Best filter for a 10g fry grow out tank?

Lupin

Me too. There is Oceane's reply though.:)

saganco

I was reading on another post about the idea of using ram's horn snails and shrimp with a good "ground cover" plant and not needing to gravel vac at all. If I went this way with my maternity/fry tank, and used a sponge filter, I shouldn't need to gravel vac and take a chance on sucking up fry or hurting them - right? Also, with that much plant material, I shouldn't need any air stones at all should I?

Thank you all, you're just SOOOOO helpful!!

fish_4_all

This is true, a good ground cover plant will eliminate the need to gravel vac. You still need to syphon some to get waste material out of the tank especially with a lot of fry. You can use a pre filter such as nylons, a sponge or something to keep the fry out but getting the waste out is still a good thing for water quality. If the mulm is low enough you could get away with just water changes but I am not sure.

Now to get a good ground cover, you may need some descent light. For a small tank that means 3.5 - 5 watts per gallon for HC, Clover and most other good growing ground cover plants. There is also the choice of a moss like Java Moss, Christmas moss or Fissidens Fontanus which is a new moss for aquaria. They won't require as much light but you will need to tie them down with something to form a mat. Some use wire mesh, plastic canvas or something else. Most of the time it is over sand or Eco Complete so it has a good substrate to grow quickly. Snails may help so may shrimp but make sure shrimp are vegetarian types as both cherry and ghost/glass shrimp will eat fry if they can get ahold of them.

I will do some research and try to find something about doing this so you have a better source to try it if you decide to go that way. Maybe another member will have experience with doing this.

saganco

I sure appreciate you digging into this for me! You say that the ram's horn snails don't eat plants, but another article we read said that they do - could the difference be in the type of plants? This same article said that Malaysian Trumpet Snails would be the best detrius and algae eater - any comment or argument regarding that statement? I'm not meaning to be a pain, just bringing out information to compare - I only want to do this "grass, shrimp, and snail thing" ONCE!! So I want to get it right.

As to lighting, hubby wants to go to VHO on most all the tanks, and of course, that seems to mean CO2 as well - geesh! It just keeps getting more complicated!!

Can I do the "grass, shrimp, and snail thing" in ANY way, shape, or form in a peaceful central american cichlid breeding tank? I love the idea of almost no maintenance

Lupin

I have ramshorns before and they wreak havoc on my plants by eating them. Most of the plants that were damaged were Rotala macrandra, Cryptocoryne crispatula and Amazon Swords.
True but eliminating them is a pain. They are often immune to chemicals. I have read in one forum of people complaining that the copper sulfate from Greenline failed to kill even the trumpet snails. I had a hard time removing them when I had an infestation of them. Boiling water failed to kill some of them. My loaches however managed to finished off the remaining ones after a manual pick-up method and hot water killing most of the snails.
My advice is to remove as many trumpet snails as you can to prevent such infestation.
I'd say you can try Amano shrimps, ghost, bamboo and red cherry shrimps. As for snails, mystery snails or Malayan Trumpet Snails are good options.
Yes.:)

saganco

Sorry Blue but I'm confused. You said that the trumpet snails are horrible to get rid of, then in the last part of the post you mentioned that they are a good option. I apologize for being dense, but it is rather confusing. Also you said I could do the "grass, shrimp, and snail thing" in the cichlid tank - could you elaborate on choices of grass, snails, and shrimp in that setting? Please?? :)

Lupin

MTS may be a pain to remove but in the end, they are still your best option for a snail.
As for shrimps, those I have mentioned will suit your tank perfectly. I have not known any shrimps to do damage on plants at all.
Grass-like plants: Try Echinodorus tenellus or dwarf sagittarias.
All these options should be fine in your tank and as I said dense vegetation will be recommended if you are to prevent your cichlids from devouring the Amanos or Red Cherries.

saganco

Ever try baby tears for the shrimp and snails? Looks to be a nice low growing plant that would serve well for this purpose, unless the "critters" would keep disturbing the roots.

On another direction here: if you have the "carpet" in your tank and have lots of fish that love the algae pellet or shrimp pellet on the bottom, will they go down and find it, ignore/loose it, or maybe the pellet will just be a thing of the past? My mollies, platies, rainbow sharks, and burmese botias just LOVE their bottom treats - will that all change with the addition of carpet, shrimp, and snails?

Thanks again!