dwhit13
Aquarium Advice Activist
Not sure if this will be a build thread but here goes. I currently have two tanks. 1 is a 40B tropical aquarium. The other a 55 gallon standard tropical. So I really love the African Cichlids and wanted to get into it. I just went out and purchased a 120 gallon tank and am starting from scratch with it. Will be setting it up this week and welcome all comments and suggestions. Like with anything I do I got excited and went ahead and purchased a portion of my stock . I currently have them in the 55 gallon and moved most of its inhabitants to my 40 gallon which made that very over crowed but only temporarily. Here is what I have so far.
I purchased (from drs foster and smith) 120 pds of Eco-Complete African Cichlid Substrates Zack Black. 2 Marineland Maxi-Jet PRO
900 PRO power heads. 1 Jager Thermostat Heater 250w. 1 bottle of Malawi/Victoria Buffer 1.2 KG. 1 Watercolors Aquarium background black. I have two emperor 400 filters for it. (plan on purchasing a fluval fx6 cannister but have already spent a ton on this so waiting a month for that one. I have a set of Cichlid stones (10 piece ) as well as 5 Cichlid caves. one medium sized piece of Texas holey rock and one very large piece of Driftwood as the centerpiece. I know the driftwood isnt reccomended for cichlid tanks but this piece was too perfect not to use as the centerpiece. That being said I'll monitor the water and if it is too much of a drag on my PH I will remove it. I have several nice pieces of slate rock that I am going to play with at set up to try and make a couple nice caves with an over hang. I also collected some rocks from my backyard that I am going to be using as well as took a couple glass vases and siliconed some ornamental (all glass ) beads on them to make a couple interesting caves with. I have no idea yet how all this will look in the aquarium and I am sure I will experiment with several varieties.
I expect my order to come in tomorrow so my off day (Thursday ) I will begin putting this all together. The first hurdel I have is the 55 gallon is currently sitting where I plan on putting the 120. so thursday I will attempt to move the 55 to its new spot in the next room and slide the 120 into place. From there get the back ground and substrate down and begin getting the pieces in place and filling the aquarium with water.
Any advice or experience on moving an aquarium (stocked obviously) is appreciated as well as tips on how to use my current aquariums to seed and cyled the new one. I will take pics of all this and post as I go along if there is any interest.
Current stock awaiting its new home
4 Yellow labs (2 to 4 inches)
4 Red Top Zebra
3 Electric blue johanni
3 yellow tail Acei
3 Auratus
4 Red Zebra
1 baby common Pleco (also have a baby bristlenose and rubber lip that I have considered adding one or both of)
I also have three small peacocks and one small hap that are in there too. The peacocks and Haps ( I cant remember the name ) are currently bigger than the Mbuna but all reach a maximum size of 7 inches or less.
I purchased (from drs foster and smith) 120 pds of Eco-Complete African Cichlid Substrates Zack Black. 2 Marineland Maxi-Jet PRO
900 PRO power heads. 1 Jager Thermostat Heater 250w. 1 bottle of Malawi/Victoria Buffer 1.2 KG. 1 Watercolors Aquarium background black. I have two emperor 400 filters for it. (plan on purchasing a fluval fx6 cannister but have already spent a ton on this so waiting a month for that one. I have a set of Cichlid stones (10 piece ) as well as 5 Cichlid caves. one medium sized piece of Texas holey rock and one very large piece of Driftwood as the centerpiece. I know the driftwood isnt reccomended for cichlid tanks but this piece was too perfect not to use as the centerpiece. That being said I'll monitor the water and if it is too much of a drag on my PH I will remove it. I have several nice pieces of slate rock that I am going to play with at set up to try and make a couple nice caves with an over hang. I also collected some rocks from my backyard that I am going to be using as well as took a couple glass vases and siliconed some ornamental (all glass ) beads on them to make a couple interesting caves with. I have no idea yet how all this will look in the aquarium and I am sure I will experiment with several varieties.
I expect my order to come in tomorrow so my off day (Thursday ) I will begin putting this all together. The first hurdel I have is the 55 gallon is currently sitting where I plan on putting the 120. so thursday I will attempt to move the 55 to its new spot in the next room and slide the 120 into place. From there get the back ground and substrate down and begin getting the pieces in place and filling the aquarium with water.
Any advice or experience on moving an aquarium (stocked obviously) is appreciated as well as tips on how to use my current aquariums to seed and cyled the new one. I will take pics of all this and post as I go along if there is any interest.
Current stock awaiting its new home
4 Yellow labs (2 to 4 inches)
4 Red Top Zebra
3 Electric blue johanni
3 yellow tail Acei
3 Auratus
4 Red Zebra
1 baby common Pleco (also have a baby bristlenose and rubber lip that I have considered adding one or both of)
I also have three small peacocks and one small hap that are in there too. The peacocks and Haps ( I cant remember the name ) are currently bigger than the Mbuna but all reach a maximum size of 7 inches or less.
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