Andy's Tanganyikan Tank

The tank at just six weeks old

Introduction
This is a return to keeping Tanganyikans for me. During the mid 90s they seemed to be very popular and as a result a wide variety of species were available locally. Towards the end of the 90s that popularity had begun to fade and they were no longer to be found in the shops. When this happened I moved on to try my hand at keeping Discus and bought some wild type Discus around 2" in diam. These grew quite nicely and out of the six that I bought I managed to get two breeding pairs. Breeding Discus for the first time was a real thrill and it came with a real sense of achievement but then they bred again and again and I realised that although keeping and hopefully breeding Discus had been a long time ambition of mine, that these fish really weren't for me.

I had seen many planted tanks which looked absolutely stunning and never having had much luck with plants I did some research and decided to give it a go. I opted to use the Denerle method. The tank was a huge success and every plant I tried grew exceptionally well including a Madagascan lace plant which grew to gigantic proportions before turning itself into three separate plants which also grew to the same huge size. After five years I decided to have a change, after all I'm essentially more interested in fish than plants.

So having spent several weeks thinking about it I decided to re-visit an old favourite and go East African. To Lake Tanganyika, and this is how I did it (so far).

Setting Up

	This was the starting point, my planted tank. First job was to re-home the fish and break down the tank. I decided that rather than throw away all my plants I could maybe exchange them for some tuffa rock or something else which I'd need for the new set up.
	No turning back now!!! This was the moment when I finally committed to making the change. I had no idea just how much plant life there was in that tank. Unfortunately one or two fish had escaped notice and were still in the tank, more about that later. The substrate was dual layer and consisted of a sand/compost layer topped with fine gravel. These layers which had remained in tact for the last five years, well lets just say they'll never get to six years. The tank was now filthy.
	I had to make two journey's before I had got rid of all the plants, my local fish shop where glad to take them and gave me some tuffa rock to get me started. But having thought about it, I didn't want the usual wall of tuffa at the rear of the tank then add a few fish and call it a Tanganyikan tank, I needed more than that to replace my planted tank. So I thought I'd include some drift wood and plants in this tank. Lake Tanganyika has rain forest right up to its shores at Gombi, so wood isn't really out of place and there are huge beds of Vallis to be found in the lake so again it isn't out of place.
	The first attempt at aquascaping didn't really hit the mark somehow. I tried it like this for a couple of days before realising that I really had to change it. I thought the general idea with the wood and plants would work having seen it for the first time but not in its present layout.
	I'm much happier with this now. As soon as I'd done it I knew that I'd keep this one. Once the other details are added and the plants have hopefully established it should begin to look like the imaginary picture I have in my head. Now that the water has cleared and the water chemistry has been slowly adjusted I decided to add the first fish so that the biological filter could be kept ticking over.
	Adding the detail, this is one of the best parts. Most of the hard work has been done and now it's time to start enjoying the process. I added 50kgs of North Sea cobbles. I got them from the garden centre, although I was hoping for smaller bags with me being on a motor cycle and only having a rucksack to carry them in. It made for an interesting ride home across the moors after dark, in the fog and drizzle.
	The Vallis looks to be establishing and although it died down it has a lot of new growth appearing from the bottom. The water should suit it and the planted tank lighting of 4 x 40watt tubes each with a reflector combined with the dual layer substrate of sand/compost topped with fine gravel all over an heater cable, really should mean it will succeed.
	After about three weeks the Vallis has become well established and algae is starting to grow on the rockwork giving a more natural appearance to the tank. I upgraded the filter from a Tetratec 700 which I used on the planted tank to a Tetratec 1200. The upgrade has been a great success and the water is much improved. More fish have been added to the tank which means the tank almost has a full compliment of fish.
The Fish

These are the fish in the tank, all have settled in well and without any losses. From left to right, Neolamprologus multifasciatus, Neolamprologus pulcher, Altolamprologus compresiceps, Neolamprologus sexfasciatus, Cyprichromis leptosoma, Julidochromis regani and finally Neolamprologus leleupi.
All of them are endemic to Lake Tanganyika although some will never meet in the wild because they are restricted to certain areas of the lake and are found no where else. They have all settled in well and for the most part are living peacefully together apart from the odd minor territorial dispute.

Plants

These photos were taken over a one month period.
Substrate A 25Watt heater cable was laid out evenly on the glass base of the tank then a 50 - 50 mixture by volume, of silica sand and aquatic compost was placed over it to a depth of approximately one to two inches sloping from back to front. This layer stopped just short of the front glass so that it didn't look unsightly. This was then covered with fine quartz gravel to a depth of two to three inches. Lighting Four, forty watt tubes with reflectors have been used, the two rear tubes are Trocal tubes made by Denerle and are specially designed to encourage plant growth. The front two tubes are Triton and Triton daylight plus which reflect the fishes colours better than the plant tubes. The lights are on a timer and are on for twelve hours per day. Vallis Unlike most plants Vallis grows very well in hard water. It grows even better if there is calcium in the water, and it is found in Lake Tanganyika so it is the perfect plant to use in a Tanganyikan tank. When I bought three bunches of the plant it had very thin narrow leaves and was in quite poor condition. But within just one month of being planted it had formed a dense bed and the new leaves were much broader and brighter looking. Vallis is an extremely vigorous plant which send out runners all over the place so it needs regular pruning to keep it in check. I want to avoid it from growing up between the stones and shells if possible or it will start to look untidy. The leaves can be cropped shorter too without a problem should they get to long, the best way to do this is to crop them a few inches above the water line so that the cropping is kept fairly well hidden. Algae There is some algae present but there isn't an algae problem. The algae on the stones and substrate gives a more natural and less clinical look to the tank. It isn't growing on the plants and it is removed from the glass, other than that it is left alone.

Water Quality
Water chemistry is an issue for me because my tap water is very soft and almost free of any minerals. To combat this I have been experimenting with a couple of marine products.
I use a carbonate buffer which increases the KH to the desired level and raises the pH to around 8.4. I also add Calcium in the form of Kalkwasser rather than use a magnesium product like epsom salt which is to unnatural. Finally I use a trace element product to maintain all the biologically important minor and trace element levels up. So far this has proved to be a great success as it allows me closely replicate the fishes natural conditions.