Questions RE: New Malawi Cichlid Tank

Hi all,

Let me start by saying great site, very informative and great for a beginner like myself.

So i've taken the plunge and just bought a 240 ltr Fluval Roma aquarium. It came with:

-fluval 305 filter
-fluval tronic 300w heater
-1 40W aqua glo light
-1 40W power glo light
-Some nutrafin flake food, nutrafin cycle(biological supplement) and nutrafin aqua plus water conditioner.
-I also bought 30kgs of silver sand

I spent the past couple of months reading up (and saving) but I have a few questions which I'm hoping u guys(and girls) can help me with.

Bascally i've decided to go for a malawi setup with some Labidochromis caeruleus (8ish) and some Pseudotropheus saulosi (12ish) to start off, possibly adding some Metriaclima estherae aswell. Does this sound alright?

I like the look of ocean rock for a malawi tank, can anyone recommend a good (read: cheap) place to source this? (im based in donaghmede) Or feel free to recommend another type of rock, im open to suggestions!

Secondly ive read that egg crate can be used on the base of the tank to distribute the weight of the rock. Is this a good idea or will the tank be ok without it? I assume I should arrange the rock how i like it and then add the sand after?

Finally Im looking to get the tank up and running asap so has anyone any experience using the nutrafin cycle product? Would this work with adding maybe 6-8 fish to start. If this is too risky I'm more than willing to be patient and cycle the tank over 4 weeks.

Ive also read that getting a squeeze of filter material from an established tank will speed up the process, is it ok get this from the lfs or is it better to get from a private tank?

Sorry for the number of questions but any advice is welcomed.

Oh here's a photo of the tank as it stands.



s280.photobucket.com/albums/kk177/paddykelly6/IMG_0564.jpg

Paddy

Great to see more & more cichlid keepers coming onboard.

That is a lovely tank, very modern looking cabinet too.

To answer your questions:

Bascally i've decided to go for a malawi setup with some Labidochromis caeruleus (8ish) and some Pseudotropheus saulosi (12ish) to start off, possibly adding some Metriaclima estherae aswell. Does this sound alright?

>> Caeruleus are lovely mild mannered fish & not prone to being hyper dominant. They are an excellent addition to any cichlid tank.
Saulosi are nice too & have colourful females which is a bonus.
You would be taking a chance adding more than one male saulosi though as they would likely beat the bejesus out of each other.
Metriaclima estherae are nice too, I've not kept them myself though.
It seems you are adding a lot of the same species, is this intentional for breeding purposes?
If not then you might be limiting your options are there are a myriad of compatible fish available.
If you are planning on adding all 20 fish at once this would probably overload your filter unless they were very small so best to introduce them in batches.
Whenever I introduce new fish I leave the lights off & wrap the tank in a duvet for 24 hours - if they can't see each other they can't fight..


I like the look of ocean rock for a malawi tank, can anyone recommend a good (read: cheap) place to source this? (im based in donaghmede) Or feel free to recommend another type of rock, im open to suggestions!

>>Ocean rock is very nice, Aquatic Village have very nice rock called 'reef rock' as far as I remember.
It is basically dead live rock. Lighter than ocean rock & lots of nooks & crannies for fry to hide.
If I was starting again I would buy it. Think its cheaper than ocean rock too.


Secondly ive read that egg crate can be used on the base of the tank to distribute the weight of the rock. Is this a good idea or will the tank be ok without it? I assume I should arrange the rock how i like it and then add the sand after?

>> I didnt bother with egg crate myself.
I have a lot of rock in the tank, had a few rock falls that were scary though so you need to be super careful stacking it.


Finally Im looking to get the tank up and running asap so has anyone any experience using the nutrafin cycle product? Would this work with adding maybe 6-8 fish to start. If this is too risky I'm more than willing to be patient and cycle the tank over 4 weeks.
Ive also read that getting a squeeze of filter material from an established tank will speed up the process, is it ok get this from the lfs or is it better to get from a private tank?

>>Personally I'm a fan of using filter material from a mature filter.
I cycled my main tank the hard way then set up two other tank using filter material from the mature tank without the need to cycle them.
LFS should be fine & most should be helpful.


Hope that helps,
Patrick

Hey Patrick thanks for all the info.

I'll definitely head over to aquatic village to check out the reef rock. I'll also drop into the local LFS for some filter material, what exactly do i need to get off them?

Gonna try get it sorted seeing as we have this nice 4 day weekend.

To be honest I hadn't put toooo much thought into the fish as I know it'll be a few weeks before I get to put em in. Might only get 4 of the saulosi if the males are so territorial to keep the 1:3 ratio. Have you any suggestions for other malawi's that will get on well with the labs n saulosis?

I'm sure one of the forum members would be happy to give you some matured filter media. Where are you living?

Hey Ken,

I'm based in donaghmede if anyone is local.

Although i wont need it for a few days till i get some rocks and fill the tank. Unless i can just get it and keep it in some tank water?

