My 75 Gal Community Tank

[bamzam]

Hi All,

I thought I'd post some phone pics before I redo the whole tank tomorrow. I've been researching a while and have decided to give plants a try. This is my 75 gal with stendkers and friends. It's pretty hard cleaning with the giant rocks, so I'm going to take the rocks and fake plants out and replace it with a big piece of manzanita and a few amazon swords (very sparsely planted for now). I think the fish will have a little extra swimming room after the change. I've never had any fish keeping experience prior to this tank. I've been growing the stendkers, angels, and pleco out from 2.5" and 3" since April 2015, so I welcome any critiques both positive/negative on their progress. Thanks everyone for all the help you've given me!

Full Tank Shot:
http://i.imgur.com/fIfJTVml.jpg

Flachen SS:
http://i.imgur.com/IDlQo0Ol.jpg

Red Turq:
http://i.imgur.com/klAf90Nl.jpg

Red Turq 2:
http://i.imgur.com/JEM8HVal.jpg

Blue Diamond:
http://i.imgur.com/KrZKCp9l.jpg

Pigeon Blood:
http://i.imgur.com/UkC7E2Ll.jpg

Silver Pigeon:
http://i.imgur.com/pKFd7Asl.jpg

The Pooping Machine:
http://i.imgur.com/HmayKYIl.jpg

The mean girls (rams):
http://i.imgur.com/EWT0voyl.jpg

Angel:
http://i.imgur.com/PR8eJnxl.jpg

Angel:
http://i.imgur.com/7BdG9MTl.jpg

Impossible to get a good phone pic of these...wild caught cardinals:
http://i.imgur.com/sbeCxx3l.jpg

[bamzam]

The new set up...thoughts? Suggestions?

http://i.imgur.com/77Dq4UNl.jpg

[RogueDiscus]

Very nice look! I'm sure the prevailing wisdom will be to be sure to keep up with your water changes and cleaning to prevent your discus from becoming stunted. They look prety good right now.

[Las Vegas]

My 2cents..... AWESOME TANK! I think it looks beautiful. But keep on it. You're comitted now, take good care of your babies.

[Lilly]

Very nice! They look healthy and happy.

[bamzam]

Thanks for the compliments! I still have no idea what I'm doing with the plants, so I'm trying to learn as I go. I'm worried they won't have enough nutrients with daily 50-60% water changes. I used a seachem root tab for the swords and I'm dosing seachem flourish for the anubias every other day. I've been debating if I should start doing water changes every other day instead of daily, but with the amount of poop my pleco puts out it's hard to resist cleaning the tank every night lol. I was going to wait a few weeks to see if the plants grow or start showing deficiencies.

[woopaul5]

Tank looks amazing!!!

Keep up with daily since they are juvi's. Best advice is fish first, when you start paying too much attention to plants over fish that's when you start getting losses and white poo.

[bamzam]

Thanks, that's great advice...I'll keep up with the daily water changes. I just read through your whole thread since it looks like I'm going down the same path you already did. Your tank looked awesome in those pics!

[woopaul5]

Thanks! It was a little too much work and I was seeing maintenance slip, add that to a potential move and it was a recipe for disaster.

Swords are hardy and so are Anubis plants. Don't bury the roots and you'll be fine. If the plants are new there will be a little die off before they thrive.

[bamzam]

I noticed my rams were staying in the corner all day...I went to see if something looked wrong with them and found a ton of eggs. I thought they were both female though, what do you all think? And what do I do? lol. These brave rams have been fighting any discus or angel that come near them

http://i.imgur.com/YEoXcAxl.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/8vxMSw0l.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/BnBeSgBl.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/ieG1JXfl.jpg

[Phillydubs]

Love the tank and the new look! Looks to me like you are doing a great job, I wouldn't change anything and second the other poster who said fish first... Let the plants do their thing and figure out a happy medium but you could have some potentially great fish so keep them the focus...

As far as the rams and eggs go, I have zero experience but it looks like nature is taking its course.. Do you want to breed them? If so, remove them and re-home to a smaller tank and see what happens, if not, let the tank work it's magic and see what occurs and most of all enjoy!!!

[RDFISHGUY]

Tank looks awesome and I love the red turq. I am going to get one of those. You inspired me to spend more money.

[bamzam]

Lol thanks! This forum does that to me also...I wanna buy more discus

[Las Vegas]

I would say just leave the Rams alone and let them do their thing. Learn who's male and whose female. If it's a true pair, they'll spawn again and if your willing you'll be set-up for it. But for now why risk moving them?

[jmf3460]

Regarding your tank, it looks awesome and the fish look very happy and healthy. regarding the rams, you do have two females and the eggs do look unfertilized. many times two females will spawn together, they are not super intelligent creatures you know. were it me, id get a male and add to have a trio. many people desire breeding trios when it comes to rams and apistos. I don't know about where you are, but where I am male rams are easier to find than female rams. Your's look really good though so I would try and find a high quality male if you did opt to get one. Their plump pink bellies are a dead giveaway to their sex.

[dragon1974]

Regarding your tank, it looks awesome and the fish look very happy and healthy. regarding the rams, you do have two females and the eggs do look unfertilized. many times two females will spawn together, they are not super intelligent creatures you know. were it me, id get a male and add to have a trio. many people desire breeding trios when it comes to rams and apistos. I don't know about where you are, but where I am male rams are easier to find than female rams. Your's look really good though so I would try and find a high quality male if you did opt to get one. Their plump pink bellies are a dead giveaway to their sex.

Though the same thing when I saw the bellies. Females have red stomachs when they are dropping eggs

[Dave-UK]

I assume by now that the eggs were eaten? It's not unheard for 2 females to get a bit confused

[bamzam]

Yup. Mom ate them all lol

[bamzam]

I took the angels out and added this guy. A blue pigeon I think, but I can't tell the difference between the red pigeon and blue pigeon. I think I'm obsessed....thats 6 discus, 20+ cardinals, 2 rams, and a ABN pleco in my 75 gal. Can I fit one more discus?

http://i.imgur.com/HgPhbbRl.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/A6wKCggl.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/pWC0GE2l.jpg

[Phillydubs]

Are you QTing new fish ?

[bamzam]

No, have not had to quarantine any of my fish. Aside from my first batch that I ordered from discus hans, I've bought all my fish from a LFS that specializes in discus/discus friendly tank mates. He also orders from hans and goes through the quarantine process before selling any fish. I trust his process and have had no issues so far.