Benjamin's 55g Malawi Cichlid Build

[mrbee2828]

Fry are in... I hope we're good.

[kdpuffer]

Let's see some pics and we want a stock list

[mrbee2828]

ok so I snapped a few pictures this morning. The fry are like bees and just zoom everywhere so it's hard to get good pictures right now. I have only fed them twice and they already come to the glass when we approach and swim to the feeder ring on the top left. Amazing! The guy I got these from had 3 200gal tanks. He had a crazy mix of cichlids in each with other fish like barbs and sharks.

He had a ton of fry and was teaching his kids some responsibility as well as learning about money. He was letting his kids sell them and his son had sold a ton earlier Saturday for $5 each. The guy said "They name the price, if she says $20 each, that's what they are. You can try and haggle with them." LOL

So I said which I was interested in and she says $3!! So I ended up with 10 around a month old give or take. I'm not sure about the labs though. He said lemon drops and yellow labs. The yellow labs don't have the typical black strip on their fin so I'm not sure. It's possible they will develop given that they are so young though. Maybe you can help me out?

3 OB Peacocks
2 Brichardis
2 Lemon Drops ??
3 Yellow Labs ??







You can see in the last photo there are the deep, deep yellow/orange ones and the lighter striped yellow ones. I think the Lighter ones are the labs.

[mrbee2828]

I made my CO2 generator this morning. It took all of 5mins and I think 2 of those were walking to the garage and getting the right drill bit. I used adjustable valves on the caps because I had a bunch and they were barbed. They are open 100% and will stay that way as I know it could explode and make a mess. As you can see I made a bubble counter and scum catcher out of the carbon container from Walmart. I know this isn't a perfect setup but it's better than nothing. We'll see what it does. I would love to get a ladder in the future.

[mrbee2828]

I have neglected updating the costs for the build somehow and after looking back I was around $400 something and updated later to $3 something. So I messed up. I have bought all kinds of stuff so I'm throwing a few things in here at round about prices so people can know what to expect if they want to do something similar.

You will see a lot of YouTube videos claim this was $5 and that was $10 etc but nobody ever says what it's really costing in the end. You can build a much cheaper stand than me and not even paint it or wait months to find all the stuff you want on craig's to save even more money so this build is not a bible at all.

I think we are at about $450 so here are some other numbers:

Lights from craig's $65
Fish from craig's $30
Flourite $20
Coral $20
Scrubbies and carbon for filter $25ish
Maxi-jet return pump 5500 $132
Plants $25
Yeast $5
Plant trimmer tool $12
Misc valves and air stones$10
Switched power strip shipped $20

Current cost $814

[mrbee2828]

Update on the CO2, something isn't working right. The bubbles are coming out at a nice slow rate in the mechanical separator but the gas is not making it into the tank. I tore apart the line from that to the tank and there were no blocks. It's possible I have a leak but I'm not sure. I also removed the airstone to see if it was due to a lack of pressure through it but it's still not bubbling in the tank. I'm going to get a bucket and put everything in it to see if there is a leak somewhere.

[mrbee2828]

I just stuck the whole setup in a cooler full of water for a bit to find out if there was a leak. There is! On the lid of the carbon container. I'm going to try some teflon tape.

[mrbee2828]

That didn't work out, there aren't enough threads on the the larger opening of the carbon container to make a good seal. I'm using a salsa container now. I applied silicone and will hook it up later.

[Ozydego]

Any reason for a wide mouth container for the secondary? I used a small soda bottle for mine, something that was meant for pressurized liquids in the first place... Maybe a juice bottle that has a medium lid in case the reason your are using the large lid is for the taps...

[mrbee2828]

No reason. It was available. The jar is working great now.

[Ozydego]

I know how it goes with "available" ooooh this looks good let's get some work done!

[mrbee2828]

The silicone around the metal top of the salsa jar failed sometime last night. I'm getting a bit frustrated. I went out and got a water bottle today just fir the **** container. I set it up again and I'm letting it dry now. Hopefully this will work.

[andresdeo]

Best choice would be a small soda bottle, sincera they are made to handle the pressure and gas in. Thats how I have it setup anyway.

[mrbee2828]

I finally got the C)2 working last night. I realized the silicone won't stick to the caps at all so I removed the valves and did it like everyone else with a small hole and pulled the airline through with pliers. I ordered a differ of ebay as well so that will help I think.

[MrBeta]

Let us see the updates and link us to what you use.

[scottayy]

Evaporation sucks. 1/4" of water in your return section doesn't sound like a lot. My 55 gallon evaporates 4 gallons per week.

Evaporation shouldn't effect the water level in your main tank.. that's what your sump is for. The water fluctuation should only occur in the return section of your sump.

I made a very nice and simple DIY auto-topoff (look in the DIY section if you're interested). Allows me to not worry about topoff, salt fluctuations, or my pump running dry.

[scottayy]

whoops, i replied from a post on page 7
apologies!

[mrbee2828]

In what appears to be a cruel twist of events, I have discovered that 1 of the check valves on my 2 returns is leaking! This is probably why I was thinking the flow wasn't as strong as it could be. After a quick replacement, I've had to open the pump valve all the way up now and dial the return down because it's crazy fast. And now, we're back to crazy *** loud! I'm ready to go buy a canister at this point lol.

[mrbee2828]

I picked up a Rainbow Shark today at lunch. They were on sale at the LFS and I have been watching a lot of videos of singles in their cichlid setups. I've always thought they were cool looking so we'll see if he's tough enough to hang as they all grow.

[mrbee2828]