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RE: a few novice tank setup questions

JoshTS — Tue, 01 Jul 2008 15:52:22 GMT

Any caves will do and plants are alwayes good

RE: a few novice tank setup questions

Hailey — Thu, 26 Jun 2008 11:33:03 GMT

Airstones are generally a personal choice. I don't like them, and they are unnecessary in tanks with decent water movement at the surface, so I go without them.

RE: a few novice tank setup questions

filipem — Thu, 26 Jun 2008 09:19:08 GMT

You dont need an airstone provided that you have good water movement at the waters suface. That will add oxgen to the tank. Adding an airstone won't hurt though.

RE: a few novice tank setup questions

pbhound — Thu, 26 Jun 2008 09:00:38 GMT

Bump for hailey or some one to answer the air pump Q

RE: a few novice tank setup questions

pbhound — Wed, 04 Jun 2008 11:03:12 GMT

thanks everyone for your input, i am still researching my options for filters, and everything that i will need.

hailey, i did notice that in the pictures that you posted in this post, most of them did not seem to have any air bubbles; so i was wondering if i actually needed an air pump with stone?

bump for question

RE: a few novice tank setup questions

Hailey — Sat, 31 May 2008 07:07:32 GMT

Mbuna have more color than peacocks. Female peacocks are just brown or tan, and the males are generally mostly iridescent blue with overtones of red, yellow, or other colors. There are other carnivores from Lake Malawi that get lumped in with peacocks that have other colors though, so make sure you know what you are getting and do not buy any fish on the spur of the moment, no matter how much you like them (you could ask the store to hold them and come back after some research if needed). Stocking african cichlids is tricky business and can lead to disaster if not done carefully (actually, even if you are careful, some serious fighting can happen so be prepared to return or rehome fish for months after stocking this tank if necessary).

Speaking of being careful stocking it, do not buy any fish from a tank simply labeled "mixed african cichlids". Most of these fish are hybrids and will have very unpredictable aggression levels and max sizes. You will almost certainly need to have your lfs order the fish you decide to buy, and if you stick to common ones it shouldn't be too hard to get them. If you find less common mbuna you want, try to get your tank cycled and ready to stock by August and order them over the internet. The weather is warm enough that shipping casualties will be less likely. You'll have to ship overnight though, so you would want to buy all the ones you want at once from one dealer, which will necessitate fishless cycling to prepare the tank.

Oh, and I can answer your question about plecos and lobsters. A pleco produces a lot of waste and may not be the best choice for a tank that has a lot of fish in it already (with mbuna, it is best to crown quite a few of them into the tank to spread out aggression, as a lightly stocked mbuna tank may end up with one or two fish taking the brunt of the picking). Also, plecos don't particularly like the very high pH and hardness that mbuna do. You don't really need any algae eaters you know...good husbandry will eliminate the need, and if you want a Lake Malawi biotype, that would involve a nice covering of algae on the rocks. In addition, mbuna are herbivores and tend to like to pick algae off the rocks anyway (not to the point that they will keep the tank clean though).

As for lobsters (blue or otherwise), there is a chance they will eat your fish. One species gets very large (a foot or so) and can eat just about any mbuna, and the other one is about half that but is till dangerous (especially to sleeping fish since it hunts at night). A better scavenger/tankmate for mbuna IMO is one of the Synodontis catfish from Lake Malawi or Lake Tanganyika, like the Synodontis multipunctatus. But some synodontis are from other places and don't like the high pH and hard water the africans do, so choose carefully if you get one.

RE: a few novice tank setup questions

MtnFishBoy — Sat, 31 May 2008 06:42:20 GMT

There is a book called Aquarium Designs Inspired by Nature by Peter Hiscock. He describes various biotope aquariums, and there is one section that describes a tank that would be excellent for mbuna. For mbuna aquariums, the main decorations are large rounded rocks, with smaller pebbles scattered throughout the tank. The substrate is silver sand. There are no plants in this tank.

