My New 125 Gallon Frontosa Tank Setup Thread-Updated Pictures!

[Ballinxalex]

Nice setup

[Kelli]

It finally worked. Here are some updated pictures! I tried to get some pictures of the cyps but you couldn't see them in the photo. When I get the light on there, I will get some better ones. I have an FX5 on it right now and a HOB filter. I am currently working on my wet/dry. So far I have 19 F1 Mikula Frontosa fry and 5 F1 Cyprochromis Leptosoma adults in there. (I will remove the Cyps when the Fronts get larger). I'm still not finished with the canopy and the doors are waiting for new hinges but they are ready to go on.

Some of my Frontosa fry have lighter colored stripes than others. Here is an example of this.





Taken a couple weeks ago.



Aren't the colors beautiful!?!





The new scape. It has a 4 1/2 foot piece of driftwood in there that is too dark to see without a light.



You can see the driftwood a little better in this one.



Let me know what you think! Thanks!

[Kelli]

Here is the only picture I can get to upload right now. I have noticed that the lighting makes a huge difference on the colors. This was one week after I got them. I do not have a light over them yet so all the pictures will be dark.

[Geral]

Can wait to see pictures

Sunnys always helping!! Great guy!

[SunnyHouTX]

That's awesome Kelli.

Get on those lights asap

[Kelli]

Update on the mikulas! They are doing great! I haven't lost any and they have really colored up and are eating like little pigs. I already had them eating out of my hand after the first day! :) I live out in the boonies and my local post office had never shipped fish before so they were über excited to see them in the box. I will try to post some new pictures sometime this week. I still do not have a light on the tank so the pics are a little dark. I was gone for a week and I was shocked at how much they grew in only one week! I also purchased a group of 5 cyps to put in the tank until the mikulas get larger. That will take years! I will move the cyps to my 75 as the fronts grow. But they are also doing great. A BIGGGGG thanks to Sunny for meeting me at La Porte to drop off fish and my fx5! I appreciate you sooooo much! it sure helps to be able to fly your own fish home.

[Geral]

Hey kelli u have updates of the mikulas
Wonder how is looking the tank?

[mikeb144]

Hello everyone, I am back in the real world for a few weeks. There is not much I can add following Ron's post. One of the most important thing I can add it to get on a good feeding program and stick with it, and do not think they are starving to death when they react to you approaching the tank, IMO, this is the number one mistake new fish keeper make. That and water quality. Kelli, welcome to the Frontosa family. If there is anything I can do to help you enjoy your Frontosa more, just call.

[Kelli]

I very much appreciate all of the comments. I have learned so much from you guys and continue to learn something new almost every day. RonR.: Thank you for adding so many details about your setup! It sounds like I should invest in a timer. That should help with the electricity bill too! I will keep you all updated on the process. Within the next week, I should be getting my Mikulas. :)

[RonR.]

Kelli, after reading all these posts, I am pumped. I think a 125g is a good choice. I have a 180g running with 2 vintage ('88) 2217 eheims and do a 50% weekly water change. I have 10 wc mobas (1m/9f) and 1 F1 adult one-eyed moba male. They range from 5" all the way up to 12 1/2". I have 7 various type bristlenose plecos I got from TangoMike (thanks!) keeping my holey rock well maintained. I usually have 2-3 diy floating nurseries with anywhere from 20-80 F1 moba fry and 1-2 tumblers running inside the 180g at any one time so I run a pretty high load. I only keep 1 tank in my house so I have to make it count! LOL

I'm not sure if I read what your substrate was, but I prefer sand after using gravel for over 20 years. I also use 2 6080 Tunze streams that I have on an auto-timer. I have them positioned at the back corners at either end of the tank and have them set to come on for 15 minute cycles 4x daily (8am, 12noon, 5pm and 12midnite). It creates a mini-cyclone in my tank. I never have to siphon my sand. This also aids good water movement.

Consider running airstones. I run 2 large 3" airballs. This also creates good water movement for me.

I have kept a variety of fish with fronts including the blue dolphins, green and gold severums (I prefer the gold ones), clown loaches, botias, discus, aros, trophs so you can pretty much keep any fish together as long as you meet their water (temp, pH...) and diet requirements. I know I was stretching the limits when I kept discus with fronts or trophs with fronts. Like others here have said it's really up to you and what you like.

Since I only keep mobas I keep my water temp between 77-79 year round and my pH between 8.2-8.5. I also add the cichlid buffer recipe (epsom salt, baking soda and Instant Ocean). I use the recipe found over at the cichlid-forum in the library section.

I feed a combination of NLS Thera A, Dainichi Ultima, Dainichi Color FX and Dainichi Supreme 1x daily usually in the evening and I even skip a day or 2 during the week. I feed my newbie fry NLS Thera A in the smallest .5mm size 1x daily.

I've been keeping this same wc moba set-up since Jan '05 so I can't really comment on some of the other stuff. I have used Purigen in the past, UV filters and fluidized sandbed filters. I keep it pretty simple these days. Routinely maintaining whatever filter you decide to use is good and if you have 2, alternate cleaning them.

I use a submersible pump attached to a pvc setup I got at Jehmco. I attach my python to it and run it to my kitchen sink. I plug in the pump and it will suck 90g of water out in under 8 minutes. This gives me time to clean the tank sides and front. When I re-fill I hook the python up to my bathroom sink and fill her up. I add concentrated Prime (about 3 capfulls). I watch my Lifegard Big Temp digital thermometer to be sure the bathroom faucet water is not too cold or warm. If the water out of the cold side hits over 83 degrees which is common in the summer, I add a pitcherfull or 2 of ice cubes directly to the water to bring the temperature down.

