180L Juwel Rio Planted Dwarf Cichlid Tank - New Substrate and New Planting

[BESTDISHEVER]

bezzzzzzzz i just bought the same sand here.. its horrible for meeeeeee i only rinsed it once its like cloud heaven@ what should id o!?

[fsu23]

what is the dwarf cichlid you have in there? it looks like a kribensis, but very different in color?

[mbezik]

@fsu23 Yeah that is a relative of the standard kribensis, pelvicachromis taeniatus "niger yellow" i have a pair in this tank, if you check one of my videos labled "Pelvicachromis taeniatus - Striped Kribensis" you can see both the male and female in more detail, beautiful fish!

[fsu23]

@mbezik Cool, im just getting back into planted tanks with co2 and will be doing same style tank as your's. My tank will be 30 gallon or 113 Liters. ive got everything picked out, except the lighting. Lights have changed so much since i last did plants. Been looking at T5 setup around 100 watts or so. Any suggestions that have worked for you?

[mbezik]

@fsu23 yeah i use t5 bulbs, id be careful about going too powerful as this can give you big problems with algae, try and stay at around 2-2.5watts per gallon, i run 2x45w t5 bulbs in this 180L both are pink coloured 6800K, ideally try and get some bulbs close to the 6500K range as this is what works best for plants. Im just about to set up a new 450L planted tank (juwel rio 400) which im trying 2x54w 6800K pink and 2x54w 9000k daylight bulbs.

[fsu23]

@mbezik ok, sounds good. Does this apply even if the fixture is raised up like a Nova Extreme fixture?

What fixture brands do you prefer?

[mbezik]

@fsu23 all my tanks are complete setups that come with their own light bars, the juwel light units are strange as they are t5 bulbs but in the same length as the old t8's, the downside of this is that i have to buy the juwel specific tubes to fit, but im such a fan of the juwel tanks that i dont mind so much. my other tanks are either lower tech planted setups or unplanted apisto breeder tanks and all these have t8 bulbs, again using the specific light bars that come with the tanks.

[TraubenstattWorte]

Dat is ma schön jemacht. Hut ab

[Sklujan]

Awesome tank! Love the layout. Subscribed. Check out my tank when you get the chance.

[BensAquariums]

That tank looks sick! The drift wood looks awesome!

[zakartaz]

This is a show tank in the making my friend. give it 3 months ;)

[KHashi76]

Your tank is looking amazing, nicely done sir.

[blurlistener]

what substrate do you use

[mbezik]

@blurlistener seachem flourite black sand

[mbezik]

lol, a video wouldnt be a video without at least one hater ;) keep up the good work!

[MrTerence1992]

which s tht brown fish @  43 seconds????

[mbezik]

@MrTerence1992 i think you mean the male Pelvicachromis taeniatus, a relative to the common kribensis

[MrTerence1992]

@mbezik ohh ok man



[TheAquariumKid]

Wow dude that tank looks great dude!!

[mbezik]

@TheAquariumKid Thanks, im excited to see how it fills out in a few weeks once the plants start utilising the pressurised co2

[TheRossiboy]

wow looks great bez! I'm definately getting that seachem flourite sand now, I just wanted to ask if you rinsed it first and if you stir it up or mess with it when planting does it cloud the water? also did you just put the fish straight back in? thanks a lot man :)

[mbezik]

@TheRossiboy yeah i gave it a rinse to remove the residual dust before i added it but to be honest it didnt do much and my tank was very very cloudy for a couple of days and every time i touched the substrate it erupted in another cloud of dust. this problem only lasted for a week and now i can plant without the dust clouding the tank, i think the fine dust has settled to the bottom of the substrate now.

yeah the fish went straight back in, had no deaths and no spikes in my parameters.

[TheRossiboy]

@mbezik thanks for the response man I appreciate it :)

[KETIMENE]

it looks amazing !!!

[mbezik]

@KETIMENE Thanks man!....someone had flagged your message as spam, i wonder if its the hater in the hooos

[tropix579]

why did the cardinals swim with their nose pitched up?

[mbezik]

@tropix579 they seem to enjoy swimming in the down current at the front of the tank created by the spray bar, this means they have to point upwards as they swim across the tank, they do it every night 1hr b4 lights off, its like theyre having one last play before bed time

[BeerBellyDK]

Looks great! :)

[mbezik]

@BeerBellyDK Thanks man! i just added my pressurised co2 today so hopefully it should fill out quickly