Wy Renegade
Aquarium Advice Addict
Well I have seen that with african cichlids the more the better and you want at least 1.5 to 2 inch fish per gallon that you help to spread out the aggression and beaches there's so many fishes it'll be impossible to set up territories rocks are good for refuge you can have mbunas and peacocks as long as your peacocks are slightly bigger
Number of fish does not prevent establishment of territories, what it does accomplish is distribution of the aggression that results from that establishment to a greater number of recipients, thereby reducing the impact of that aggression. Imagine if you will, the thousands of fish that inhabit any one of the rift lakes. If numbers of fish prevented establishment of territories, this fish would not establish territories in nature.
Again, mbuna and peacocks have different dietary needs, unless you can accommodate those dietary needs successfully, you are likely to end up with issues like Malawi bloat or hole-in-the-head disease. I don't recommend that practice for people who don't have experience with keeping cichlids.
While keeping sand clean in the aquarium may be easier than keeping gravel clean, cleaning it out of an aquarium when you wish to change substrates is not.