kem

I've played around with lights in my reef tanks, except for the pricy LED, and in my experience, nothing beats metal halides. The soft corals are responding very well in terms of growth and expansion, and I've never seen my fox coral opening this much. If you can afford the cost and the utility bills, you could have a 150W MH, centered and about 10 in. from the water surface. It will give a nice coverage and leave shaded areas on the sides for less light demanding corals. If MH are not an option, your next best choice is HO T5 with individual reflectors. I'm currently keeping SPS and a clam in a 20G tank under 4 24W HO. Whatever option you choose, be sure to search the need of the corals before buying them. Placement, flow, supplements and potential feeding are also critical to success with corals. Here's a link that I find very helpful : http://www.wetwebmedia.com/marine/index.htm

Acei will not need caves. They tend to stay near the surface. In lake Malawi, they stay near the shore and feed on algae growing on submerged tree roots. If you still have that piece of driftwood, you might be able to replicate their natural habitat. On a side note, they breed faster than rabbits and are greedy eaters. They'll definitely get you wet at feeding time .

You can also keep a small group of the more peaceful Malawi cichlids like Labidochromis or Iodotropheus sprengeraes (Rusty cichlid). I've kept Kimpuma Labs in a 25G for a few years without problems (except excessive breeding ). Another option is to keep just males but from different species: you'll have a variety of colors without too much aggressivity.

I used dark gray slate tiles in my African cichlids tank. It works great. Cleaning the tank is a breeze and the fish were showing great colors.

That's typical hermit crab behavior. Even my blue legged HC, wich are considered by many as reef safe as you can get, do attack my snails from time to time. Some experts, like Bob Fenner, don't consider them suitable tankmates and recommend keeping only snails. They are also known to snack on some LPS coral (Hammer, Frogspawn,...), although I've never seen it happen in my tank. On the bright side, they are not often successful at pulling a snail from its shell.

You can use aragonite sand and seed it with a cup or two of sand from an established reef tank, ytou can also seed it with some good quality live rock, or better with live rock rubble (from the very bottom of the tank is preferable). That way you'll have a more diverse fauna than with the commercial (supposedly) live sand.

For African cichlids, the square footage matters more than the volume of the tank, a 75 G can hold just as many fish as a 90 G. Usually, a minimum of 20 fish is recommended for this size of tank. As for reducing nitrate, you can remove your gravel/sand and put slates in the bottom of your tank (buy it from local hardware store). It will make siphoning detritus out a lot easier.

It's a Labidochromis sp. "mbamba". The "hongi" has a larger yellow to red patch extending to the dorsal fin, also the female and dominated male of the hongi adopt a lighter colour than the mbamba (2nd picture). ps: I bred both species back in Fredericton).

You can also try live daphnia, if you can find it in locally. It will trigger the hunting instinct of your fish and is very efficient to clear the intestine tracks.

In the wild, they feed mostly by scrapping algae from submerged tree roots, eating also any crustacean living there. In aquarium, they are really easy to feed, being as close to a surface vacuum cleaner as any fish can be. And they will happily splash you with water during feeding time. Give them cichlid food in the morning, with protein content of 30-40% (NLS, Omega One, Hikari,...), and veggies or spirulina flakes in the evening. It is easier for them to digest as their metabolism slows down for the night. You can also give them bleached spinach, zuchinni, salad. HBH veggies flakes were eagerly taken by mine. You can also give them some glodfish flakes, as these are low in proteins. Try to get them used to different brands of food and give them a varied diet, but stay away from meaty or high protein foods, as these can cause bloat. Otherwise, they are not demanding, not aggressive (by mbuna standards) and very easy to breed. You'll soon be short on tanks to keep all the babies :smokey: