Freshwater Rams, Angelfish and Cichlid Tank!

Sorry about that..
I'm somewhat retired at 60 and have jumped back into the hobby after a 30 year hiatus. Been back in about 20 months.
At one point over the last year and a half, was approaching 900G under my keep but have since rolled back to about 650 or so.
I'm keeping:
14 Discus - 6 Scorpions, 2 Cobalts, 6 Firques (My name for a cross of solid fire red / blue turq)
6 German Blue Rams in a 33L.
6 Bolivian Rams in a 75G with a half dozen Angels (Cross between Gold and Plat pearl Scale)
Ummm. Another 155G staffed with about 10 F1 and F2 Silver Angels and 2 pair of golds.

This post is somewhat haphazard so I'll do it by tank:
155G with 6 scorpion Discus, 2 cobalt breeder Discus, 6 Leopard Veil tailed Angels (Yea, they are soon to be pulled from the Discus tank). umm.. assorted cory's, 1 std pleco and 1 gold-spot sail-fin pleco, 1 SAE.
155G with 10 Silver Angels, 2 Golden Angels, a couple of marble Angels, and a few Koi Angels.
75G with 6 bolivian Rams, 6 gold/pearl plat Angels one of which is showing the veil trait.
33L holding 6 GBR's 2 M's, 4 F's.
29G holding quarter to half-dollar sized blue / silver Angels.
29G holding 6 assorted grow-out Angels that I just adopted.. about silver dollar size.
29G Assortment of 6 Angels...Gold, Silver.
135G holding 6 Firques.. (the cross between Solid Fire Red and Blue Turquoise).
5G fry hatching tank.
(2) 10G Free-swimmer tanks.

Oh and two bearded Dragons!

Each tank has an assortment of Albino Bristle Nosed Plecos..

For the life of me I cannot keep f/w shrimp.. I've tried 3 times just to watch them waste away.. I think my water is too soft.
All my tanks except for the egg/free swimmer tanks are heavily planted and in fact some of them are veritable jungles. I've sold or given away 100's if not 1000's of plants

 

You can see I spare NO EXPENSE building stands! <grin>

 

Thanks.. but you'd be amazed at what little time I spend on them.. Say an hour a week for all!
I also co-founded a fish club based in Richmond, Va. with a pretty active forum and 260 members.. I do fish rescues on behalf of that.. plus I was asked to establish a FaceBook fish club covering the Virginia area... only about 50 members on that one.

 

Plants plants and plants.

 

The Scorpions: I bought a dozen of them about nickle sized. Reared them for 6 weeks, sold off half after doubling in size for 75% of my investment. The same with the Firques. Sold off 6 after 8 weeks for what I paid for the dozen. I took the chance on the travel to and fro, transport, and luckily didn't have any fatalities during the time I've had them. The Scorpions were spawned on Feb 10, 2011 and the Ferques on 1/1/12. I've been fortunate. The cobalts were adoptions. I've had more issues with the German Blues than the Discus!

 

Filtration:
155 w/ a big AquaClear HoB, Rena canister and of course Kens largest sponge filter.
155 w/ 2 hobs and again Kens largest sponge filter.
135, 1 large HOB and 2 large sponge filters.
I am a strong believer in organic bio filtration.

 

Thanks for the acknowledgements. There are some reconized experts that go contragry to what is accepted opinion as to tank maintenance. i.e. The Diane Walstad Method. She goes to the extreme to suggesting NO water changes are required if the proper balance is maintained between plants/substrate and the volume of fish waste. I don't go that far but do lean that way. It's my personal belief that some folks are too focused on micro-managing their tanks rather than enjoying the fruits of their labor! But then again, opinions are like butts, everyone's got one!

 

Sorry to have high-jacked the thread from an intro to a philosophy on tank management. Bill in Va.