90g Malawi (improved! Lol)

[Crude]

I posted some poor pics of my new set up in the welcome forum a week or so ago, and now I'm back with some updates to the tank and my attempted photography skills. Still rockin the iPhone though lol. Added a few more questions as well.

Anyway, here's where I'm at now!

(had a little fun with photoshop express for iPad. Sorry if it's too much lol, but my iPhone pics weren't cutting it. Need a real camera!)
Front:


Side:


Favorite fishy pic:


The water is still a little murky after rearranging and adding another 100lb of rock. There ended upk being a lot of nice crevices for my fish to hang out in, and they all seem to have a happy home. I'm sure things will shake up a bit as I continue to stock. Just added 5 melanochromis auratus to go with my "test the waters" danios (which seem to be loving life). Plan on adding more (female) m. Auratus, yellow labs, and demasoni.

I would love any advice, but here are some specific areas I know I need help in:

Stocking - from the research I've done, the species mentioned above should be ok together, and are not conspefcific, which is something I wanted to avoid. How many of each is appropriate for a 90g with plenty of caves and holes? Im running a Fluval 405.

Filtration/water flow: I'm not convinced my current set up is generating enough flow, and I seem t be able to identify the same particulates floating around the tank seemingly endlessly. Can anyone tell from the pics how I could better orient the discharge?

Plants/algae: I'd like a little green! I really would like to see some moss or algae on the rocks. Are there mosses that do well in a high ph high hardness Malawi set up? How can I induce a little algae growth without having things get out of control?

Hope you enjoy. I did. Thanks in advance for your help!

[Mandocruz06]

Demos are very beautiful but from what I knw they need plenty of circulation and,can sum times be very,agressive I have,one fry that is less then an inche and,he is one brave lil fish he scares off the other big guys...lol..you have,a nice setup

[eklikewhoa]

Love the color contrat with the melanochromis

[barrettsline]

Very nice rock scaping. Mind if I ask where you picked it up and about how much$$? I'd add a few acei and some o.b. zebra's just a personal preference. Good luck and keep us updated!

[Crude]

Thanks all

The first 150lbs of rock came from SanJacinto Stone and was $.15/lb. it was a mix of browns and grays, and I was really looking for more gray, so I bought another 100lbs from NEPCO. This was much pricier at $.59/lb, but I wanted the dark grays. It was called "pineapple rock"

[SunnyHouTX]

Crude, IMO filtration seems to be lacking with just one 405 which only turns over about 3.5 times your tank volume per hour. You should aim for 5 - 10 times your tank volume per hour for best results. This is only counting filter turnover and not powerheads/circulation pumps.

[Crude]

Thanks. I was wondering about that when I first bought the tank, and figured worst case I could add a HOB, but would have liked to avoid it. Fluval packaged the entire set together (the tank is one of those Fluval Frontiers that has everything included), and I had hoped Fluval packaged an appropriate sized filter with their 90g.

[SunnyHouTX]

I'm a big fan over over filtration. Here's what's keeping my 55 gallon clean:



That's about 800 gph of filtration between the canister and wet/dry

[Crude]

I suppose I am too. My last 55g was way over filtered.

Would I be better off adding a HOB, adding another canister, or can I just "upgrade" the existing canister?

Power head still recommended in all of those cases?

[SunnyHouTX]

You can do any of those options and more.

You have to be careful with powerheads though. If they are too powerful, they'll blow debris right past filter intakes thereby reducing the efficiency off the filters.

[myjohnson]

Nice tank and scape brahhhh!

Maybe wet/dry?

[barrettsline]

Thanks all <img src="http://www.houstonfishbox.com/vforums/images/smilies/icon_wink.gif" border="0" alt="" title="Wink" smilieid="4" class="inlineimg" /><br />
<br />
The first 150lbs of rock came from SanJacinto Stone and was $.15/lb. it was a mix of browns and grays, and I was really looking for more gray, so I bought another 100lbs from NEPCO. This was much pricier at $.59/lb, but I wanted the dark grays. It was called &quot;pineapple rock&quot;

<br />
<br />

Thanks for the update. Will definitely have to check them out.

[SunnyHouTX]

Nice tank and scape brahhhh!

Maybe wet/dry?

+ 1 to that!

[danielp]

Nice job on the aquascape.

I bought the same rock from San Jacinto Stone for my 125 gallon front tank.

[Crude]

If I add a HOB, I'm going to have to figure out how to move the damned thing away from the wall a bit

Would I be foolish to go with a wet/dry or larger canister if it meant scrapping my 405? I'm shying away from the wet/dry because honestly, it scares me. I'm afraid of overflows . Plus, they're pricey!