Central cleaning system for Tangs?

[Rol&Jas]

Currently all my malawi tanks have internal powerfilters and cleaning each, the filters clog up very quick and cleaning is very time consuming. I will have a central cleaning system built for these tanks to avoid the pain of constant cleaning.

I have also Tanganyikan breeding tanks, they are all 2ft-ers and I use sponge filter and small internal power filters for filtering them. I pretty much could get away just with the sponge filters. I don't need to clean the filters and the tank very often, because my egg layers do not dirt as much as their Malawi cousins.

My question is: should I put them on a central cleaning system or keep them as individual units?

Thanks

Roland

[wui39]

if you have the money do it. If you don't you'll end up wishin that you had later on.

[CThompson]

That really is a bit like asking how long is a piece of string? I realise you can answer you own question, but are looking for some feedback on other thoughts.

The downside of combining all tanks via sump is two fold. 1, if you get a disease (wasting?) it will affect all tanks on the system, and 2, you remove flexibility of putting other species in there if they require different water conditions. I expect you are pretty right with on point 2, but point 1 you will need to consider.

For example if the fish we were talking about on the weekend do have the issue I suggested, it will no longer be quarantined in the one tank. Do you want that? Do you even want to take the risk that I may be correct?

I don’t agree with your comments about the sponge filters. The can do an okay job given limited parameters (good for fry grow out or very low fish numbers), but as soon as they start to clog you reduce you biological capacity, which is reducing your tanks Life Buffer Capacity. Cleaned very regularly and you will limit this downside, but you are trying to get away from the regular filter cleaning maintenance.

I think basically aquarium = maintenance, it will just be a choice of how much time you spend on it, and in what form the maintenance takes. While a sump system will mean you are cleaning only one filter, it could mean you have to clean it more often.

Craig

[Ash]

*snip* 1, if you get a disease (wasting?) it will affect all tanks on the system*snip*

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Sorry to be a little off topic, but would a UV partially negate point 1 & make it less of a threat?

[Rol&Jas]

Thanks Guys for the replies.

Money is always an issue, but time is probably more of an issue and you know time is money…

My Malawi tanks will definitely be filtered with a central filter, plus air driven sponge filters. Right now I spend long hours weekly by cleaning filters and changing water in my tanks. I want to have more tanks and have less and less time.

Craig, I really don't think that I have a wasting problem with my demasoni females that I have mentioned. Every now and then I lose one, but it is due to aggression. I have 2 other mbuna colonies in the same tank and they are all OK.

I know that by circulating the same water though each tank I run the risk of spreading diseases if there is any, but most shops or larger scale breeders have central cleaning system and haven't had any problems with large scale fish death. Even though that my mbunas are in individual tanks their water parameters are pretty much the same. I often swap holding females from one tank to another, so basically if there would be any disease I would spread it anyway. As Ash suggested lot of disease could be controlled by the UV filter.

If I would use central filtration for my Tanganyikan tanks, they would not go on the same filter as the Malawis, although I keep them in the same water as the Malawis.

Roland

[CThompson]

Sorry to be a little off topic, but would a UV partially negate point 1 & make it less of a threat?

I had an 18 watt, (new when installed) 20,000 lph hour UV, with 2,240 lph going through it, and it made NO impact on wasting (after 12 months). Wasting was brought into my system via Malasa, and affected Mpmbwe in another tank on the same system.

So yes, UV will help prevent disease, but it is no substitute for isolation (effectively quarantining them for each other).

Craig, I really don't think that I have a wasting problem with my demasoni females that I have mentioned. Every now and then I lose one, but it is due to aggression.

Roland, what you told me was you had demasoni females after holding a time or two die off. You said nothing about aggression.

I have 2 other mbuna colonies in the same tank and they are all OK.

Then Roland, what I would say to you is that is EXACTLY how wasting can show itself. I’m not saying you have wasting but what you told me was it only affected you demasoni females (red flag) after they held a mouthful of eggs. Only affecting after holding was a new one to me, but one thing I know about wasting, is that you don’t rule it out because it shows something a little different. And I could add, if it is not wasting, I would still treat it like it was, and dose accordingly. You have mystery deaths, that are only affecting one species, and only one sex of that species – bing bing bing bing bing my warning bells go off and all of them point to wasting.

I have personally kept multiple (15?) species in the one system, and had only one or two fish show signs of wasting, but wasting was what they had, and if I’m wrong, I treated for wasting, and I fixed it up (fingers crossed, tough wood).

Roland, what I wrote were the pros and cons to a system, you can weigh it up with yourself as to what you do, I have three of my tanks on a system, and though wasting went through it, I also managed to spread it to other tanks not on the system.

If your demasoni are dieing from aggression, increase your demasoni numbers/put more hiding places in there/increase their tank size. You've been successfully breeding these fish for longer than me, so I don't mean to teach you to "suck eggs"...

If your demasoni are not showing any signs of lethargy, not eating, hanging back from the rest, skinniness, then you have wasting. If they are just beat-up and dead, then you don't .

Craig