Is my planted tank ok for Heckel?

[bearnuc]

Okay, looks like things are set. Just be patient and enjoy your Heckels !!

Now i'm hoping that they are more eager to eat cause it's been 3 days and i could only see 3 heckels out of 10 with big belly after feeding i'll give it another week and will b giving them some FBW.
A little update on the tank scaping, no question about the rock pls... they are secured and wont' fall down! should take a week or so for the bogwood/roots to sink. Hopefully it's a bit more like their natural habitat.

[erikc]

Teddy,

that's a truly gorgeous heckel setup now, you should feel proud of yourself.

I wouldn't do any more changes at the moment because they really need to settle in now.

Okay, IMO I would add the cleanup crew soon, it will make the heckels more curious about their environnement and they will come out more (yes they are very curiuos fish when they get adapted).

P.S. Put the outflow from your filter closer to the surface, there is a slight film forming and you want to break the film in order to have a proper oxygen exchange at the surface of the water.

[yashaswibs]

Thank you for your thoughtful reply. This will help me in future efforts.

What happened to the driftwood with moss? That looked really good.

The Heckels look great.

[Alok]

Question for people who advised against black substrate: is the dark substrate = dark discus true only for Heckels or for any discus e.g. red turqs or snakeskins etc. I always thought dark substrate will look better and fish will feel more comfortable too (little light reflected from the bottom of tank), but could never afford it. I finally have set up a discus tank with black substrate (not purchased the discus yet, but have red turqs in mind), but want to make sure that the colors would come out the best using black substrate (and black background). I can see that heckels look better against light background, but don't know if that would be the case with red turqs too... Please let me know. Thanks.

[Apistomaster]

Another method of holding down wood that isn't completely water logged I like to use is to wedge a couple of 1/4 inch wood dowels cut very slightly longer than the transverse inside tank dimension. These can be sprung into a firm position holding down the wood. i like that method because it is easy to do, unobtrusive and firmly holds down the wood. The rock weight strikes me as an accident waiting to happen.

I prefer Heckels over white sand to black. I tried using locally collected basalt fine gravel from a creek and the Heckels stay much darker colored. Here are a couple of photos comparing dark and light substrate using the same 10 Heckels. The color of the substrate has no effect on intraspecific aggression. Heckels aren't all that aggressive towards on another ime, as compared to the other species.
Over basalt:

Over "Torpedo Beach" quartzite sand:

[bearnuc]

Thank you for your thoughtful reply. This will help me in future efforts.

What happened to the driftwood with moss? That looked really good.

The Heckels look great.

they trapped too much debris so i kinda removed it, plus roots are what i had in mind all along



A little bit of an update, 4 out of 10 are loving Tuna/Shrimp Mix and also had some dried pallet (krill meal) but the rest r still on FBW. Hope they will get converted soon

tbh, i don't really like the color of heckel in the sand substrate i used as it turned them yellow and no bars!!!.. love to see middle bar of a heckel but they only showed them when frightened.

[Eddie]

Fish look GREAT!!!


Eddie

[Alok]

Thanks Larry (Apistomaster) for the two photographs of the same group of heckels. I can see the difference clearly, but I am not sure which one I really like. The red comes out better in light colored substrate but the blue comes out better in the dark colored substrate, they look almost iridescent in black substrate (like cardinal tetras)....

The fish looks really handsome though

[Apistomaster]

The real reasons why I switched the substrates were that the local dark material was increasing the hardness and pH to unacceptable levels reaching 450 ppm TDS and ph of 8.0 but the quartz was chemically neutral. The pH remained unchanged using the quartz. White quartz is more natural as their biotope but as long as dark substrates are chemically neutral then the only thing that matters is your personal preference.

[TankWatcher]

Those heckels have come such a long way from your first pictures. You have done a really nice job caring for them. I like your driftwood, hanging down like roots, and the sand is so nice and white.

Any chance of a full tank shot?

[Apistomaster]

I sold all those Heckels last April but here you are.

[erikc]

they trapped too much debris so i kinda removed it, plus roots are what i had in mind all along



A little bit of an update, 4 out of 10 are loving Tuna/Shrimp Mix and also had some dried pallet (krill meal) but the rest r still on FBW. Hope they will get converted soon

tbh, i don't really like the color of heckel in the sand substrate i used as it turned them yellow and no bars!!!.. love to see middle bar of a heckel but they only showed them when frightened.

Don't worry, they will now take time to colour up, patientce is all you need.

[TankWatcher]

Hmmm, I like the colour of your heckels over the sand, bearnuc

[bearnuc]

something different for u all
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ro-J8OmY2Bc

and FTS


** sorry about the quality, i'm charging my camera atm for better fts later