Andy's Fish Den

Discus can definitely be kept in a community tank, but I wouldn't keep just one in the tank. I always recommend at least three discus, if not more. One thing to keep in mind, discus like and prefer warmer water temps, in the 82*+ range, and some fish will not fare as well at those higher temps.

One thing to think about as well, rams like their water temp up in the 80s, most big box store and some LFS don't keep any tanks in those temps. One thing I would do when I saw a store with rams is touch the back of my hand to the tank, if its not warm enough, I wouldn't buy because they seem to go down hill the longer they are kept at lower temps. The best luck I have found and had with rams is to find a good LFS that gets them from someone who breeds them locally. That way they are accustomed to the local water parameters, and most likely haven't been kept at the lower temps.

I always have a piece of some kind of wood in with bristlenose fry. As others have said, canned green beans, blanched zucchini or cucumbers work great as well.

If you do the paving stone with liner thing, you will have to secure the pavers together, because the pressure of the water in the liner will push outwards and collapse the pavers. What you could do, it take either the muck bucket or a Rubbermaid container, set it where you want it and build the paver stones up around the sides. It will dress it up a little so it looks better, but will also help some with temperature regulation, possibly not having as severe temp swings. If you even take the pavers and make it wide enough at some places around, it would give some areas that you can set some plants on pot or anything to decorate the area a little.

If you are just wanting to keep the GBR in your aquarium, they should be fine in your tap water. My tap water tests harder than what you have, and I have no problem keeping GBR and black rams, as well as wild caught angels and discus. fish are amazingly adaptable. I have an RO/DI unit that I can use to make pure water if I want, but I only use it when I first bring in any new wild fish or am attempting to spawn and raise fry of any species that need the softened water.

It's hard to tell at this stage, let it grow out and see how it develops

First of all, you cant change so much and when things aren't what you expect, think its just one of the things that you changed. When you make changes, do one thing at a time and wait a couple of weeks. I always allow two weeks between any changes I make, whether its fertilizer amount, lighting time increase or decrease. I would have to assume that the new co-op light is putting out quite a bit more light than the fluorescent bulbs that you have been using, especially if the bulbs are older than a few months. I do not have one of the co-op's new lights, but I'll tell you what I would do, and it is the same thing I did when I got a Fluval 3.0 for a couple of my tanks. Set the light intensity for about half of where you think it will need to be, you say 24" tall tank,. I would run it at about 40% power to start, put some root tabs in and liquid ferts if using them, Set it on a timer for 6 hours a day. Use a timer, don't say I'll turn it on when I get home from work and turn off when I go to bed, no one is home the same time everyday and goes to bed same time every night unless maybe you were in marine corp for 30 year and just programmed like that. Use a timer, that way its consistent, not 6 hours one day, 10 hours another etc. Leave it for two weeks, do any regular maintenance you do in that time frame, and add your weekly liquid ferts if that's how often you do. Then, after two weeks, if you don't see any algae and/or plants are struggling, turn light up a notch, Be sure the plants aren't using up the root tabs trying to grow in that time as well. After two more weeks, check tank and plants again, do the same thing, no algae, bump it up a notch. It is a delicate balancing act between, plants, light, nutrients, and sometimes it takes a while to sort out. I have a tank I set up and planted back in October that I am still trying to get balanced, but I know it won't happen overnight, but it will be soon I'm sure once the plants really take off.

You say that the tank is 180 gallons in a basement room that is roughly 90*.A lot will depend upon how much higher than the 70* that you want to heat the tank, but I wqill tell you what I have done in the past and what I would do if I had the same situation. I did have a 180 gallon tank before, and we kept our house at 70* in winter, 72 in summer so the HVAC system didn't have to work so hard. I used a 300 watt ebo-jager heater in the tank and kept it 82-86* for discus. If I was going to set up another 180 in a room that is 70* if I was going to keep it at the "normal" tropical temps of 74-78* I would start with a 200 watt and see if it could maintain the correct temp, if not, bump up to a 250 watt and see. If you are planning to keep it warmer for say discus and rams, then I would start with the 250 and if that doesn't work bump up to 300. It will help a lot to use lids on the tanks as well, I do for all my tanks except for a few now. It not only helps hold in heat, but also will help keep down evaporation so you won't have to top off the tank as often.

yes

Have you asked the person in India if they have shipped to the US before? they may know a transhipper that can import the fish for you. I know when I've been looking for fish on Aquabid before there have been fish overseas and the ad will have a few transhippers that they use to import.