RE: a few novice tank setup questions

pbhound — Sat, 31 May 2008 05:21:18 GMT

well let me put it this way, most of the stores around me only classify them as "african" cichlids so i will have to take pictures of them in with me to try and see what kind they are. i want the most colorful ones that i can get and im not sure out of those what the ones are yet.

RE: a few novice tank setup questions

Hailey — Fri, 30 May 2008 14:11:02 GMT

So you definitely want to go with mbuna and not peacocks? If so, I would keep each species in numbers (one male and 3-5 females of each species). The best way to start is to get unsexed juveniles, and as they mature remove males until only one is left. Luckily with mbuna the females are as beautiful as the males, and if you pick species for sexual dimorphism it will be easy to pull out extra males.

And you can just gather local rocks if you want and boil them to sanitize them. Or most pet stores sell various kinds of rock, but at a hefty price.

RE: a few novice tank setup questions

pbhound — Fri, 30 May 2008 12:09:20 GMT

ok so i have decided on the mbunu cichlids now my question is can i put in a pleco, and what about a blue "lobster"? also i have yet to find a place that sells the rocks thats not a hardware store (ie homedepot), any suggestions?

RE: a few novice tank setup questions

pbhound — Wed, 28 May 2008 07:38:11 GMT

hailey, do cichlids prefer to be with more of one "breed" or does it not really matter? like should i get 3 -5 red peacock's or just 1? im trying to figure out how many of each that i will be placing in my 90g. also is there a recommended place to purchase good quality fish that are not outrageously priced?

RE: a few novice tank setup questions

pbhound — Tue, 27 May 2008 12:25:15 GMT

thanks, my only problem with finding a florescent like that is the fact that i have a wood top that matches (sort of) the stand, so the ones that you would get with the tank wont really fit under the hood. i was looking at retro fit kits but i will do more research on the subject.

thanks again

RE: a few novice tank setup questions

Hailey — Tue, 27 May 2008 12:14:25 GMT

If you want to spend that much it is a fine light, but there is no reason that you can't use a simple single fluorescent like the ones that usually come with tank hoods. Power compact lights are brighter, and you have a little bit more flexibility on color since you have more than one bulb to work with, but it is hot (and may heat up the water too much in the summer), and the bulbs are expensive to replace ($30 a piece and they need to be replaced yearly because of how fast the spectrum shifts in PCs). They also may cause algae issues if you have a lot of nitrate from the cichlid waste, which does tend to happen.

It's up to you, but unless you are set on growing high light plants and will be adding CO2, fertilizer, and a special plant substrate, I would go with something with a lot less power (maybe a twin tube fluorescent or single T5 at most).

RE: a few novice tank setup questions

pbhound — Tue, 27 May 2008 10:07:59 GMT

thank you so much Hailey; those are some awesome pictures of tanks. this is the light that i am considering: http://www.aquatraders.com/index.asp?PageAction=VIEWPROD&ProdID=293&HS=1

i hope that it worked right. this board is different then the others i am used too. i guess it didn't well there is the link you will have to cut and paste it since i refuse to use IE.

RE: a few novice tank setup questions

Hailey — Tue, 27 May 2008 09:33:32 GMT

I don't blame you...they're gorgeous.

For mbuna what you really want the bulk of the decorations to be are large rocks stacked up to create tons of caves. You want to fill a good portion of the tank with these rocks and they can be flat, slate-like rocks (which are easy to stack and stable), more rounded boulder type rocks (anything calcareous like limestone is a bonus because it will buffer the water), or if you really want to go crazy, texas holey rock (which is expensive, but gorgeous). Having an aragonite or coral sand as a substrate is great too because it will help buffer the water and the cichlids can dig in it, which they love to do. Just make sure you place the rocks directly on the tank bottom (or on eggcrate on the bottom of the tank) before pouring in the sand or the digging can dislodge rocks sitting on the sand and cause dangerous rockslldes.

