need advice for tang set up

[pockets]

Hey people. I'm Chris. I've been coming here for a while but its my first post.

I've got a 240 I recently got from my brother. He had "monster fish" in the tank that came with it. Wanna reset the whole tank to a tanganyikan set up. I've got 150-175lbs of lace rock from a previous set up on my 125. Questions are this:
Where can I find larger pieces of lace rock?(all mine are smaller flat pieces)

What kind of sand are you guys using? I see a lot of white sand set ups that are gourgous and I want it vs the tan playsand I'm currently using.

Lighting?

And stocking? Wanting fronts, lelupi, calvus, cypts., cats. Whats a healthy number to not overstock yet cut down aggression? And can shellies go with this group?

Sorry for sounding like a newbie in the hobby. But all my experience is with puffers and s.a.......thanks for the tips!

Chri

[AquaticAddict]

Welcome Chris I used estes marine white sand its available at most lfs but may cost you a grip for a tank that size. You may find sand cheaper online

[eklikewhoa]

Welcome aboard!

Lace rock in larger form you can find at rock yards.

The sand, if you are sure on tangs then you could look for used fine crushed coral which will save on cost.

Lighting is dependent on you for the most part since it will mainly play only an asthetic role.

Stocking is all up to what you find appealing and what you feel you can commit to since they all have different husbandry. A mix would require careful planning but all worth while, be sure to keep us updated with photos and vids!

[wesleydnunder]

+1 on shopping the rock yards

Leslie's pool filter sand works well as a general purpose substrate

+1 on lighting... the deeper-water species seem to prefer their lighting more subdued

What species were you thinking about?

Mark

[JasonC]

I use Caribsea Aragamax select which is one size up from the smallest grain (oolitic). It's hard to find but I know a lot of the LFS here in town will order it for you it they don't have it in stock.

Another +1 for rock yards to find your lace rock. Natural Earth Products Company (Nepco) has a great selection of stone that is relevant for aquariums; it's probably my favorite stone yard for aquarium stone www.nepco.cc Alamo stone has a good selection as well. Unfortunately - both are a drive from TX City but if you're up this way buying fish it's worth your time to swing by Nepco.

One thing with your stocking, there will come a point where the lelupi and cyps are on the menu for the frontosa. No question, they will get eaten. Fronts are great fish but as adults are apex predators and cyps are one of the natural food sources for fronts. Just something to keep in mind. With that said they'll do OK together up until the fronts hit a certain size. I keep my fronts with foai, comps, and benthochromis. The fronts stick to the rocks and mid-water, foai stay mid and sand level, benthos are like giant cyps so they stay in the upper portion of the tank and the comps stay in or near the rocks. Everyone has a home which is what you want to try and do in a community tank.

Oh, and over filter the tank. On my 180 I run a wet-dry sized for a 200, an eheim 2262 and two eheim 2217s. My water quality is awesome and doesn't degrade if I miss my weekly water change.

[crazy42bmx]

Ok for the lace rock , theres a mulch place off 1960 just west of 249 on the left that has a few pallets of lace rock. Not sure on the price tho. For the sand +1 on going to Leslies for the bags, hell of a deal there. For lighting yea most of the tangs tend to look much better in the dimmer lighting.

Now the shellies , what type did you have in mind, i want to do a big community tank like that, i think that if you take some rock and kind of make a lil area just for them you should be ok , just an idea tho. Depends on the species you are looking at, i know for a fact that i have baby multies i could sell you. "but they are diggers" lol

I have kept all kinds of tangs in many tanks iv relized and learned that if you get smaller and grow out chances are lower of haveing fights and angry fishies! Hope that helped!

[alexrex20]

Be sure to include a pair of brichardi so we can see if they can take over even a 240gal tank.

[pockets]

Thanks for the replies guys. Sorry fro responding so late.

Lace Rock- I set up my 120 briefly as a african tank, till I discovered fahaka pufers. thats why I've got the lace rock now. I found it at a yard close to City Pets. Wasnt a bad price. Like $2.00 a pound. But all the pieces were fairly small and flat. So for my 240 I wanted to find a couple larger pieces for a more solid rock formation. gonna build up a large "mountain" on the left side of the tank and taper it down the tank. leaving about 2' open. then buils kinda a small "hill" and fill that area with shells for the shellies.

Shellies- these guys I'm a bit clueless on as far as species. never experienced them but I love their color variations and they seem to have a personality to them. thats why I want to know if they are ok with some of the other larger fish.

Fronts-thanks JASON for the heads up on their appitite and menu choice. The cypts are the main reason for wanting to set my tank up as a community tank.

Jason-Brichardi is a species I'm wanting to add for sure. provided they dont share the front's appitite.

current stocking ideas I'm playing with are: @ 35 cypts.........15 lelupi.......8-10 calvus.......8 brichardi......and some shellies.
take into account this isnt happening over night. when I do get them it will probably be in stages. This post is more for research. I've been coming here for a while now and you guys really know your stuff. I want this tank to be planned out right. So this is the prep stages.

[alexrex20]

8 brichardi will take over that tank. if you insist on keeping them, be sure to include some great Fry Police. leleupi are good at keeping fry in check, but synodontis catfish are even more effective.

leleupi are active predators of shellies. they will literally pull the female by its tail out of its shell, to get to the fry.

don't pay $2/lb for lace rock at a fish store. you can get the same exact rock at a landscape yard for $0.10/lb.

[pockets]

lol then that settles that. guess I'm not doing shellies. thanks for the info. I did forget to mention catfish. I figured 5-6 should make for a nice lil clean up crew and active swimming fish. and I'll have a few brustle nose plecos

Any other stocking suggestions to go with this core group?

[eklikewhoa]

Cyps, tropheus, petros

[crazy42bmx]

For another idea on stockin would be a small group of Lamp Caudopunctatus. Trophs are cool but then that throws of feed hearty meat foods to the fronts and calvus that will show much better color if feed what they like. Oh a cool idea instead of the regular Brichardi would be some Neolamp Helianthus. If you still want to have something that'll hide in shells that wont be small and get eatn . . you could try to find a pair of Lepidiolamprologus Hecqui, or "Meeli's" same same. Another Badazz tang fish is Neolamp Buescheri but they can be kinda aholes. Im tryin to pair up a male i have! Hmm what else , Get you a good Tang book! thats worth the money for sure.