Is my planted tank ok for Heckel?

[bearnuc]

i've setup a planted tank and wonder whether it would be ok to host a school of Heckel which i've been falling in love with. Heckel Shipment will arrive end of this month (jan'09) and they will b QT for a month or so before moving in with me so my tank have time to get a bit more mature (2/3months) I'm looking to get 8 blue face Heckel in total (size 5"-6").
My concern is that my tank does not have a lot of hiding/overhanging shady area except for the middle/back part hence the fish have to stay out-of-shade for 8hrs a day and the tank uses 2x150 MH lighting which is obviously rather bright for the heckels. Would this condition be too stressful for the fish?
Moreover, I'm running chiller for the tank and to get temp at 25'c/77'f at all time with little/no fluctuation. Can Heckel tolerate this condition?
Lastly, looking for schooling fish that compliments Heckels stripe pattern/coloration, any recommendation?
Here is the detail of my tank

4'x2'x2' ( good size for 8 adult heckel?)
CO2 System (3 bubble/Second) (is it too harmful for heckel? current livestocks are doing ok)
Current livestock
12x Corydoras Pulcher
20x amano (yamato) shrimp
10x Otocinclus affinis
*Water parameter will b change to suit Discus (soft/PH 6.0-6.5) with RO/DI mix & Peat Moss*

I just want to watch happy Heckel when i get home from work


Cheers
Ted

[Eddie]

Hi there Ted!

Welcome to simply and very nice set-up you have there. I wouldn't be the person to preach to you on how to keep heckels, thats Heiko's job. Also, I will mention that if you haven't read his book, he will tell you to buy it and read it.

One thing that I do know from reading and others suggestions is that a heckel biotope would consist of a sand substrate bottom, driftwood and floating plants on the surface. I know that the temperature of the tank should be around 82F. Other than that, others will fill in.

Take care and enjoy
Eddie

[Triadtropz]

your going to need to lose the chiller first off. and start cycling the tank at a higher heat, maybe 82-83..its a nice set-up overall..

[TankWatcher]

Beautiful tank. You've done a great job. Is that ADA AS?

I'm no heckel expert, though I do have 2, though not in my planted tank. Most things I read say that heckels prefer a sandy bottom. You could think about creating a beach area in the front in the non planted area, using either ADA Bright Sand or silica based pool filter sand. Looking at your beautiful tank makes me think you might be a little reluctant to pull everything out & have all sand, so having a sand area might be a bit of compromise for both you & the heckels.

I have a planted tank with pressurised C02 & my other wild discus are just fine with that, although I do plan on moving them out of that tank soon.

25deg is too low. The temp range for keeping discus is around 27C - 33C (81F - 91F) . For a planted tank, 28C is a good compromise, but not 25C.

Can you float some plants, eg wisteria. This will provide some shade, but I guess that will probably defeat the reason why that you have such strong lights.

Are the amanos very small. They might become an expensive heckel snack.

Tank size is big enough for 8 adult heckels. Are these adults you are getting? If they are juveniles, it might be a better idea to grow them up firstly in either BB or thin layer of sand. You have to heavily feed juvenile discus & in a planted tank, it can be harder to keep the water quality up.

There's lot of helpful experts here, who will give you good advice. Welcome to Simply.

[erikc]

Hi there bearnuc,

beautifull tank but I would strongly advise against the black gravel. The Heckel's will just darken to adapt and blend in to their environnement. You won't get the best colours out of them.

Please always use a fine white sand, your heckels will thank you for it (and it makes for easier maintenance). They spend a lot of time feeding and going through the substaret for their food.

The CO2 is fine for a standard planted tank but you will see with lower PH levels it will be next to useless and very hard to stabilise (I'm talking from experience here !)

Keep the driftwood and plants (lots of gardening in perspective).

All the best with your heckels !!

[bearnuc]

thanks for all the advise, self would like to point out that it's aqua soil by Gex.
Heckels that 'll b getting would be a young (if not) adult so it will be going straight in...
Amano Shrimp are gigantic at 1" + size. Would these still be an expensive treat for the heckel?
so far what i can gather are the followings:
water temp 27'c , can do without any hesitation
will add white sand for heckel to play with around the front part of the layout which would benefit my corydoras as well so it will b a go for sure.

[TankWatcher]

I agree about the sand. It would be best, but you have done such a nice job with your tank.

Hi erikc. What pH level are you meaning? I've had a planted discus tank for maybe 2 years. My C02 is run by a pH controller with target of 6.5pH & all has been pretty stable. I don't try to go lower than 6.5pH. Do you mean it becomes useless & unstable lower than that? My heckels aren't in that tank though. They're in a non C02 tank, but I do have different wilds in the C02 tank.

[erikc]

I've kept heckels in a planted tank with RO water.

Around a PH 6.5 it should keep stable but below (around 4.5-5) sometimes it would drop to 3.5. I had a tunze PH controler but due to the softeness of the water there is no buffering effect and the PH would sometimes drop alarmingly even when the CO2 was cut off.

The Heckels could take it and the other tankmates were corydoras Sterbai who kept on spawning all the time. The Heckels loved that tasty snack on the front of the tank in the morning and I kept fishing young corys out of my canister filter each time I did maintenance

So I thought it best to warn about the drops in PH and not to be alarmed,as long as it is for Heckels and other fish used to such waters it should be ok.

Oh, and another thing, Ive never managed to keep amano shrimp and WC discus together. They just ended up being an expensive snack. Please tell me how you they get on

[vera]

Great tank bearnuc!!well done
im not sure abt sharp edges of yr drift wood ,discus and especially wilds easy scared would run and defenetely injure themselves ..

[bearnuc]

Great tank bearnuc!!well done
im not sure abt sharp edges of yr drift wood ,discus and especially wilds easy scared would run and defenetely injure themselves ..

wow, thanks for pointing out.. what should i do? plant more to cover sharp edges? except when they get their panic attack.. do heckel swim around the branches often?

[Eddie]

do heckel swim around the branches often?

Oh yeah...ALOT


Eddie

[poconogal]

Great tank bearnuc!!well done
im not sure abt sharp edges of yr drift wood ,discus and especially wilds easy scared would run and defenetely injure themselves ..

I agree. You did a beautiful job on that tank, it looks great, but there are an awful lot of pointy spears on which the Discus can injure themselves. I'd at least try to trim those points to make them blunt so you don't end up with an impaled Discus! Soneone else pointed out the dark color of your substrate. They will definitely darken themselves in an effort to blend in with that dark substrate. They will do that in a planted tank too, with all the dark green.

[GrillMaster]

Lovely scape ya got there Ted!

The only thing I would change is the substrate and the water temp. The substrate to white sand and the temp to around 84-86 deg. I personally wouldn't worry to much about the heckels hurtin themselves on the pointed parts of the driftwood. They will do fine swimming through the wood IMO.

The C02 wont bother the Heckels. If it looks like it does just subtract a bubble per second.

Well Done bud!

[blue acara]

Nice job on the scape looks good. My Heckels are in a tank with about 20-25ppm co2. They also share the tank with 20 amano shrimp, none have been eaten. Heckel will eat very small shrimp but not large amanos.

[vera]

wow, thanks for pointing out.. what should i do? plant more to cover sharp edges? except when they get their panic attack.. do heckel swim around the branches often?

NP,I tie moss balls to sharp parts of wood or a batch of java fern or Java moss