# Anthony's 40 Gallon Quest



## Andras (Jul 17, 2010)

Hi guys I'm new here and thought I'd post my tank. Its a 40 gallon Sea Clear Acrylic tank with an Orbit Sunpod PC for lighting, and a Rena XP2 and XP1 for filtration. I have a Hydor Inline heater, as well as a 9 watt UV Sterilzer. The substrate is pool filter sand, and the hardscape is about 90 lbs of Texas Holey Rock, Lace Rock, and Petrified Wood. Planted is anubias, anubias nana, java moss, java fern, and some unknown crypt. This used to be a high light planted tank, but after 5 years of that I've decided to go back to primarily fish keeping. No fish in there yet as I'm cycling the tank, but I'm really excited to finally get this one started. Well here's the tank


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## Gunn20 (Jun 19, 2010)

cool tank there isnt that much room for fish to swim what type of fish do you plan o putting in there


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## Andras (Jul 17, 2010)

I'm not really sure just yet. I actually came to this site to get some direction on which types of fish would be suitable for the tank. Any suggestions?


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## Gunn20 (Jun 19, 2010)

yellow labs and acei would be sick if you want to go "formal" but if you want to go "crazy" you can like um yellow labs, peacocks, other mbuna, haps, tangs,victorians but make sure you dont overstock it to much because that will bring problems and make sure when you find your stock list to wait and make sure the stock list you want isnt going to backfire


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## Andras (Jul 17, 2010)

Yeah I'm definitely going to take my time when thinking about stocking the tank. Hopefully I don't have too much longer to wait for the tank to finish cycling as ammonia dropped to zero a few days ago, and nitrites are starting for fall. I'm using Seachem Stability to help the process along.


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## Gunn20 (Jun 19, 2010)

okay cool when you are done cyclyin post your wanted stock list


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## annabie (Jul 20, 2010)

Really nice. I'm just wondering how much money have been spent for that tank?


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## Andras (Jul 17, 2010)

Lol! Luckily all of the equipment was bought years ago when it was set up as a high light planted tank(I think everything then set me back about $1700). I won't lie...it was a pretty penny to get that thing going. This time around I've only had to get the rocks, sand, and plants. All of which have cost less than $200. Rocks being the biggest cost because I could not find any landscape supply companies or quarries that had the rocks I wanted, and shipping rocks is expensive. Here are some pics of what the tank used to look like in it's planted days.



















Stocking of fish in the tank back then was a large school of rasboras, with a smaller school of trificata rainbows. Keeping up with all the fertilizer dosings, water changes, maintenance trimmings and rescapes just became too much. I had the tank going so well everything would grow to the top in less then a week.


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## Gunn20 (Jun 19, 2010)

yeah cichlids was a way better choice


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## Vadimshevchuk (May 23, 2009)

planted tank are more fin IMO. I have a 37 gallon high tech with pressurized co2 because i love the loook and it takes time to get the tank just right. I also have a cicihlid tank because with planted tanks, you cant have cool fish with awsome personalites. I enjoy my yellow labs so much! opcorn:


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## Gunn20 (Jun 19, 2010)

a stocklist yet?


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## Andras (Jul 17, 2010)

So after all of what I read on the web about stocking I've decided to slightly overstock and go the way of harems. I picked up a trio of Blue Johanni's, a trio of Red Zebras, a trio of Red Top Hongi's (I didn't realize until I got home and released them that they accidentally gave me two males one female), one Red Fin Caudopunk, and a synodontis eupterus. I'm aware of some of the troubles people have had with red zebras, and know that breeding may become an issue with the trios. I even think I might want to put another trio in there to even out aggression further. As any of the fish start to really outgrow the tank I'm going to sell them back to the lfs for credit to get a younger one. Any suggestions, gripes with my choices, warnings, or concerns are welcome. Thanks. 8) :fish: It's day two of them being in there and they couldn't look happier, and the ammonia and nitrites are still reading zero.


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## Gunn20 (Jun 19, 2010)

got an update picture


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## Andras (Jul 17, 2010)

I'll post some up tonight after the glare dies down in the room.


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## Andras (Jul 17, 2010)

Sorry I'm a little late with the promised pictures. I took my light fixture apart today and FINALLY replaced the moonlights built into it that burned out years ago. I forgot how hard it is to take pictures of moving fish so they aren't the greatest. Well here ya go


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## niccomau (Oct 14, 2008)

really nice tank :thumb:


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## Andras (Jul 17, 2010)

Thanks  The tank and the inhabitants have been doing great so far. It's been great having the tank to just stare at after a long day of work. :drooling: I'm going to be installing a DIY background this week and a total rescape for more swimming area. I'll post some pics when the dust settles. :fish:


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## Andras (Jul 17, 2010)

Here are some new pics with the background I just installed yesterday. It looks so much better imo. Enjoy :thumb:


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## Manoah Marton (Feb 17, 2009)

Your tank looks awesome.


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## dannonlayne (Mar 27, 2010)

it looks great! i love the sand!


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## Andras (Jul 17, 2010)

Thanks guys. The dominant male loves the sand too. As soon as I was done tinkering in there with all the open floor area he must have been thinking !!!!! oh oh SAND    !!!!!......becuase he's been pretty much digging non stop since then lol


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## SeanPrice (Sep 10, 2010)

Dude sweet looking tank, I am working on setting up a 40 gallon acrylic with similar features. Running two xp's myself, this gives me some good inspiration!


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## AndrasLOHF (Jul 8, 2013)

Well for some reason I couldn't reactivate my old account(it's been years since I've logged in here) so I set up a new one. Eventually the tank boss male hongi decided to go axe murderer one day on the tank and kill everything in there except for one red zebra, and two mainganos. I had let the tank go for a long time and finally got around to restocking it and a rescape. I picked up 12 new fish the other day and still have 1 synodontis from the original stocking. They were labeled as Mbuna Zebra but look a little more like an Afra to me. I actually like the tank much more as a species tank with all the fish interacting much more naturally than when I had harems of a couple different groupings. TANK SHOTS!!!!!


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## clhinds78 (Jul 27, 2012)

I can't really tell, but it looks like you have a ps. soulosi there. They make good species tanks.

The reason your other fish went axe murderer is probably because there were too many males and not enough females in the tank. With mbuan you want to keep a ratio of 1m/3-5f fish. Is this a 36" tank? IF that's the case than two males in this tank would be plenty. There were probably not enough fish in your old setup to spread the aggression last time.


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## vegeta1059 (Jun 13, 2013)

Really good picture of your fish, there. He is peaking around the rock and its very cute.


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## AndrasLOHF (Jul 8, 2013)

vegeta1059 said:


> Really good picture of your fish, there. He is peaking around the rock and its very cute.


Lol, thanks. I really forgot how awesome cichlids were. They're always doing funny stuff like that. My favorite thing is "keep away" with an algae wafer.


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## AndrasLOHF (Jul 8, 2013)

2 weeks later and everything is going great. After the 2nd or 3rd day the alpha male definitely colored up and started trying to mate. Aggression hasn't been any issue yet...just a chase here and there. I believe based on the dimorphic coloration I ended up with 4 males so probably somewhere down the line I'll have to move 1 or 2 of them.


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