Help...and/or advise!! :)

I am a very beginner at this. My 90-gallon freshwater tank has been not doing so well with my kid-chosen assortment of whatever looked cool at the petstore. Finally (just before deciding I couln't handle an aquarium) I found Lone Star Aquariums, and with their excellent help my tank is fish-free (except my Pleco) and on the mend. We are in a 2-week recovery and down time but plan to be making it a cichlid tank when it is ready. I am excited and can not wait!! Like I said I am very new to this so other than local petstores I have no idea where to find good fish. I have some holy rock (limestone) on order and several large river rocks added to my tank already. I plan to add a few more as well as some more plants (artificial). Do you have any advise on any of this?? Any help or advise is greatly appreciated.

Depends on your taste for Cichlids really. I'm presuming that as you are using Holey Rock, that you are going African Cichlids and not S. American.

My first Cichlids were from the petstore, and I didn't realise that mixed cichlids, didn't mean various breeds, but a mixture of some possible purebreds and some hybrids. That was a about 5 years ago and I still have 3-4 of them, all in an all male tank, so no more hybrids. These Mbuna's are colourful fish, but also like to hide in caves etc. Especially as the dominant male is a bruiser of a Kenyi.
The other main Cichlid tank is Peacocks, they are not quite as aggressive, well except when it comes to breeding time, and then it's a no holds barred mouth to mouth fight between 3 of the males ...... entertaining, and their colours really show.
I have males and females in this tank, of 4 varieties, so if any young grow up they again stay in the tank as there's no way of knowing if they are hybrids.

As for sourcing the fish, I would look for a breeder, so you know what you are buying, and research the fish before you buy them, some such as the Demasoni are cute, smaller than many, but have a seriously bad attitude from what I've read.
The other good thing about buying them that way is that you buy them young, they grow up together so less aggression than when adding adults to adults, and you watch them start to gain colour.

I hope that helps a little.

Thanks that does help. I guess I just have to figure out the "variety" I want and make sure they can live somewhat peacefully together! Lol. I can't wait for my tank to be pretty again... Good news is it has made cdecent progress in 4 days from lime green to cloudy!

How did your tank because get so bad anyway

I did EVERYTHING wrong!! Like I said I am a novice. Lol. Light on all the time, two koi, overfeeding, and too many complete water changes to try and get rid of the green water. It stays clear for a few days then green again. Or that's what I am being told the problem is. I did a 50% water change and
Rehomed all of my fish except a large pleco and am open to any suggestions :-/

[img][/img]

4 days ago...

[url=][/url]

Today... Only turned light on long enough to take pic

Yeah leave you light off for several days longer then get rid of gravel in bottom abd use sand. I used pool sand you can get 50 pound bag for 10a bucks and its clean and good to go. If you water parameters are good then you shouldn't have to wait to add fish back to it. I have had just about every freshwater fish and still have discus and a couple angels so if you need any advice or tank stuff just call me 936-676-8667 im available from 8am-11pm

Also what filtration are you using, on a 90G I would hope a couple of canisters or a big ass single canister.
Gravel or sand? I have had the crushed coral on the Mbuna tank, and sand in the Peacock tank, both are good, as Cichlids love to move the sediment around, sand especially is good for that, especially under an overhang, the male will make a hollow into which he attracts/bullies the female into laying her eggs. But, don't go to deep with your sand, an inch maybe. The nice thing about sand compared to gravel is that as it compacts more, it allows less detritus to sink into the sediment, where as gravel can hide a whole load of S**t, literally.
If you decide to go with sand then put a few handfuls in a 5 gallon bucket, stick a hose in and rinse like made to get rid of the small stuff, which clouds your tank. It may take a while, but I assure you, the time spent is worth it.
Fill, stir with hand, pour, fill, stir with hand and pour, time and time, then scoop out the good stuff, and start with more fresh sand.
Adding fish. If you get them small, then you should be good. But if you are getting larger fish, and you have new sediment, and a virgin filter medium, then beware, you could over load the bioload of the tank.
Other fish you could add? First option would be a Sailfin Catfish, it's active, and it has spike's on it's dorsal to allow it to take no s**t from the Cichlids.