Regarding lighting, I use 2 Marineland LED Double Bright 36" lights side-by-side over the top of my glass tops. I have them on auto-timers as well. I also have 2 sets of moonlights on a separate auto-timer. I like to see and enjoy my fish and I think they may like their routine. I think it's all about consistency. My light schedule is:

6am - 6:45am: moonlites
6:45am - 8am: LED's
12noon - 1pm: LED's
7pm - 10pm: LED's
10pm - 12:30am: moonlites

Some may disagree with some of my non-conventional methods of water changes, aeration, power stream filters and lighting, but they have worked well for me. I hope this works for you and others.

[Kelli]

Hence the reason I said I was planning to take the shellies out as the Fronts grew larger. The fronts are only 1" right now and at a year or so they will only be 3" and there mouths are still too small to eat a shellie. I will move the shellies into a 20 gallon later on.

Yes, I have been to Mike's house. His Burundis are beautiful as are his Mobas which are not breeding yet. I consider Mike to be one of my major fish mentors so I have a lot of respect for him and his opinions. I based most of my tank off of what I have seen at Mike's house. The ability to put blue dolphins, severums, loaches, and even angel fish in with Fronts very much excited me. I didn't realize in the beginning how many different fish you could put with Fronts. They seem to be amazing fish and I can't wait to raise mine up from 1". :)

[danielp]

Fronts will try and eat it if they can. Ergo i wouldn't plan on the shellies.

I've got 9 fronts (started with 20) 8 clown loaches and 3 dither peacocks in my 125.

I did countless hours of research when setting up my front tank and continue to spend countless hours talking with mikeb144 (purchased my burundi from him) about keeping these guys. I think you have visited mike and have seen his tanks. Study them and query on "RonR" on this forum. These are the guys i have modeled my tank after.

I'll never disagree with a fish keeper and how they go about their business (with the exception of fishless tank cycling) on this forum because different things tick for different folks.

Front guys, trop guys, petro guys, community guys etc etc all have different things that make their respective bio systems work right for them.

Fish are the rewarding and pretty part of the tank. A proper ecological biosystem balance is the most important.

When setting up tank filtration i calculate a minimium 5x per hour turn over rate. On trop and heavily populated systems it shoud approach 8x + per hour.

[wesleydnunder]

Kelli, here's my reasoning behind my posts:

First, I never said the tank would be overstocked, just heavily. There is truth to the mindset of adding filtration will allow you to add more fish. However, why do we filter?.. to keep the fishes' own wastes from poisoning the water and killing them outright. The more biofiltration on a tank, the more waste (ammonia) can be processed eventually into nitrate. Also, the faster the nitrates accumulate. Along with the nitrates, the biological processes going on in the tank produce many non-volatile acids and other compounds. Collectively, these are called Dissolved Organic Compounds (DOCs). These DOCs accumulate at roughly the same rate that Nitrates do. However, we can't go to the lfs and buy a DOC test so we use something we can test for as a general gauge of pollutants in the tank; nitrate.

When we stock a tank heavily, the biofilter(s) crank out the nitrates. Also, heterotrophic bacteria are constantly breaking down wastes and uneaten food and making more ammonia... more nitrate, more DOCs. Many of us try to keep our nitrates down to something around 20 ppm for planted tanks and try for less than 10 ppm in unplanted tanks. Some feel that 80 ppm is ok. I don't. That's a lot of nitrate and concomitant DOCs.

As I said in my earlier post, I believe your stocking list is heavy. As your fish grow they'll make more waste and eventual nitrate. You can test to see how quickly your nitrate accumulates to whatever your target value is and schedule your maintenance accordingly.

The reason I suggested not keeping shellies is they will be bite-sized when the fronts reach adulthood. Fronts are nocturnal benthic predators; they hunt at night. It may never be an issue and they may all get along fine if grown out together. They may also go the way the neons went in the angel tank.

I kept Hap. mooriis a few times... some are boisterous and always moving, like trophs. Some are mellow. I know they're not Haps any more but I quit trying to keep up with the taxonomists a while back.

Anywho, that's my $.05.

Whatever you decide to do, I suggest stocking slow and properly quarantining each new addition.

Mark

[mnemenoi]

Thanks Sunny! I appreciate your input! You have been so helpful! Anyone else have any suggestions?

I am interested in how the shellies do, I myself might try something like this if I were to have a large tank. Many times you have no idea how it will work out unless you try it. each fish is also an individual and growing them out together will certainly help in controlling aggression. We had a tiny (2") Frontosa in our tang tank and everyone, even the multifasciatus ran him in circles. Now, I'm certain if he grew out then he would have owned everyone in the tank. The occies would be my worry, but as I said in other threads they are much more aggressive and dominant and recommended for larger systems. They could work or might not, its a risk. I would agree about doing a Tang tank only, but I'm sure its my biotope zaniness coming through. Sevs can be cool, but are messy and big. In a high Ph system it means faster WC schedule and more filtration. Nitrates can be far deadlier in higher parameters and tangs like good water quality.

Either way let us know what you went with and next time someone will look and see how they did in your tank.

[SunnyHouTX]

I think you'll be very surprised to see how little maintenance I do to keep my overstocked tanks crystal clear and healthy besides the weekly water changes and cleaning a filter every now and then...