The Official Asylum Freshwater Tank Thread

[jjirons69]

+1 for Apistos. Check aquabid for a nice variety of apistos. The ones raised in hobby tanks are more tolerant to your home aquarium. The wild caught ones are less tolerant. Test your local water, if it's soft, the West African or Amazon tank is just right. If it's hard, a little additional African salt and you can have some nice Tanganyikan cichlids.

If "I" were you, I'd take that 75 G, fill it with Seachem Flourite/brown aquarium gravel mixed 50/50, puts lots of driftwood, and pack it with plants (java moss, jave ferns, amazon swords, cryptos, etc.) Research the net for low light plants unless you're going to go with over 2 watts/gallon lighting. I use around 1 watt/gallon and wouldn't have it any other way. I can't grow those light hungry plants, but I also don't have to trim the garden every few days either. That's the thing with a balanced aquarium, the poop feeds the plants and the plants absorb the nutrients before algae can get it. Next a couple big schools of dither fish - small tetras, cyprinidaes, etc. Get 20 or more that love to school and get a couple different kinds. Bolivian or blue rams are nice and you could handle 8-10 of them. Apistos are nice. Search for South American cichlids. Join a freshwater forum or lurk on several to get intell. Be very careful what you put in there, though. Once that tank is full of stuff, it's almost impossible to catch some of these guys to remove them. Add some cheapies to start with to slowly cycle the tank and after a couple of weeks, start gathering your stock. It'll take it a while to balance out, but it will eventually. Read, read, and read again. It's fun! Good luck.