Benjamin's 55g Malawi Cichlid Build

[redsea]

Nice new fish! I love Cichlids.

[mrbee2828]

I moved 1/2 of the water sprites (Ceratopteris cornuta) into the main tank and moved a few things round this weekend. Mostly reworking some of the caves so the fish could swim between them better. Nothing huge. We'll see how the water sprites do with the fish. It was getting really big already in the sump so I broke it up. I have a bunch of new growth on the others as well so things are good.

[Island_Emt]

Really nice

[coffeetwitch]

you do have a nice set up! and thanks for your input with my little project.

[mrbee2828]

I ordered a glass CO2 diffuser off ebay a few days ago that just arrived.



Rainbow Shark $4
Diffuser $4
Total Cost $822

[mrbee2828]

Despite all my complaints about filter noise and adjusting valves etc, the tank is pretty much perfect. I tested the water again after 3 weeks and everything is perfect. I will be doing my first 25% water change/vacuum this weekend. I would have done it sooner but I think I ended up doing a 15%-20%ish water change unknowingly while trying to bring the cichlids down to 7.8ish the other week.

[Island_Emt]

After a while the noise goes from annoying to a kinda nice waterfall type hehe.
As a matter of fact when I lost power during the hurricane I missed the noise.

[mrbee2828]

Not too many updates. I still haven't gotten the time to finish the canopy. Possibly this weekend but I wouldn't hold my breath. Well my catfish decided he couldn't take it anymore and jumped out of the tank in the rear this week. I found him crust as all get out behind the tank.

I decided to go get another today and PetSmart was out of them. I have wanted some others as well as a Pleco so I got one as well a few assorted ones. The are amazing when they hit the light right!








New stock: $16
Total Cost: $838

[kdpuffer]

To bad about the catfish, tank looks good though, what kind of pleco is that, the eyes are trippy.

[mrbee2828]

I'm not sure about the type. I think it's just a "common" one.

[mrbee2828]

Oh I almost forgot, they had some dark yellow ones that look like the 2 I got form the breeder here and they were labelled "Red Zebras" or Maylandia estherae. Google returns every color under the sun for that scientific name. This is leading me to believe that all 5 of the yellow ones I have are not labs as I have seen no black markings develop yet.

[coffeetwitch]

Looking good man.

[potatochobit]

are you planning to add alot more plants?
or were you just building the diffuser for enjoyment?

[mrbee2828]

I snagged 2 more Kenyi cichlids on sale at another PetSmart and another pictus catfish to replace our other one.

[mrbee2828]

I guess we're around the 6 week mark or so. I have a typical cycled tank diatom bloom happening. While my levels are all reading good, I'm sure my sand or the rocks I got from the mountains are contributing to a silica wealth. Hopefully it will go away in a few weeks time with regular water changes and such. I hope our tap water isn't contributing.

[mrbee2828]

Also, all the new fish are doing well minus the Pleco. He died this weekend. In all honesty his rear fin wasn't looking to hot when I got him in the tank. I don't know what in the tank could have caused it since all the small guys are doing well. I would have returned him to PetSmart but the other fish had their way with his carcass!

[animalzrok2]

awesome tank! sorry to ask but what type of fish do you have?

[mrbee2828]

I've posted a few pages back on the particulars and uncertainties I have but they are red zebras, kenyis, labs, ob peacocks, brichardis and then I have a rainbow shark and pictus catfish.

[NyteGTI]

I know this has nothing to do with DIY but I wanted to let you know that this DIY made me & my GF a lover of cichlids. I've been a little skeptical until seeing this build and what can be done with a nice cichlid tank. There's probably more elaborate ones out there but yours is simple & beautiful. great job so far. my newly aquired 55 long tank will now be a cichlid. thanks again for the DIY.

[mrbee2828]

WOW, seriously, thank you. That made this build worth it. It has its faults but it was my first go at a decent sized tank. I'll have a lot to fix / tweak with it as it grows but it seems to be working pretty decent so far.