The Cichlid Room Companion

Website · by **Thomas Andersen** » Tue Sep 27, 2005 5:41 am

I think it could be quite interesting and inspiring to see how people decorate they sand-dweller tanks - so get the camera out of the drawer and let´s see some tanks

I´ll make a start: The first one is a 375 L tank (app. 100 gal.) decorated with two modules from Back to Nature, one functioning is as filter with a 1500 L/h powerhead to drive it - the rest of the decoration consist of natural rocks and of couse sand. The species in the tank when the picture was taken was Xenotilapia sp. "red princess", X. sp. "fluorescent green" and a school of X. bathyphila Kekese - they are now in other tanks. As they all a deepwater living species, the lightning are a bit dull with a blue moonlight tube and an old used tube

The next one is the same tank a couple of years back - just plane sand, with some small rocks and a little group of Vallisneria to stake of territories. The fish in the tank are a group of Xenotilapia spiloptera Kipili, a trio of Ophthalmotilapia nasuta Kipili (who turned out not being a trio, but three males :roll:

) and a school of Ectodus sp. "descampsi ndole" - the X. spiloptera and O. nasuta were removed to their own tank shortly after, which gave more room to the Ectodus males to display

- the nest on the picture is app. 40 cm (app. 16 inches) in diameter

If you don´t know how to post pictures, then please read this:

http://www.cichlidae.info/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=27 or PM me and I´ll help your out

Thomas

Website · by **Thomas Andersen** » Wed Nov 23, 2005 2:09 pm

Isn´t there anyone who wanna show some pics of their sand-dweller tanks? I kind of hoped we could turn this thread into a document to show different ways of set ups, decoration and stocking

I´ve just changed the tank from the first post, and removed the blue moonlight and re-arranged the rocks a bit - the X. sp. red princess are back in the tank together with a pair of X. sp. "fluorescent green" and some juvenile X. bathyphila Zambia

I´m doing a major re-decoration of my other tanks, so soon as they are finished and the fish settled in, I´ll take some pics of them

Thomas

by **cyatide** » Thu Dec 01, 2005 11:01 am

This my 650 liters tank.

Not a sand-sifters-only tank, in fact there are these fishes:

2/4 Lestradea perspicax Lyamembe,
2/4 Cyathopharynx foae Sibwesa,
1/1 Benthochromis tricoti Karilani
1/1 Tanganicdus sp. Moba
1/1 Eretmodus cyanostictus Livua
1/1 neolamprologus brevis Moba
1/1 Neolamprologus pulcher "daffodil"

(sorry for the dark pic!)

Website · by **Thomas Andersen** » Thu Dec 01, 2005 2:12 pm

Wonderful tank, Paolo - Thanks for sharing

Your B. tricoti male looks very impressive - do they go along fine with your C. foai?

All the best,

Thomas

by **liuchin** » Wed Dec 14, 2005 11:14 am

Hi, Thomas
Your latest posted tank looks very impressive. I love it.
Did you add some background? and as you said that you only turn light on a couple hours, how you let the stone looks brown? Did you paint the rocks? ha...

Website · by **Thomas Andersen** » Wed Dec 14, 2005 11:36 am

Thanks Liuchin

No, the rocks are not painted, they are just covered with a years crowth of brown algae (I don´t know what they are called en English), sediment and sand. The layer is actually quite thick, around ½ a centimeter - you could say that I´m building up an artificiel layer of Aufwucsh :lol:

It´s the same with the background - on the back of the tank I´ve just put some black paper and because the water here in Denmark are very, very hard with a lot of dissolved chalk and minerals, it precipitate on the glass and rocks and mix in with the algae, building up a layer. I like a natural look in my tanks, so I don´t remove any algae etc. or clean the glasses, just changing the water and cleaning the frontglass

All the best,

Thomas

by **liuchin** » Wed Dec 14, 2005 12:33 pm

Wow... ½ a centimeter thick sediment...your fish should be eager for it. Due to dim light and keep a low nitrate level, I think my rocks should wait a long time to grow hair. :lol:

BTW, I heard that using white sand or similiar will not be easy to show sand fish's color, better using more darker sand. How do you think?

