New Tank Setup. Thoughts? (Pics)

[Coltrane9]

So I had a 2 month old community tank setup with a few Gourami and Tetras, but decided I wanted to go with Cichlids.

I gave the other fish back to the LFS.

55 Gallon, 4 foot long. I know you need "Caves", but I also read that as long as you have segmented type areas for territory you should be fine. One person described it as office cubicles.

I didn't really want to use glue, and was kind of afraid of stacking the rock too high in case it fell. So I just made little substrate areas with the driftwood and rock.

Not exactly sure what I want to stock yet, but I'm thinking the more "moderately aggressive" as opposed to the plain old aggressive.

I completely emptied the tank out today by siphoning the gravel. I put my filter on this cooler thing I had so it continued to run, and put the plants/driftwood in tank water while I did it.

Results. Again, I know there aren't huge stacked caves, but will this setup work?

 

[Jason7894561230]

Looks good to me!

 

[Coltrane9]

Thanks, I was just concerned because I've been watching youtube videos with these massively elaborate rock-scapes.

I tried to stack them, but every time I got them like 3 high I thought "That's not too sturdy..." and took it down.

Plus the fact that my tank isn't very deep front to back made it tougher.

 

[Jason7894561230]

They just do that to show off!

 

[HUKIT]

They just do that to show off!

It's not to show off but it does look good. These fish require hiding spots which could just be a slight crack in rock work to back into. With the aggression levels of some of these fish you have to break their line of sight which in that tank won't work.

There are different speices of cichlids that require different habitat like rock, shell or open water fish. So depending on what fish your trying keep that your set up will be fine

 

[Coltrane9]

I bought some fish today...
I also ended up putting the 75 Gallon bottle of Tetra Safe Start with the live bacteria just in case the filter didn't make it through.

The water appears to be cloudy. Not sure if it's the rocks or the Safestart, but hopefully it clears up a bit. It has like this greyish hue kind of

I was told that these would all be fine.

1 Frontosa
2 Yellow Labs
1 Albino Zebra
2 Red Peacocks

 

[HUKIT]

Fonts will get to large for that tank and will eat the smaller fish plus they have different diet than Malawi cichlids. The zebra will probably rule the tank and generally peacock do not fair well with the hyper aggressive mbuna. So I would return the frontosa and peacocks and concentrate on one lake region. I would have four speices of fish in that tank with 1 male for 4-5 females.

I would stock the labs, saulosi , cobue and msobo. Or a the labs and a higher count of demasoni.

 

[CEverii]

I bought some fish today...
I also ended up putting the 75 Gallon bottle of Tetra Safe Start with the live bacteria just in case the filter didn't make it through.

The water appears to be cloudy. Not sure if it's the rocks or the Safestart, but hopefully it clears up a bit. It has like this greyish hue kind of

I was told that these would all be fine.

1 Frontosa
2 Yellow Labs
1 Albino Zebra
2 Red Peacocks

I just set my new tank upand it too is very cloudy for some reason. I'm hoping it will settle by the time my tank is ready.

 

[mfdrookie516]

They just do that to show off!

Not at all. My fish sleep in their 'cave', breed in their caves, and take refuge in their caves. The caves provide a sense of security, as well as territory. The way this tank is set up, IMO, will not provide that. They need places to hide and not be seen by other fish. Clay pots will work if you're afraid to stack rock. I can tell you though, I have about 300-350lbs of rock in my 150g with no concerns of the tank being cracked. Aquarium1 has a 55g with alot of rock too. Here's what mine looks like (although, not all that great, still good for ideas IMO)

Oh, and dont be upset if you dont have plants after a few days... Mine demolished the plants I had