Benjamin's 55g Malawi Cichlid Build

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potatochobit said:
are you planning to add alot more plants?
or were you just building the diffuser for enjoyment?
Click to expand...

Sorry I missed this question! I don't really plan on putting to many more in there. A few more in the main tank and then I want to just get a lot of stuff in the sump for filtration help if I can. The CO2 thing seemed like a fun project and that it wouldn't hurt having it.
 
So one of the issue (among many) with my tank is that the cichlids are ssssoooo curious and so brave they will do whatever it takes to get up into the grooves I've cut at the top of the background and surface to get behind it and hide. So after weeks of this annoying behavior I've shut down the tank today and drained about 1/4 of the water out to silicon in some rain gutter screen to the background. This should prevent even the smallest fish from getting back there but these guys are already nearing 2". I'm also working on the canopy so that should be done within the next week.

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Some progress this weekend on the hood in-between football games :) My miters didn't turn out as perfect as the bottom ones did so i needed a bit of filler. What can you do right? Oh well. I still have to make the short vertical trim pieces as well. I'm shooting to wrap up next weekend then get going on the moonlight.

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Hi there looking good, thats pretty high though. Do you remove it to access the tank or just use a ladder?
 
It's a bit higher than I thought it would be overall at 66". But I really love it so far. It' looks like a nice piece.. like a grandfather clock or something lol. I just got that on there but it's just sitting on top so I can take it off when I need to do maintenance. I'm able to reach over and drop some food in with a quick go this morning. We'll see... DIY right? It's not heavy at all though. I'm going to mount a power strip in it and have 1 plug in the wall for the 2 lights, moonlights and the future siphon pump.
 
I picked up another common pleco today to help with clean up duty at lunch. Hopefully he'll do better. Between the 2 tanks I have I have had 3 die on me. Maybe I'm cursed. I thought these guys were pretty tough?!?!
 
Hey, that looks really nice! Screwing angled wood together is tough, how did you do it?

Do you plan on adding a top?
 
I'm going to have a top and the lights will be mounted in it for sure. What angles are you referring to? The miters on the corners? If so, I just used a dab of wood glue and finishing nails on everything. I glued everything together and clamped it for a few days while it dried then used a few mails to strengthen it.
 
Ah, yes that's what I'm referring to. I didn't use any wood glue, I just tried to screw two 45 angle pieces together and it was very tough. Couldn't get a good clamp.

When you put your lights in there it may raise your water temp. Mine raised 2-3 degrees even with just t5ho bulbs. It probably didn't matter but I like complete control lol so I mounted a desktop fan inside of there to blow across the lights and cut some holes in the back. Worked great!
 
Looks like my pictus has developed a mean case of velvet maybe. He's covered in white spots... looks like he has sand all over him. I couldn't get a good picture because he's swimming all over this morning.

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When my fish looked like they had sand I assumed ich, very common, I raised the temp to 86 degrees until there were no spots for 3 days, no chemicals, no salt, just heat. It's very effective and didn't hurt my biofilter or plants. My plecos showed it first being bottom feeders and being more susceptible without scales... I referred to the ich sticky in the unhealthy fish section, it was easy and painless, except I had to get a 2nd heater to maintain the higher temp... Here is a pic of what my Pleco had
 

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BTW, I have had my pleco in there for less than 24hrs and there is sssssoooo much crap in the tank. It's like he's pooping constantly :)
 
mrbee2828 said:
BTW, I have had my pleco in there for less than 24hrs and there is sssssoooo much crap in the tank. It's like he's pooping constantly :)
Click to expand...
haha mine does the same thing.. make sure to keep his feeding to every other day & watch for him eating the cichlid food.
 
Make sure to not raise it too quick, I heard 1 degree every 12 hours is the quickest or if it's below like 74 degrees, 1 degree every 6 hours as if it's done too quick it can stress the fish, the less stressed, the less likely to get symptoms. Thats the other reason i liked the heat only method... Pretty stress free. Nasty buggers ich are...

Just in case anyone needs it, the link to the article I used:
http://www.aquariumadvice.com/articles/articles/29/1/Freshwater-Ich-Yuck-/Page1.html
 
Good to hear, yeah... Nasty bug but pretty easy fix.. Glad everyone is sand free!
 
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