I'm in Donabate. PM me and we can arrange to meet whenever is suitable.

hi and welcome to the forum, just a quick bit of advise for you,i would if i where you bring back the silver sand and exchange it for coral sand, the reason being Malawi's like an alkaline aquarium and this coral sand will bring up your ph, you can comfortably go up to a ph of eight and they will love you for it,in regards the rock place it on the bare tank bottom carefully or to stop pressure points on the glass place the rocks on a flat piece of slate to make it safer, then put in your sand to bed it in as Malawi's are notorious diggers and the last thing you want is a crash in the night and see that beautiful tank you bought on the floor, if you cannot get mature media but by the sounds of it you are, leave the tank mature over a few weeks before adding fish and then do so in small amounts so as not to overload the filter.. there are some beautiful malawis out there saw some stunning coral reds in aquapaws in barna recently so am re setting up a malawi tank because of this.. Best of luck with your tank hope you enjoy the hobby beware its addictive:woohoo: and if ever you need help we're all here..
enjoy Seamus

Hey guys, thanks for all the advice.

I went out to aquatic village today to check out the reef rock. Was well impressed with the whole place and drew had some great advice. In the end I bought 23kgs of reef rock and an API master test kit.

Heres a pic of the tank with the rock in it


Ken:

Thanks a million for the offer, il be in touch soon (hopefully).

Sheag35:

Wrt the silver sand, unfortunately it was bought and delivered with the tank (from overseas) so im not really in a position to return it. I did a test on my water today and its ph is 7.6. Do you think some coral sand in the filter would buffer the ph sufficiently?

This might be a silly question but I opened the smaller one(5kg) of my bags of silver sand and it doesn't look very \"silver\". Is it me or is does it look too dark? Its wet as i cleaned it but its the nearly the same colour as the floor...

yep unfortunately \"silver\" sand is a bit of a mis-sell its that brown normally.. it refers to it being a finer grade of sand rather that colour but its ok a darker substrate normally shows off the colours of the fish better. but personally i go for the almost white coral sand... ps the rocks look great cant wait to see a pic when its finished..
till you've any more questions happy fishkeeping
seamus

Rocks look great!

My PH is about 7.6 too. I don't bother buffering it to get it any higher as they do fine at 7.6.

The picture on the site i got the sand from was misleading to be honest



Looks quite white here in my opinion, I might get on to them n see about a refund...worth a shot i suppose.

Personally I prefer the almost white of the coral sand and if it buffers the ph then thats an added bonus!

Looks like i'm off shopping again today

You have discovered one of the fun parts of shopping online

I know absolutely about cichlids, all my tanks are less than 7 pH, but wont that rock buffer your water anyway?

The tank is looking great with the rock, looking forward to seeing you fill it with fish - over time.


Daragh

Hey Daragh,

Drew in AV mentioned that the rock would buffer the ph slightly but coral sand would help.

To be honest I prefer the look of the lighter coral sand and I'm going to have to get some new sand anyway seeing as I dislike what I have.

Dont suppose theres any danger the combination of hard water in the area(ph7.6), the reef rock and the coral sand would raise the ph too much? If so what light coloured sand should i look for?

I will be running to the LFS to purchase whichever sand as soon as I hear back!

Oh and dont worry, i'll populate the tank slowly and responsibly

I don't think it works like that, the rock/sand will only buffer the water a certain amount, regardless of the starting pH of the water or the amount of rock/sand. At least that is my understanding, but confirm that with the shop or wait until some hard water fishkeeper replies here, as I said earlier I only keep softwater species.

That's my understanding too Daragh.
I have a PH of about 7.5 from the tap & I have both coral sand & ocean rock. The PH generally only gets up to about 7.6.

Paddy - I bought coral sand in Aquatic village in unmarked yellow bags which is really nice stuff. Minimal cleaning required & good size grains.

Cheers,
Patrick.

Sounds good lads.

Was out in AV yesterday but the drive is a bit far 2 days in a row. If only I'd checked the damn \"silver sand\" before that trip, Drew even mentioned coral sand while I was there...

I know the LFS near me has coral sand too, anyone know if there are big differences in the quality of coral sand form shop to shop? Anything in particluar i should look for?

Hi Paddy tank looks great! the combination of hard water, rocks, coral sand etc. will not raise the PH too much, your aiming for a PH above 7.5, they will look there best.
Quality of sand shouldnt vary too much from store to store.

Thanks for the info on the coral sand Daragh, Patrick n Drew. Went out and got some yesterday evening and cleaned it thoroughly before I put it in the tank. Looks far better than the other sand in my opinion.

I filled the tank and started the filter this evening. I also added a blue background that i printed in work. Its just photographic paper stuck to the back of the tank with sellotape.

Heres a few new pictures

Tank with Reef Rock and Coral Sand


Left of Tank


Middle of Tank


Right of Tank


Well happy with the way the tank is looking now, cant wait to add the fish in a few weeks hopefully!

Heres a quick update on the tank.

I got some mature filter media (cheers Ken) and 9 yellow lab fry (1.5 inches) (nice one Didinho) which i added to the tank last thursday. The reason I added the fish so soon is so there is a source of ammonia for the bacteria in the mature filter media.

They seem to be settling in well and are all still present and accounted for.

At the moment I'm only feeding them a couple of pinches of flake food every 2 days as im wary of overfeeding. Does this sound ok?

If you have inoculated your filter with mature media then I don't see a problem with you feeding the fry daily. Just make sure to keep an eye on the water quality and feed on the sparing side.

Regarding the fish, they look like very good quality labs with hardly any vertical barring which is very prevalent in a lot of less then average stock available on today's market.

Great looking tank too, I cant believe that I haven't seen this thread until now!

god this tank is really looking good, keep up the good work

Looking very well Paddy.

Told ya Didi's fry are top quality, hope he looked after you.

Keep us posted.

Looks Excellent!