Re: Rio Negro Heckel Project
They look great Fred...lucky you early Christmas package.
I am very positive that this group will not let you down. Are they eventually going to be housed in your plywood tank.
Going to be a challenge keeping that low ph stable but know you have this all covered with lots of research under your belt.
...Ralph
Re: Rio Negro Heckel Project
Very cool Fred. I saw John had these on sale and I figured they'd get snatched up quick! Good luck with the project.
Re: Rio Negro Heckel Project
Thanks Ralph... yes they will be moving to one of the plywood tanks in a couple of months. Yes the low ph is going to be interesting, I have several options and I'll be sharing them here.
Indeed Ricardo that group is nice. I was tempted to take the mediums but I've always wanted a group of small Heckel..
With the import laws here mean I need to wait 90 days before bringing another group from the states... just enough time to finish the plywood tanks and their filters :)
Cheers
Fred
Re: Rio Negro Heckel Project
Oh right! Your plywood tank! Any progress pics?
Re: Rio Negro Heckel Project
They look great Fred. I would suggest to keeping up with water changes on these guys even if you need to bump the ph up a bit. I am very careful to not cross over 7 with the young altums and their ph ATM is 5.65 and they are doing great.
Pat
3 Attachment(s)
Re: Rio Negro Heckel Project
Quote:
Originally Posted by
rickztahone
Very cool Fred. I saw John had these on sale and I figured they'd get snatched up quick! Good luck with the project.
They took a little break. Building those two was a pain without proper work space... So I built the stand for them now I can continue working on them on their stand. This is my biggest stand to date. its 126 inch long by 32 inches wide and 28 inches high... There's 12 legs, made of two 2X4 supporting this guys. between the tanks I have some space to put two 26 inch by 4 inch diameter Siporax towers. You can also see the 40 gallons sumps underneath each plywood tanks
don't mind the mess, just part of trying to do a fish room reorg while some fish are still there
Attachment 91710
Because my basement floor is a joke and so uneven I decided to build adjustable bases out of 1/8 steel, 1/2 bolts and nuts... This is overkill when I compare my 130 gallons stand with six 3/8 adjustable feet, but I'd rather be on the safe side. the nut is welded on the plate, and the plate screws in the bottom of the doubled 2X4. But I love just having to take a wrench and making the adjustments to get my stand level.
Attachment 91711
Attachment 91712
Re: Rio Negro Heckel Project
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Second Hand Pat
They look great Fred. I would suggest to keeping up with water changes on these guys even if you need to bump the ph up a bit. I am very careful to not cross over 7 with the young altums and their ph ATM is 5.65 and they are doing great.
Pat
Thanks Pat, I like them alot.
I agree, that PH needs to come down. I just didn't want to try to acclimate them in a couple of hours from 7 to 5. The PH is at 6.4 right now, but the conductivity is at 55us, Tonight I'm doing a 30% water change and going to start bringing it down. I really want to keep them below 5, but go just a little higher for the conductivty.
Cheers,
Fred
Re: Rio Negro Heckel Project
Re: Rio Negro Heckel Project
Looking really good Fred. Keep the updates coming ;)
Re: Rio Negro Heckel Project
Re: Rio Negro Heckel Project
very cool, jealous, we only have carnival fish.
Re: Rio Negro Heckel Project
Nice heckels indeed. That plywood tank will be a real monster, cant wait how it will look fully decorated.
Re: Rio Negro Heckel Project
Thanks JackL,
Plecochio, thanks I've been wanting to get a batch of small Heckels for 3 years... Just concentrated on domestic discus instead... my mistake, but I'm correcting this now.
Yhea the plywood tank is going to sweet. it will only be decorated with some nice wood and sand plus a few roots os some pothos at the top. After discussing with NanDiscus, I feel I may need an even bigger tank, but that was the reason to build those two to learn from them. This will only happen when I move wich should be within the next 12 months.
on another note these guys love FDBW, I just soak them a few minutes and release them on the output of the aquaclear, they need the food at the bottom of the tank, anything on the top 2/3 is simply not considered as food. once they started taking the FDBW they started eating some pellets once they went down with the worms...
I did do a 30% water change last night, PH is still at 6.4 and the conductivity at 65us, but tonight they will be getting another 40% but with a lower PH to bring it down in the 6.0-6.1 range...
Cheers,
Fred
I was going to putthe eheim, but I'm going with the wet dry instead.
Re: Rio Negro Heckel Project
Fred, you can acclimate them to eat in the upper reaches of the tank. Allow the cube to roll in the current where the water returns from the Aquaclear. The water flow will roll the cube and discharge the worms in the water column.
Pat