Buccal

The power glo T8 that comes in the pink box is best for showing.
Try one tube at very front of tank leaving the back ground semi illuminated.

Two tubes may be to many.

"If what you are saying was true then the species available would probably be a quarter of what is actually out there. I can recall a number of times when certain fish come out the woodwork because someone has discovered some guy who has unknowingly been breeding them for years".

There we go again,,, people thinking of those poor stingrays as if they are fish.
Obviously not every one is going to grasp the ray concept.
How many have you bred ?
How many have you sold ?
You thought I was talking about "stingrays".
Well, I wasn't,,,, I was talking about what actually happened to Motoro's.
The ray popularity has been thriving flat out full bore.

The true interest by far with people willing to spend in excess of 6k for one single pup are those glorious out right stunning hybrids with a myriad of bazzar pattern outcomes using the breeds of Leopoldi x triplespot Motoro x mantilla.
Yellow or orange or white with zig zag swirls,,,, crazy brain patterns,,, various sized spots and dots.
The color is so solid and vivid.
It craps all over the joy of wondering what color/pattern Koi offspring will give.

When those high backs of pregnant females are wriggling and pulsating with young pups and the 3 month till birth period is expired.
You get home from work,,,,, and BAZINGA, eleven stunning little pups of all wicked hybrid patterns,,,, scoop them all out checking and wondering how they will evolve/morph into what patterns,,,, hah harrrrr.

Adding,,, maybe you have a generalistic way of thinking and interpreting. !!!!?????

Jeez, I wonder if there was a little splinter crack somewhere,, and got its start from there.
Really it still should hold no worries.
Put a straight edge on the ground,,, if the ground has a hump in it, then that would be the problem.

Remember cichlids can go for well over two weeks without food.
Can you remember your first day at high school,,,, scared s h i t l e s s.
Give it time to settle,,, if it was amongst the first to color,,, then he's use to being top dog.
Now it's all different.
Just be patient and don't change things about and mess around with things.
He will come good and fit in.

Well I know one thing for sure,,, lol.
Vebas big display tank busters get a good feed once in a while.

You will get a million and one answers all confusing you. Lol.

Feed New Era and Sera Flora, 50% of each to form one total feeding.
On feeding days, only feed once and 80% in total of what you use to feed at once.
Do not feed AT ALL on Wednesday's and Sundays.
water change twice a week on feeding days ten minutes after feeding.

This regime works very well if you want to keep a over stocked style of tank.
Your problems are over stocking related,,,, but your problem is just a presentation thing,,,, obviously your doing the correct things biologically.
It's well known to have excessive debri using your present choice of food.

I keep a 2700 liter display,,,,, and it's severely overstocked by choice.
Yet I only clean my filters every 4-5 months.
Every time I feed, I water change.

If you want to keep a busy and interesting well stocked tank,,, then a tailored regime must be carried out beyond the norm as I have shown above.

I've had my two running constant for 9 years now,,, jeez, I must have got them when they first come out.
Not once have I pulled of the motor or serviced it,, it's always quite and problem free.
Great filters,,,,, I can see why people chase second hand ones.

I started to get flash backs from my heavy LSD use in my younger years,,,,, from reading Kleinz's post,,,, wow.

Quite a interesting view smirq,,, that's changes the way I think a little now about these things.
As for Johhno posting these updated news pieces,,, it actually keeps me on the forum for longer,,, by the time I've read and thought about his posts and looking at what others have to say, I then check all the other topics for progression and stay on for longer again if newer updated entries are in.
I know what Johnnos trying to do,,, he's trying to boost user time.
If the fish side of things are lacking,,, then it gets boosted with alternate news/info,,,, I like it,,, and it works.

I always fully appreciate the labor/love and time you put into this site Andrew,,,, your hard work does not go unnoticed by me.

Dude, there's no problem.
A new fish may feel uneasy, bump into unfamiliar surroundings if startled,,,, that's just a little scrape with the slime coat effected.
No problem there.
Twitching with Geos settling in I've seen before,,,, just keep an eye out for white spot, just in case,,,, don't be alarmed, be aware.
Googled and book info will tell you they need soft water as their place of origin is,,,,,,, but domestication has evolved them to suit our tap water as is.
Mine breed fine in 7.8 ph,,,,, your ph of 7 is fine.

Geos in small tanks don't like hostile or rapid moving fish as tank mates,,, this can cause eating problems leading to waisting.

Showing nitrite means its half way back to balancing out.
Just leave it for a week,,, it won't be long till the nitrite is converted to nitrate.
Sometimes people go over board with worrying and over cleaning and also causing disruption to the biological working.
Do absolutely nothing and I bet in three days all you will have is nitrate which means good.

If your fish looks stressed in any way, get seachem prime and use double dose as per instruction.

If you water change you will prolong the process and wait longer for the final balance.
Once balanced and showing a reading of nitrate,,, then begin your 30% weekly water changes.

First ask yourself a question.
Do you want your set up as show furniture ?
Or do you want a pet ?
Like said above americans have more character and better connection with their owners than Malawi.

But to the non-knowledgable (your visitors), they won't care or won't know how the Americans are.
But with correct choices of Malawi using correct balance a actual statement of art can be made.

This is what I would do to create a wow factor.

Create a dark background tank, the bigger tank the better.
Have the rear half of tank darkened.
Use dark substrate,,,, or better still, dark grey slate tiles laid flat on bottom.
Use a halide light,, and this type of light only, I promise,,,, it's the s h i t e.
Have halide illuminating front half of tank only.
Still use a Fluro or led for every day use,,, but the halide only for when visitors come.

Fill your tank up with male only phenochilus gissel or phenochilus Tanzania.
Populate rest of tank with a lesser portion using quality electric yellows.

I swear this would be eye candy.

Last female pic looking at head structure and front body half.
Red emp x spilonotus.
Could be anything though.
Even if it's a pure red emp,,, it's not in good form to continue.
Still beautiful,,, and if you keep the fry,,, make sure they never leave your tanks at home unless dead.
It's the hybrids that almost look like pure species that are the real threats.
There is good bloodline red emps in Perth now,,,, we don't want to mess with that.

This is where the excitement is in these type fishes, given their high value.
It takes a master to breed them.
It's the whole cost versus challenge thing.
Save up the pennies and research the species exclusively,,, then get a buzz out of reproducing something of high value and known breeding difficulty.
If you look at a full species listing of L numbers which is probably still to get bigger,,, it's incredible how many varients.
I can see why one would specialize in these bazzar cats.

If the beneficial bacteria is established enough in filter, it would be gone or almost gone.
If the bbac is struggling, then the problem will persist till the bbac establishes to full maximum.