# My 240gal Semi planted Amazon



## Joefish (Mar 5, 2005)

Just wanted to hsare some pics of my 240gal amazon setup.. i dont have alot of plants in it, for being the Altifrons and Tapajos will get large over time , i guess i will see what will work and what wont but for now the plants make the tank... The tank is 96X24X24

I am no green thumb by anymeans and can use all the help i can get..

Not sure of all of whats in it for plants.. but your more then welcome to comment..

I will be adding more substrait to it this week and changeing somethings around... in a few pics you can see how some of the leaves are turning white.. not sure why.. but im sure i am missing some vitel things.. i would like to nip that in the butt as soon as possible to ensure the best for my plants..

Thanks for looking

Joe


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## dwhite645 (Jan 9, 2005)

mighty impressive! The white leaves might be caused by lack of iron. Are you running Co2? You should start liquid fertilizing, adding root tabs and mix in some laterite or flourite into the substrate if you haven't already.


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## Joefish (Mar 5, 2005)

Thanks i aure am as far as Co2 and liquid.. as well as onyx sand but the one thing that i havent added yet wich will be added as soon as it arrives is the tabs.. so as soon as i get them they will be ploped in.. i also run 6 36" Flor plant lights and 2 36" 96watt pwr compacts for 12 hrs a day.. by th eway i am useing a carbo block for my Co2.. 

thanks again for your intput.. 

Joe


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## John P. (Nov 24, 2004)

Joe, where do you live? If you're in the U.S., I could send you some clippings of nice, rare, fast-growing hygrophila.

By the way, does that Cichlid feed on the scissor-tail rasboras and the bloodfins?

What a great, huge tank. Lots of possibilities there!


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## Joefish (Mar 5, 2005)

Thanks alot!!! , this tank used to house Zaire Frontosa's but it got old.. anyways im in the chicago land area home of the GCCA.. nah all colombian tetras and scissor-tail rasboras are left alone and have the tank for them selves.. one thing i like about the schooling fish is that it helps my Plecos come out more ofton.. 

for fish as of now in it.. here is the list.. 

20 Syno petricolas.. "wich will be removed to there own tank soon" 
12 Geophagus Tapajos 
2 Geophagus Altifrons Rio Xingu "More on the way" 
24 scissor-tail rasboras
12 Colombian tetras
1 Acarichthys Heckelii 
2 L25 Scarlet Pleco's 
1 L114 Red tail Leap pleco 
1 L273 Titanicus pleco 
1 L255 Spotted Medusa Rio Xingu


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## jcolletteiii (Jan 30, 2005)

That Geophagus will get large - very large in that very large tank. Those rasboras and tetras will not. The Geophagus can easily reach 12", and will eat any fish which will fit easily into their quite sizable mouth. Also, many south Am cichlids are very aggressive among themselves, something else to keep in mind if your going to plant heavily. Also, i beleive they are gravel feeders. I had a pair of large jack dempseys a long time ago. Couldn't keep anything planted in that tank... You may eventually end up w/ a cichlid only tank. FEED THEM CICHLIDS WELL!!!!

Good luck with the little guys.

-joe


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## tsunami (Jan 24, 2004)

Joefish,

I think you have a tank with a lot of potential but needs a bit of a refocus. For CO2, I think you would really need pressurized CO2 with a HUGE reactor to get it to lower your pH for an extended period of time. The CO2 block system just does not work for tanks this large.

I am not sure if your aim is to recreate a biotope or a planted tank with South American fish species? If your goal is too recreate a biotope, then I would pull the plug on the CO2, decrease the amount of lighting, weed out all the crypts/ferns, and grow only Echinodorus species which are tough enough to survive the digging of the Geophagus.

Otherwise, I would remove the Geophagus, upgrade your CO2 system, and start learning about fertilization. There are plenty of great plants AND fish for a nice South American themed planted tank -- and you have a tank large enough to effectively use Echinodorus sp (sword plants)!

Carlos


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## arellanon (Jan 2, 2005)

I would LOVE a tank like yours! Those dimensions give you SO MUCH to work with! Two feet wide can house really big plants and pieces of driftwood and two feet tall can let nice tall plants like vallisneria, aponogeton, and cabomba show all of their beauty. Congrats on your tank and plant it dense baby!!!


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## Joefish (Mar 5, 2005)

Thanks all for the input.. as for the main fish in this tank is the Tapajos.. not the altifrons.. yes the altifrons can get 12" plus.. but NO big deal.. the Tapajos maybe around 8" max.. as for the tatras there just filler .. and as for the plants,, well they came easy they can go easy.. my biggest focus on this setup is the Sa cichlids and the Almighty L25 Scarlett plecos.. i am by no means unaware of the size that altifrons can get.. keep in mind at one point this tank held 13 Zaire Kapampa Frontosa's even get bigger.. 


As for the plants doing well.. well the ferns are sprouting like no other.. anyone want some? but like i said there filler for now.. most of the plants will become potted as the Geo's get larger or just moved to a tank just for plants and tetras.. i don't mind really.. i would rather look at that tank housed with a bunch of 15" monsters then a bunch of plants waving back and forth.. But not saying i don't love green , i really do like planted tanks.. and down the road just devote a tank just for plants.. trying to use a 240gal tank for a all planted tank is not easy.. so in good time they will have there own house to live in.. with some nice tetras to swim about not to harm them.. 

