whether it would work.

As for more caves, I have 10 adults in a 46 Gal ( Uk Gals ), with 6 caves.
If you get too much aggression with your fish, which I think is unlikely you can also add more cover later, either caves or wood.

Dave

[alfon76]

I finally got the hardness/conductivity meter installed and I am glad I did. There seems to be something in the tank leaching some salt or something else because the hardness was reading at 1023 micro siemens. Waaaaaay too high as I have heard these guys like it around 120-150 micro siemens (unless this is wrong). So I did a full water change and am adding only RO water now to see what the hardness reads tomorrow. Good thing the Zebras are not here yet or I could have been in trouble.

Point taken on the sterility of the decorations. I will try and shuffle things around in a more haphazard way.

Ivan

[John]

My zebs breed at the moment in water:
475 Microsiemens
PH 7,8

[alfon76]

Thanks for all the answers but my tank will apparently remain empty as the plecos I was supposed to get were actually a scam on Aquabid by a seller going by the name of retiredfishfarmer. Do not buy from this guy anything at all.

Thanks again for all the advise,
Ivan

[eklikewhoa]

hope it works out well with your issue over at aquabid, hopefully i will be closing my issue with a seller from there as well here shortly.