Decor Poll & My Tank Scape Progression

[Aqualoon]

I bought this Manzanita from the same guy out in California that I have been buying from for years now. It has never lowered the hardness of my water (even when I wanted it too!). So for me I am not worried about that at all, mostly really like the pieces he gets in and like the many little branches this piece has.

Picked up the Red Rainbows and Nkonde, tank is finished and just needs to mature now.

[...]

Looks great mate...all the Troph's seem happy and active...see some bluish faces there already on the RR's...looking forward to tracking the progress of your tank as the fishies grow out 👍

[Mastiffman/ Duramax7Man7]

Well maybe it was just and "internet theory"... LOL

[finadic]

If the driftwood isn't cleaned well it will turn your water a light colored brown along with lowing the ph towards 7, where you want to keep it closer to 8 ph, plus you don't want anything sharp in there with all their darting around.

[Mastiffman/ Duramax7Man7]

Technically tropheus are in waters that are in waters closer to ph 9.. Something like 8.6+ So the closer to that the better I believe. Going to figure that out this winter.

[kyloren]

I'been always inspired by the photographs from the lake-only algae covered rocks and sand. This way, when i sit in front of the tank I always imagine its my window into the real lake. I' ve tried driftwood and plants before but it always irritated me in the end..

[Aqualoon]

If I didn't leave my phone at work I'd have another quick update video.

Just a few observations...

Driftwood - In the past this stuff has always had a fungus type covering that I'd either rinse/scrub off at water changes or if I had a pleco in the tank they would take care of it. The fry are keeping that in check rather well so they have a food source within the tank at all times and they seem to really like it.

Holy crap are they starting to get frisky towards one another, now I understand why you want to go with larger numbers.

Coloration wise nothing is popping yet, nor would I expect it to be. However I am able to start to tell the difference between the Red Rainbows and Nkonde, the Ikola of course are easy to tell apart from everything else.

[Mastiffman/ Duramax7Man7]

Yep. Tropheus are pretty territorial...

[EB]

I usually do a combo of rocks and terra cotta pots however I do have a piece of wood in my tropheus tank now. Not in to plants, the real owns get eaten and uprooted and don't like plastic.

[Aqualoon]

I know I'm long over due for a video but had a question regarding sand color. You can see the color of my sand in one of my earlier videos - it's a darkish brown. My question is, would lighter sand help make the colors pop a bit more?

I'm debating if I want to move my tank into my living room and then at the same time mix in some lighter sand.