Glad you all liked.. 

Thanks again for all the input.. 


Joe


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## tsunami (Jan 24, 2004)

People with planted tanks can keep big fish, too, actually. Just not Geophagus. 










It is a delicate interplay between fish and plants. At least for me.

Carlos


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## Joefish (Mar 5, 2005)

We shal see.. as soon as there being ripped up i will remove them... "plants" and leave the tank open for the Geos..


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## jcolletteiii (Jan 30, 2005)

Please, do not be offended by my comments. I speak only from a large amount of experience with cichlids, both new world and African. Even fairly "peaceful" south American cichlids like Thorichtys meeki (firemouth), will eat anything slightly less than half their body length. I am only urging caution because I know what these intriguing fish are capable of. They ARE homewreckers.

My tank now is full of a mix of rift lake cichlids, mostly mbuna - but I do have one Haplochromid - a quite fetching Sciaenochromis alhi - which will get quite a bit larger than most of my other fish. But I know that, although territorial, this species of Haplochromid is relatively retiring. Relatively. He did promptly eat a larger SAE which was already in the tank before he was introduced, and which I felt was a safe move - bad me.

As for the plants - not saying they will be munched, only dislodged - you may be replanting a significant portion of your green material on a fairly regular basis. I have NEVER had a plant get eaten by a cichlid of any type. For that matter - by a fish of any type. The key is feeding them what they like to eat. Snails, on the other hand... I have 7 different kinds of food I feed my Africans. Most fish are fairly specialized feeders, I learned that the hard way by putting butterfly fish in my reef tank with live corals. They even ate my tube worms! That still makes me mad. But I learned a very valuable lesson - know exactly what you are putting in your tank before you buy it. 

Again, good luck, and please do not take offense from my ramblings. :axe:


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## Error (Apr 16, 2004)

I personally have never had trouble with cichlids from the genus Thorichthys (firemouths, etc.) eating ANY other fish. Adults have even left livebearer fry alone, as well as cardinals.

I think they have a *very* undeserved reputation. The only problem with them is that they're diggers, sometimes. Generally, however, if you give them some kind of structure (like a small flower pot), they will behave. Otherwise they are very peaceful.


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## Error (Apr 16, 2004)

Besides, who wouldn't mind getting a stem ripped up every once in a while, if this guy were doing it???


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## Joefish (Mar 5, 2005)

jcolletteiii said:


> Please, do not be offended by my comments. I speak only from a large amount of experience with cichlids, both new world and African. Even fairly "peaceful" south American cichlids like Thorichtys meeki (firemouth), will eat anything slightly less than half their body length. I am only urging caution because I know what these intriguing fish are capable of. They ARE homewreckers.
> 
> My tank now is full of a mix of rift lake cichlids, mostly mbuna - but I do have one Haplochromid - a quite fetching Sciaenochromis alhi - which will get quite a bit larger than most of my other fish. But I know that, although territorial, this species of Haplochromid is relatively retiring. Relatively. He did promptly eat a larger SAE which was already in the tank before he was introduced, and which I felt was a safe move - bad me.
> 
> ...


 Nah no worries... im used to it.. being one of the Administrator's on Cichlid-forum.. i do welcome any comments and will never take offence,, i have Bean keeping African cichlids for almost 15 years now and many other species for longer.. i am by no means new to this hobby "cichlids" but am new to live plants.. as the size these Geo's are I'm not worried about it.. at least not for another year or so.. there still very small and are very slow growers..

If i do have to move the plants out in a year or so,, oh well.. il give them there own tank.. not a big deal..

Again thanks for all of those who commented on this thread.. il keep you all updated to how its going.. and post more pics later..

Take care..

Joe


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## Aaron (Feb 12, 2004)

What you are attempting to do is totally feesible. I had a setup similar to yours. I ran a 125g which housed six G. surinamensis, 20 M. praecox, a dozen C. adolfoi, and nearly 100 white clouds. I used silica sand as a substrate and used large pieces of driftwood cover with moss, Bolbitis, and Java fern. I raised two generations of surinamensis in this tank over a period of 4 years and never encountered any problems with them pick plants or eating their tankmates. I never kept any plants rooted in the substrate so this is where our systems are different, however I can say that my Geos did not really dig that deep. My fish would only "skim" the surface of the substrate. I would think a large clown loach would do more excavating than these guys. 

If there is a problem with the fish damaging the plants, it would be your Pseudacanthicus tearing up leaf after leaf as it rasped for food.

BTW, where did you get your Crypts? Nice looking old school C. affinis! I know a couple of people that would love to get their hands on some of that.


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## Joefish (Mar 5, 2005)

Aaron said:


> If there is a problem with the fish damaging the plants, it would be your Pseudacanthicus tearing up leaf after leaf as it rasped for food.


 I totaly Agree, The Scarletts are the biggest diggers in the tank as of now.. they will thrash for food, not to mention at each other.. in the 12 hour of lighting the Pleco's start to come out and let me tell you this is when i really enjoy watching the tank.. seeing L25's,L114, and L273's come out is a site to see and can they thrash..

As for all of the plants they came from Peter at www.azgardens.com

Joe


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