I would put the bio rings as the last stage after the water has passed through the sponges and any carbon or anything. Otherwise, the pores in the rings will get clogged

I keep plants, dwarf sag, anubias, buce, and java ferns in tanks I have shell dwellers in. I have to replant some of the sag occasionally, the others are wedged in between rocks or glued to them. My list: Mbu puffer Altum angelfish Eques corydoras

You can get a kit that is two pieces, one you plug into a receptacle and the other go to the breaker box and hold it by each breaker and it will sense which breaker is getting the signal from the little thing you plugged into the outlet. When we put an addition with basement on our house almost ten years ago, I walked through with the electrician and told him exactly what I wanted and where I wanted stuff. There are requirements for code, but I made sure that each room's outlets are on their own circuit, and in the basement I had them do six separate 20 amp circuits, because I knew I would have a fridge and dehumidifier down there and maybe a freezer, along with other stuff, and I would have plenty of power for my fish room. Another things i have done in this house, as well as the previous one I lived in, I went around and on the back of the cover plates for the outlets and switches, I wrote the breaker number so it would be easy for myself or anyone else in the future to find.

I haven't used a UGF in many years, but when I did I used about an inch and half (1.%") of substrate on top of the plates, all I ever used was air power. I do remember there being powerheads that you could switch the flow direction to be reversed and would send the water down through the tubes and up the gravel. I never had one of those, or any powerhead for that matter. I have been thinking about putting a UGF in a couple of tanks when I redo them this summer, I had great plant growth with them, I would pull a bunch of jungle val out to take to fish club meetings every month, and this was before fertilizers and root tabs were talked about or used, the only fertilizer was fish poop.

If you got them about 8 months ago as juveniles, they are hitting the point where they could be wanting to spawn. Have you noticed the aggressive one being nicer or hanging close to another one in particular? It's possible that a pair is forming and the male is trying to drive away any competitors. Short of removing the one who is being the aggressor or if one is getting severely beat up, moving things in the tank or adding more plants or decor to allow the sub dominant ones to be able to hide, get out of eye sight of the dominant one.

I have several different size plastic food containers I use a lot in my fishroom, whether for thawing frozen foods out, storing things, putting fish in when I catch them out of a tank, or whatever other need I have for them.

Lake Tanganyika is a large lake, and the two species may not cross paths, living in different areas of the lake.

I'm not in Chicago, but follow a lot of local fish clubs on social media. I know that the Greater Chicago Cichlid Association has swap meets regularly, and from what I've seen it's all species. There is also the Chicago Livebearer Society, and they have meetings and other events as well.

Depending upon what color shrimp you are thinking to put in there, you might want to ass a layer of pool filter sand or something lighter colored on the bottom. With the black, it will be hard to see darker colored shrimp, red may even be hard to see on it. I have a nursery in my small town, I know a couple of people that work there, I may have to ask them if they have anything similar that I could buy and use outside this summer.

As someone who has kept a reef tank before, and still have a small fish only SW tank, I can attest that what @OnlyGenusCapsis saying about reef keeping people is true. Now, a lot of metals can be very detrimental to corals and other invertebrates, I know of people who won't buy a used tank unless they have seen it up and running as a reef, because they are afraid it may have had some kind of medication used in it that could kill their corals. There was a LFS not far from me that started having problems with one of their gorgeous display tanks, and here, someone had dropped a penny into the overflow. Unfortunately, they lost several very large coral colonies because of it. Another thing with reef tanks is keeping excess nutrients in check, and with lava rock, that can be more difficult with all the small holes and nooks and crannies.

Gallon glass jar, filled with aged tank water, took a couple pieces of brocoli, microwaved for a minute or two to soften, let it cool then added to jar of water. Cover jar with a piece of paper towel that rubber banded to hold on set. Give it a few days and the water will be cloudy, but if you look its all kinds of moving, living single cell creatures.

I hatch BBS everyday, how I feed is that all my tanks with smaller fish get some each time. The ones that have fry in the tank or if I am trying to get some to spawn will get more. I also will feed some flake, pellets or frozen.

I have some pieces in shrimp tanks that have been in there at least a couple of years if not a longer

If the wood is the pressed particle board that usually comes with those racks, I would replace it with some 3/4" plywood that has been painted on the top, bottom and edges with a nice outdoor weather/ water proof paint. That particle board will swell up when it gets any water on it, and become weak, and quite possibly the tank could crash through it.

Yes, you are correct in that by pumping a high volume of CO2 into an aquarium that I had covered in plastic (saran) wrap, I did not totally eradicate the snails in the tank. I believe it is because I could not pressurize it to "force" the co2 into the snails. I am sure that the small amount of air that was trapped between the water surface and the plastic wrap had enough oxygen that the snails could survive.