Pleco basement

[Cristoffer Forssander]

I'll start a tread here with my new project!

A basement of 45 sq.meters for breeding plecos!

I will build the aquarium after Christmas, and will upload photos on the progress.
The aquariums will be fully systematic (or what to call this in english) with drenage and systematic whater changes with mixed RO water.

I will start with building folowing aquariums:

6 pieces of 720 liters aquariums, 200*80*45 cm
4 pieces of 280 liters aquarium, 100*80*35 cm
3 pieces of 182 liters aquarium, 65*80*35 cm



The filtersystem in the aquarium will look something like this!



I will not use central filter becase of desases, temperature and pH and conductivity that I wish to keep different.

The breeding groups I have for the moment, witch I will have in the aquariums...

L114, L200 H. subvirdis, L128, L91, L240, L241, L134, L107, L124 (and hopefully a pair L14 very soon)


I will update this tread as often as possible, and I hope this can be exciting for everyone!

At the moment, I will use some temporary aquariums for these fishes untill the others are redy!


Cheers
Cristoffer

[ayrtoninst]

Just out of interest, why will you be using RO water?

I've never needed that for Plecs. I know several Discus breeders who use it but no catfish/plec breeders

[MatsP]

Depends on where you live tho'. In the area where you live (Preston) is very soft water. In the South of England, water is hard as rock (300+ ppm) TDS, and to add injury to insult, the water has over 30 ppm nitrate. The nitrate is much more of the reason I use RO water than the hardness - in fact hardness is good to keep the water conditions stable, which is good for the fish in general. Nitrate, on the other hand, is not so great for the fish, and should be minimal.

I have no idea what the water is like where Christoffer lives...

--
Mats

[ayrtoninst]

Fair comment bud. I used to live, up until a couple of months ago, in Kent. I know the water is pretty darned hard down there, but I still didn't need RO for breeding or otherwise

Does RO actually make that much of a difference? I must admit though, I never tested the nitrate content from source.

[MatsP]

RO water is one of many things that, when done right, may improve results. It doesn't mean that you can't breed many of the fancier plecos in hard tap-water. There are SO many factors that affect how the fish behave and live. It's very hard to say exactly which of many factors are the most important ones.

Given that I only have had limited success in breeding (other than common bristlenose), I can't say that it's a "makes everything easy" solution. It's a tool, if you use it correctly, it can be of benefit. Used incorrectly, it can be dangerous (for the fish), as the water is less stable than the hard water in the tap.

--
Mats

[Cristoffer Forssander]

Hi!

Mats gave the right answer. I'm not really sure yet, what the water is like at this palce. I know it soft, but not quite how soft it is.
For breeding species like L239 and L134, I will use softer water. To make it easy, I will use mixed RO water with every tank. One reason is also to simulate rain period. As in the L25 breeding tale, some species seems to react more on season simulations than other. From my experience L240, L241 and L91 is those kind of species. But species like L333 docent seem to care at all.


Here is a image of one of my L114 female. I keep the females in a seperate tank from the agressive male.
I really hope that I can give a breeding tale of my own in the future!




More images on the basment is comming soon!

[apistomaster]

I think your new basement fish room will make all your breeding projects easier but I know if I put my fish in my basement i wouldn't pay enough attention to to them. That speaks mainly to how lazy i am.

Hey MatsP,
You really think having 300 ppm TDS constitutes "rock hard" water? I sure don't. I consider it to be on a borderline between moderately soft to moderately hard. Heck, I have bred many pairs of wild Symphysodon haraldi, Brown/Blue Discus in water with up to 450 ppm without any trouble other than what one expects when breeding any wild S. haraldi, the most adaptable discus species. Having any measurable nitrate levels in my local tap water would be an issue to me and I would take steps to remove nitrates. I tend to think of 100 TDS as the beginning of truly soft water and I generally breed most plecos and wild S. haraldi in water with about 50 ppm TDS but 300 ppm TDS is not so bad for general fish keeping or using as the dry season water. L333 is a species that does not seem very picky and mine breed as well in 340 ppm tap water as they do in soft water but most Hypancistrus species and Peckoltia L134 breed best if the water has a TDs of about 50 ppm.

I have a tank set up with Poeciliocharax weitzmani, Black Darter Tetras and Parotocinclus sp 1 with a TDS of 20 ppm and a pH of 4.5, presently my most extreme environmental conditions but these fish do seem to thrive in such water conditions. Heckel Discus and Altum Angelfish also will do best in similar water.

If I could set up my fish room all over again I would have several banks of tanks operating with a central filter each with water optimized for the particular fish being kept in those tanks. I would also use an UV sterilizer for all water returning from the central filter. My first line of defense would be some quarantine tanks individually filtered and each adjusted to the water chemistries appropriate for the fish just received. Once one makes a complete break from the newly acquired fish and the established breeding/rearing tanks, disease transmission becomes pretty rare. I actually think even using a UV sterilizer is probably more optional for the established tanks but if money were no object, then I would surely indulge myself by having UV sterilizers used with centralized filters.

Whether one is breeding wild Discus or the majority of soft water plecos using RO water blended with some nitrate free tap water or reconstituted to the desired degree will help make breeding soft water fish like these always easier and more successful.

[bronzefry]

Hi,
I really look forward to your project!

I also have hard water, averaging 1500-2000 microSeimens right now. The stains are vicious! We drink filtered water. I use RO on some tanks, such as L-387's and L-201's. Some community tanks are tap water treated with Stress Coat. Other tanks are a combination of both. I tried using just tap water on all of the tanks and had okay results with the exception of the L-387s. They washed out within a few days and their color didn't return. A few weeks later, I went back to the RO and they bred. Even with the RO at optimum, it only goes down to 6-20 microSeimens, not 0. The pH is 6.8 to 7.0. The L-387s breed in the RO. The L-201's are in the cave. The Ancistrus do fine in tap water and breed very nicely. The Farlowella spp. prefer a combination to breed. Some Corydoras spp. like regular tap water, others prefer the mix. Most folks I know locally gave up on anything in softer water. You can find a lot of African cichlids around here.
Amanda

[Cristoffer Forssander]

Thanks bronzefry! I'll try my best to make this thread interesting! All tips and suggestions are always welcome, as I will guide you all through my project!

I hope to give some shots at the basement soon, so I can give an idea on what I'm working with!

I have much faith in this project and hope to breed many difficult species in the future!


Cristoffer