A few changes here!
Using my spare time on my july school vacations I decided to do a gravel change.
This tank was originaly designed to host an Oscar and two Jack Dempsey blue. So, I did not boder to chose a small gravel. As time passed by, I started adding Loaches to this tank and now, as you know, there aren´t any Cichlids anymore - only loaches.
At first I changed 25% and keep mesuring amonia for 3 days. There was a slightely raise (from 0 to less than 0,25 PPM). I used the old PVC pipes not to mix diferent gravel:
After those 3 days, having the amonia level gonne back to zero, I changed other 25%:
Now, half of the tank had the new gravel, sandlike:
Again, a slightely raise of amonia. Other 3 days wait and I took off the rest of the old gravel:
And then the idea came to my mind...
Now it would be a perfect time to install the good old undergravel filtering system, wich I use for the last 25 years in my tanks, including the 200 liter one.
Went to my LFS and bought the black plates and tubes. I already had two 650 L/h powerheads.
As new gravel is sandlike, I had to cover the plates with a porous plastic cloth in orther not to block the small holes and sewed it to the plates:
Both 6 stage internal canisters are still there for a while. I intend to remove them as long as re-cycling occur on the new gravel, in orther to get extra room for my loaches.
Of course I will only know if this change worth it in a couple months or so, monitoring water chemistry permanentely, but my feeling tells me that what I did was the best for now. The smaller gravel will be better for the loaches barbels and the undergravel filtering system will develop extra microlife for the tank, removing extra nitrogenous and other wastes.
Another good news is that with all this water changes my nitrates level dropped from 80+ to about 20-25 PPM.
Well... let´s take a look on some pictures of the fishes since I started the changes:
Redtail shark:
My redtail Loach wich I dind´t see for a couple weeks showed up, at least the tail:
On this next shot the redtail shark was close, so we can compare sizes:
BTW, she went out of her wood yesterday and stayed out for a couple minutes. The redtail shark looked like her son in size comparison. Unfortunately I was not able to catch the moment in a picture.
More shots of them:
Here, 25 Clown loaches at same time:
Now the bad news...
With all this mess new territories were set. My #2 Clown loach chalenged Mr. Big Botia for the pecking order. Here is the result:
Mr. Big Botia:
#2:
Mr. Big Botia remains #1 but got lots of scars, while #2 had her left eye injured. I´m using Melafix since that but I´m not sure I´m luck on the treatment. Mr. Big Botia got scars but it´s ok, alive, moving all tank as usual, but #2 is inside that black pipe for last couple days and don´t go out for anything, even at feeding time.
I do have two other loaches with clowded eyes. My #4 has both eyes clowded and another one has one clowded eye. Hope it will not happen to my #2. Time will tell...
Here, some pictures of my 200 liter tank:
Botia striata:
Botia sidthimunki:
Golden CAE:
Red Marlboro Discus:
Pigeon Discus:
Formed couple:
Blue Discus:
Discus and SAE:
200 liter tank:
That´s all folks!
Marcos