Website · by **Thomas Andersen** » Thu Dec 15, 2005 3:31 am

This picture actually shows the glass in the back of the tank - thin layers of algae and precipitated chalk on top of each other building up a thick layer.

Especially the X. sp. "fluorescent green" seems to like it - they often stands vertically with their heads down like in the picture

As for the color of the sand, I really don´t think it has much to say. My sand is light grey, and as long as the lighting for the deepwater species isn´t too bright, it´s just fine. The species living in shallow water, like X. melanogenys and X. sp. "kilesa", actually seems to prefer a very bright tank

Website · by **Thomas Andersen** » Mon Mar 20, 2006 4:10 pm

I´ve just moved to my new house and in progress of building a nice fish-room, and thought I should give myself a nice move-in present, so a bought a new 1440 liters tank (app. 380 gallons)

The tank is at the moment housing a school of app. 35 Lestradea perspicax and some Xenotilapia ornatipinnis - better pics (with no thermometer and water stains on the glass :wink:

) will follow soon

Thomas

by **liuchin** » Mon Mar 20, 2006 10:30 pm

hi, Thomas
You did give yourself a nice present. great tank with nice setup...
It seems like a volcano was built on left side, spawning yet?
Do you plan to add more different species, or just these two?

by **Jesper** » Tue Mar 21, 2006 5:07 pm

Hey Thomas

Congratulation with your new house, gets very good to have some more room for the fishes.

The latest pics. of your BTN tank is fantastic !!!

The decoration in the middle is it also BTN ???

Jesper

Website · by **Thomas Andersen** » Wed Mar 22, 2006 2:54 am

Hi Liuchin,

thanks

I´m not sure what I´ll end up with in this tank. Because of the moving I have just sort of placed my fishes in the tanks I have up and running for the moment, so there will properly be some adjusting in the near future. The Lestradea males have gone all crazy in the new tank, I think there are 8 or 9 big nests right know, and quite a few incubating females - a wonderfull sight

I´ll try and take some pics one of the following days

All the best,

Thomas

Website · by **Thomas Andersen** » Wed Mar 22, 2006 3:05 am

Hi Jesper,

long time, no see :wink:

Actually I have only two BTN moduls in that tank, the one that´s housing the filter to the right, and the big one in the back of the tank - all the others are natural rocks

Yes, it´s very nice to finally having space to set up a fish-room, when I´m finished it should contain around 6500-7000 liters of water

You are welcome to drop by any time

All the best,

Thomas

by **Jesper** » Wed Mar 22, 2006 4:23 pm

Hi Thomas !!!

Yes, long time no see, its been quit a while........

I`ll drop by some day to check out your fantastic aquariums
and fish. What about the American fishes, are you still going strong
or is it just the Tanganyikan sand dwellers again ???

Jesper

Website · by **Thomas Andersen** » Fri Mar 24, 2006 1:15 am

I´m still keeping Central American cichlids, and in fact a good share of my newly aquired space will be devoted to them. I´m even playing with the idea of trying some completely new, namely Crenicichla

But don´t worry, the Tang sand-dwellers will still be the main thing, I guess they always be :wink:

All the best,

Thomas

by **Chrissi96** » Thu Jul 27, 2006 11:33 am

hello Thomas Andersen,
i have a question to your 375L tank (It's the first picture from the top).
Which Back to Nature modules have you got in the 375L tank?
And how much have the modules cost?

!!!The tank ist fantastic!!!

Website · by **Thomas Andersen** » Fri Jul 28, 2006 3:38 am

Thanks!

I've only used two BTN modules, the rest are natural rocks. The one to the right is module R (filter) and the big one in the middle is module N: http://www.backtonature.se/english/modules.html

I think I paid around 140 euro for them

All the best, Thomas