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#Post#: 363--------------------------------------------------
What plants can go with african cichlids
By: RicoTheRookie Date: September 22, 2014, 9:53 pm
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Hello forum user quick question:
Many have said "The more water changes,the better" but dont
change your water daily because that can harm your tank.? :-[
Another have said you cannot keep plants with cichlids because
either 1 they will eat it or 2 they will dig it up? JOHN in
fishkeeping 101 part 3 talking about the cycling said to remove
nitrites or nitrates from your tank is to do water changes or
keep plants in the tank to help remove those harmful chemical.
Well DUSTIN if your out there hopefully listening please help me
O Plant god lol. what can i do to remove nitrites or nitrates
from my tank if i keep cichlids. without going with the daily
water change method. Is there a plant or maybe you can demo a
mthod user can use if wanting to put plants in a cichlid tank i
over heard Bamboo but im just spit balling, I would send this in
to the Podcast msg but im afraid that would be too long. Thanks
for reading and suggestions please reply. Im using alot of Prime
but thats just a band aid.
#Post#: 366--------------------------------------------------
Re: What plants can go with african cichlids
By: kgtropicals Date: September 22, 2014, 9:59 pm
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If you're doing regular maintenance Nitrites should take care of
themselves and Nitrates should stay low. Doing water changes
every day is pretty extreme and in most cases unnecessary. If
you have a heavily stocked tank with good filtration you should
be able to get by with 50% W/C once a week BUT you may need to
keep doing them (water only) until your Nitrites get under
control. There are also some products out there that you can
insert in your filter to help control Nitrates, I've never used
them so I'm not sure what they are but it shouldn't be hard to
figure out.
By the way, in the video I was talking about setting up a
generic tank, not an African Cichlid tank ::) ::) 8)
#Post#: 422--------------------------------------------------
Re: What plants can go with african cichlids
By: nihilis Date: September 23, 2014, 4:35 pm
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The best way is by doing water changes, but you don't need to go
overboard with it. I try and do weekly water changes on my 70
cichlid tank (18 fish) and i'm never above 20. Even if I go 2
weeks before doing the pwc, i've never seen nitrates above 30.
and my pwc varies from 25% - 40%.
If you really want to try plants, I've heard that anubias does
the best. Most fish don't care for it. You could tie it to rocks
or driftwood. Just remember to never bury the rhizome. This is
by no means a guarantee though, they may still eat it. And even
with plants, you'll still want to do your regular maintenance
and water changes.
#Post#: 621--------------------------------------------------
Re: What plants can go with african cichlids
By: Threelions Date: September 26, 2014, 3:08 am
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NO plants go with African's they just rip them to pieces ::)
#Post#: 634--------------------------------------------------
Re: What plants can go with african cichlids
By: Jennifer Date: September 26, 2014, 11:22 am
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I'm pretty sure I wouldn't do plants with most African's. I
don't keep Africans but I've seen what they can do to plants.
If you really want a planted tank, set up your African tank, and
then go get another tank and ... ;)
#Post#: 643--------------------------------------------------
Re: What plants can go with african cichlids
By: nihilis Date: September 26, 2014, 12:48 pm
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No plants with africans isn't necessarily true. I had amazon
sword and java fern before and they lasted for a few months and
were doing really well. What killed the plants was a crawdad
that decided to trim them. none of the fish (peacocks & haps, no
mbuna at the time) had any interest and I had them tied to rocks
and decorations so no digging them up.
#Post#: 644--------------------------------------------------
Re: What plants can go with african cichlids
By: Stu4648 Date: September 26, 2014, 12:50 pm
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I do not have any African cichlids but do have SA eartheaters.
The trick with them is to avoid plants that need to be rooted in
the substrate. You can try things like Java Fern which can be
attached to rocks, driftwood etc... If you do want rooted plants
you will need to use pots or have them growing through holes in
rock that the fish cannot access.
With Africans though I suspect the aggression of the fish in
many instances is leading to them just shredding the leaves for
some anger management therapy. If this is the case you could try
using floating plants or attaching the likes of Java Fern to
decor which is at mid water or higher to make them potentially
less of a target. Failing that if you set up a sump you could
convert part of it into a refugium and keep your plants in
there.
I'd try some floating plants first, they are the best at
removing ammonia and nitrate from the water anyway and probably
represent your best and cheapest option. Think of it this way,
if they do get shredded at least you provided some entertainment
/ anger management for your fish for a few minutes. If they do
become established though you will need to thin them out
occasionally as they will soon cover the entire water surface.
#Post#: 1836--------------------------------------------------
Re: What plants can go with african cichlids
By: TexMex Date: December 13, 2014, 3:30 pm
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Here is Idea for you if you don't room for a refugium in your
sump then try this it is a hang on the back refugium. It looks
really cool think about getting one myself, I can put some
plants and you can even order one that comes with a light. Check
this link out if you can click on it just copy and paste it.
HTML http://www.bulkreefsupply.com/aquafuge2-external-hang-on-refugium.html
#Post#: 1869--------------------------------------------------
Re: What plants can go with african cichlids
By: Cichlid_dude75 Date: December 17, 2014, 9:45 am
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I have Anubias and Java fern with mine. The reason I chose
these plants is 1. I already had a ton of both in my planted
community/Bolivian Ram tank and 2. if they got dug up, it would
not kill them: they do not need to be rooted in the substrate.
#Post#: 2088--------------------------------------------------
Re: What plants can go with african cichlids
By: Duck4cvr Date: February 14, 2015, 1:53 am
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Hey Rico,
Keep looking out there buddy. The king of DIY even has a
complete filteratration system. I just finished a setup with my
tank that uses Pothos cuttings in a hob type setup. I wish I
could figure out how to post pictures for some reason I can't.
In about a week, I began to see new root growth and my nitrates
and other level are almost the same as tap water.
I'm sure there are long term aspects that I haven't encountered
on the web, but I've seen others that have done it with out
water quality issues. And there are reasons why pet shops do
not just hang a a few springs of pothos plant in every aquarium
in their shop to reduce need for water changes. But so far so
good. I'll still be doing weekly water changes to vacuum up
fish waste.
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