Just for ideas, here are some great mbuna tanks.

You can have some plastic plants in there too, but I wouldn't personally recommend a lot of them just because they take away from the look of the rocks, and because if aquascaped right, the rocks will take up a lot of space as it is. In place of plastic plants you may want to consider live java ferns, java moss, and/or anubias which you can anchor into the rock crevices and will do fine under regular fluorescent lighting.Here's one of an african river theme that shows how you can use anubias and java ferns in the rockscape.

As far as lighting goes, if you want to bring out the best colors in your mbuna, pick a broad spectrum bulb so you can highlight both the blues and reds (which seem to be among the most common mbuna colors). If you can find bulbs with a spectrograph on the box, look for bulbs that peak in the colors that your fish will be. Mbuna look great under just about any light, but tweaking the light to enhance their colors can really make for a spectacular display.

RE: a few novice tank setup questions

pbhound — Tue, 27 May 2008 05:45:05 GMT

well im going to use plastic plants. and i am looking at the Mbuna family, as i really like the color markings of them. that is if i can find them in my area.

thanks

RE: a few novice tank setup questions

Hailey — Mon, 26 May 2008 15:56:31 GMT

First pick out the cichlid group you want to keep. The options include:
-South or Central American (usually big, messy, and boisterous...best kept with no live plants and with only one to four or so to a tank that size)
-Mbuna (generally very colorful, active, and extremely aggressive african cichlids, and can sometimes be kept with plants. Size will vary but typically about six inches)
-Peacocks and Haps (less aggressive african cichlids, often with neat iridescent blue overtones, generally alright with plants, and grow to about six to eight inches)
-Dwarf cichlids (can come from anywhere, and tend to be under four inches, peaceful, and proper for planted set ups...the dwarf cichlids from Lake Tanganyika and Malawi are notable exceptions to the peaceful description)

If you can narrow it down to a group (and it is best not to mix these groups so I recommend you do), then you can plan the set up around them. You may want to check the pH of your source water to help with your decision though, as some of these are more comfortable in acidic water while others are better in basic water.

RE: a few novice tank setup questions

Conner — Mon, 26 May 2008 13:57:10 GMT

The lighting you need will depend on whether or not you plan on having live plants in the tank. If you aren't going to have any, or will be using fake plants, then you won't need very high wattage lighting. If you do plan on having plants, you will want at least 1 watt-per-gallon. However, once you start increasing the wattage-per-gallon, you may run into needing fertilizers and/or CO2 injection. If you will be going with no or fake plants, then a regular T8 or T5 Fluorescent tube light (one or two tubes) will be more than adequate. If you plan on having live plants, depending on what kind, then 2 tubes of T5 fluorescent light is kind of on the low end of lighting.

The landscape will really depend on what kinds of cichlids you plan on keeping. Research the ones you like, and find out what their preferred environment is (rock mounds, caves, or plant clumps). Then try to recreate this as best as possible. An important thing to remember is to provide each fish with its own hiding place, as this will make them more comfortable in the tank, and more likely to be out where you can see them.

Good luck! And if you post which species of cichlids you plan on keeping, the people here will be more than happy to help you with design and setup.

a few novice tank setup questions

pbhound — Mon, 26 May 2008 11:36:44 GMT

hello all im kinda new to the fish aquarium scene (well atleast it has been a while since i had one).

ok this is my set up that i am hoping to put together.

tank: a 90 gal. marineland cornerflow tank.
filter: ehiem (not sure of the model but it will be adequate enough for the tank).

lighting (this is one thing i am stuck on)

stand and hood i already have.

ok now for the tank set up, i would really like to get cichlids for it but i am unsure of the structures for them to be in. i know they like rocks and trees, but am unsure of how to do it.

also i need help with the lighting systems not sure what would be the best economically for me.

thanks