So on day three of my fishless cycle of my new 55 gal cichlid tank. Think I have the rocks where I want them now at least till I find a few more. I did pretty good my first dayof searching. BTW cleaning crushed coral was i pain not sure if i did it wrong or just bought some really dirty sandy coral. Trying to start a list of what I want in there. I know there will be two africans in there as they are already in a 10gal begging for more space they are only a little over an inch, but one has already become very territorial against the other. Thought I would just make a post and toss some pics as I go. I like that it now lets me add pics from my phone.
Starting my 55gal yay!
- Thread starter Big.Jon
- Start date
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HUKIT
Aquarium Advice Addict
Looks like your off to a good start.
Cichlidsheaven
Aquarium Advice Regular
Nice setup. I used to place loads of 6inch long 3inch round pvc pipes in so they can use as sleeping place. Stopped keeping malawis nowadays.
allaboutfish
Aquarium Advice Addict
i love those rocks where'd you get them?
They sandy brown ones came out of a lake near me (Iowa). Most of the others where on or near the beach of the lake. Two of them I got on a hiking trail in the state park near the lake. Ya I probably should not be taking em but who will really notice.
jcolon
Aquarium Advice Addict
Nice river rocks! ... well at least they were in a river a long time ago.
Looks good! Like the way you stacked them!
Looks good! Like the way you stacked them!
HUKIT
Aquarium Advice Addict
While the tanks is cycling now is the time to research a stock list, so what's it gonna be?
Here are some of my favorites so far for stocking ideas.
Pseudotropheus saulosi (1 M 2-3F)
Cynotilapia afra (Cobue)
Pseudotropheus sp. Elongatus "Chewere"
Labidochromis sp. "Mbamba"
Tropheops sp Aurora
Electric yellow or yellow lab
Now I wanna narrow this down to three choices and then try to find right combos of male and a few females. Any other suggestions would be great I like both vibrant solid colors or darker with smaller vibrant accents.
Pseudotropheus saulosi (1 M 2-3F)
Cynotilapia afra (Cobue)
Pseudotropheus sp. Elongatus "Chewere"
Labidochromis sp. "Mbamba"
Tropheops sp Aurora
Electric yellow or yellow lab
Now I wanna narrow this down to three choices and then try to find right combos of male and a few females. Any other suggestions would be great I like both vibrant solid colors or darker with smaller vibrant accents.
HUKIT
Aquarium Advice Addict
I keep Saulosi and Afra Cobues, they are my favorite dwarf mbuna. Be careful when stocking two blue barred fish species for possible aggression issues.
Stocking idea
Saulosi 1 male 3-4female
Kenyi 1male 3-4female
Yellow lab 1male 3-4female
Would also like two add two bottom feeders of some sort any suggestions that would work with this combo?
Also wonder if I could throw in one rusty cichlid or do those need to be in groups or pairs?
Saulosi 1 male 3-4female
Kenyi 1male 3-4female
Yellow lab 1male 3-4female
Would also like two add two bottom feeders of some sort any suggestions that would work with this combo?
Also wonder if I could throw in one rusty cichlid or do those need to be in groups or pairs?
HUKIT
Aquarium Advice Addict
That's alot of yellow, the saulosi females are sort of a yellowish gold, along with labs and male kenyi's. One of cool things in Malawi cichlids is the blues, you need a species to accent the yellow.
Rustys need to be stocked the same as any other mbuna.
After more looking around I have thought about opting out on the labs and maybe going with Cobalt Blue Zebra cichlid these look gorgeous. I also like that they are smaller in size reaching only about 4". I think these would work well with the yellows of the Male kenyi and female saulosi. Now just waiting for this tank to cycle. I have lots of already cycled media in it currently so hopefully wont take to long. Then it will be time to start searching for these fish.
Well tank is doing extremely well at eating the ammonia, eating through 4 ppm in 24 hours no problem. Nitrites are still 5ppm or higher. NitrAtes are over 80 ppm. I have tons of seeding material in there so crossing my fingers that this will be quick. Have gravel from cycled tank in the corners. Had two filter pads sitting in other filters for about a week they are now in the tank filters of this tank. Even droped a castle thing from cycled tank in here.
The Jam-is-on
Aquarium Advice Freak
Looks great Jon! Can't wait to see it with some fish in there!
So seeing how this my first larger tank not sure if this normal, but I seem to be losing a lot of water from evaporation about 2gal every three days. I don't lose much on my 10 or 20 so was curious if you just lose.a lot more on the larger tanks.
The Jam-is-on
Aquarium Advice Freak
I think so. My two 55's lose about that much. More lighting and heavier filtration may be the cause? I don't know, but I lose about 2 to 3 inches of water every few days it seems.
HUKIT
Aquarium Advice Addict
Are the tanks covered or not? I don't lose that much in any of my covered tanks, except the planted one which is topless.
The Jam-is-on
Aquarium Advice Freak
+1 Both of my hoods are open along the back edge of the tank. I popped out all of the inserts...
Ya they are covered with two hoods and all inserts are out so there is plenty of open area in the back. I also just thought of another reason. I have a dehumidifer in the room not sure why I didn't think about that lol.
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