Also 90G, I would look at adding some powerheads to move the water around, in both my 55G Cichlid tanks I have at least one which moves around 550GPH, also if you think you may have dead corner, a bubble stone is an easy way of creating water movement.

Side point, Aaron, I would love to see some pics and info on your filtration of your Discus tank. I saw a great Discus tank back in the UK a few years ago, heavily planted, in a company's reception area ( probably about a 150G tank), but of course no one knew about it. I think Discus are wonderful, but shy away from the maintenance.

WOW, thanks ya'll! I am really trying to soak all of this in and completely understand what I am doing! I have a fluval 405 canister filter, it has 4 media trays and right now 2 of them have carbon and 2 have the bio ring (little white circle things) I was wondering if it should be 3 carbon and put all of the bio in one tray? I have no powerheads, but was considering ordergin a neat little holy rock that is wired to hook an air line up to. Now...i will show my ignorance and ask a "dumb" question.... I currently have the discahrge of the filter under the water level....is that right? Or should it be above the water level?

As far as the gravel vs. sand...I hear ya about how much s**t the gravel will hold...at one time I had a baby bass and just removed 2 koi....I vacuumed alot! lol I do like the way the gravel looks better than sand, but if sand is what I should have then I will get that changed out. I just want to get the tank good before I start adding fish back.

I have a Cascade 700 canister filter I can let go cheap say $25 if you need a canister filter.

I have a canister filter...i guess the question is do i need another one?? That sounds great if what I have isn't enough... Main problem is...idk what I need :-/

what size and type of canister filter do you have? that will tell a lot based on its rating and volume.

I have a fluval 405 canister...from what I can tell online it is around 340 gpm

I meant gph...lol

surely extra filtration wouldn't hurt?? I would like to buy it from you. I live in Lindale, but am in Longview today working until 6 (i can meet you after) or will be back to work Tuesday evening (i start at 6 pm tuesday) text me (903) 472-0087 if you can meet

My own personal preference in a 4 layer would be to have the bio rings in one, carbon in one and the other two would be for polyester sheet (not loose wadding). I've bought it from Micheals for a few dollars. It's safe for the fish. I cut out the shape of the filter tray and layer a few, then on the next filter clean just throw them away and put new ones in, they are very good at catching the c**p.

BTW, the Florida sand Jason has is really pretty white sand if you decide to go that route.

OK...I think I saw that post earlier. Thanks and i will find some polyester sheet...sounds easier!! Does it matter which order they are in?

Another dumb question....sorry.... when I remove the gravel and add sand...do i need to lower the water level or anything? I just did a 50% water change last Tuesday but I only have a pleco in there so if I need to do it again i can.

Water level will be about the same, however putting sand in can be tricky, rinsing removes a lot of the finer particles, but even so you may end up with milky water for a day, turn your filter off to allow the sediment to settle, if you can move the Plec to the other tank for 24 hours it will probably be grateful.

As for the order in the filter, I would probably prefer to have the polyester first, to trap stuff, then the bio balls and finally the carbon as the final chemical extraction, I don't know the 405 flow path, so can't say which go where.

Great, Thanks so much for all of your help!

Picking up two buckets of sand this afternoon... i don't have another tank, but the pleco has lived in a bucket with an air bubbler before for big water changes so he can do that again for a bit.

The problem with your tank was probably the koi. Think of a goldfish on steroids and ex-lax. I'm not a cichlid expert so I can't help you much but I'd probably get rid of the pleco ( if you're gonna go with Africans ) and look for a sydontis (sp ? ) catfish
.

Ok, I'll check into that. The pleco is HUGE... lol