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Need Help With African Cichlid Tank Hardscaping


t3ch
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Hi,

I've recently inherited of 20 big johanni cichlid and a big chinese algae sucker. After giving a few Cichlid away to my friend here I am with 16 of those big guys, my 3 clown loaches and the chinese algae sucker. I've done some hardscaping with rocks I found along the bow river but I need some help in improving the layout. Note I still have 1 full bucket of rocks that I could use.

Thanks everyone!

IMG_0375_zpsefjrcgrn.jpg

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The layout looks good, but because those rocks are round you may have some issues when the cichlids start digging. Make sure the rocks at the base of your piles are on the glass (or put down a piece of eggcrate first) so they won't shift when the fish dig. Try to make sure that each rock is supported on at least 3 points and make sure it's not wobbly in place... this is why river rock makes poor stacking material. I prefer fieldstone or granite... rocks with flatter surfaces.

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Thank you for your advice, I did indeed made sure it was fairly solid as I think they are trying to re-create the rocky mountains in my tank ;) I choose river rocks because they are round which I thought would be safer for the fish

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  • 4 months later...

When I first saw the picture you had posted I also saw in my mind many wet towels and someone using a wet-dry shop vac. I'm veryyyy leery of putting rock especially that size against glass. For me I'd say those are too large of a rock and too round if I were to do that scape. Get some angled rock in there to create caves and crevasses.

btw, if you ever get rock from nature make sure you do an acid test. Those appear to be fine from the picture. Also remember the bow isn't as clean as it once was.

Edited by ckmullin
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