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Looking For Advise Setting Up For Some Mbuna!


Janoch
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Hello, I've been into tropical community tanks for about 3 years now and am anxious to start up a nice display tank out of a 75 gallon corner flow, I was thinking a stock of 10 electric yellows and 8 yellow tail acei but I'm open to suggestions as I'm in no rush for the stock and want to ensure Perfect parameters and aquascaping prior to any new fish purchases. That being said that stock was a suggestion on another forum as a "cookie cutter stock" for people that are new with mbunas, any other suggestions I could look into would be greatly appreciated! I've already fitted the bottom of the aquarium with egg crate and a few stones from the elbow river, used the boil method and vinegar test as well as scrubbed the stones maticulously prior to putting in the tank. Yesterday I picked up a 25kg bag of quikcrete premium play sand as per recommendation, washed and added it as well as rigged up a coralife 36" dual t5ho fitted with an actinic and 10000k daylight bulb and a 250 watt fluval heater supposedly capable of maintining temps as high as 88f in a 75g. Today I'll be cleaning out an established 10g tank of mine and adding the substrate to the sump as well as the biomedia to jump start my cycle, will go fish less and will add pure ammonia, again open to suggestion. I've purchased some (Dafco) fuzzy polyethylene particle filters to also use as biomedia ( talked to the manufacturers to ensure they're not treated with anything) am I missing anything? Is there anything else I can add to this setup to help maintain a proper ph? This tank already has pretty decent water movement, however I also have a power head I could install to keep a current near the bottom... Any thoughts or suggestions would be awesome, I will post a few pics later on today. Thanks!

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Lots of rocks. Stacked to make caves. More hiding spots given ...the more you will see of the fish, that's how my mbuna is. Mbuna tanks tend to need a bit of an over stocking to spread out aggression to more fish. Just need to up filtration to accomplish this. Could add a 3rd species I would think.. albino scoffoli are a very nice white fish looks great with electric yellows. Just my opinion but you will love mbuna.

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Lots of rocks are a must and it's a good idea when you're stacking them to secure them. You'd be surprised the size of rocks that Mbuna can topple. I use the foam used for sealing around rocks for ponds and waterfalls. Also lots of flow is needed so your power head is a good idea.

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Thanks for the advise guys, I guess I'm so used to ensuring that I DONT overstock being that I've only really kept peaceful community fish never really had to worry about aggression. (Except for when my angels decide it's time to breed but I had always dealt with that by isolating them) got plenty of filtration though, the corner flow setup has a 25 gallon sump that I can LOAD with all kinds of media, and exchanges the water at an exceptional rate. Will look into your suggestion of adding a 3rd species, thx, what brand of foam specifically would I be looking for aqua scalping? I like the idea and would definitially look into sealing some smaller stones together for placing on larger stones that are firmly on the egg crate to make some nice hideouts. Any tips on easy ways to maintain a higher ph? Or suggestions as to where In Calgary I should go to pick out my new pals 😜

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The foam is called waterfall foam the brand is aquascape. I've bought it at Pisces before, they should still carry it. they also have a pretty good selection of mbuna. Its been a while since Ive been there but Golds also has had a good selection. This forum is also a great place to look maybe post a "looking for" thread in the classified section once you get access. theres bound to be someone that has what you want.

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Calgary tap water is fine for mbuna. mine is about 7.6ph. although the ph in lake malawi is higher chances are you wont be getting wild caught fish and tank raised fish are more tolerant of lower ph. In my opinion it is better to have a stable ph level out of the tap than mess around using buffers and salts trying to mimic the conditions that the fish have never experienced anyway. All my mbuna flourished in just dechlorinated calgary tap water, The key is more in the maintenance, high stock levels create lots of nitrates so water changes are your best friend.

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Ps. socolfli are quite a bit more aggressive than Yellow labs and Ps. acei, so if you're going to add them, add them AFTER the others have been established. Rusty's are pretty docile (by mbuna standards), Melanochromis cyaneorhabdos (they may have moved them to the Pseudotropheus genus, if you're having trouble finding them) are another nice fish that isn't overly aggressive - different body shape and color pattern than most mbuna.

Touch base with Fairdeal on this forum - he always has excellent quality and his prices are fantastic - he's in the Sponsor Forum. Also, check out Cichlaholic.com, Spencer Jack has a great selection of Malawi cichlids. I've done well over $10,000 of orders through him and have never been disappointed.

As for your aquarium - sounds like you have a pretty good set up. Use a larger return pump than you think you'll need - Piper is right, you'll want a lot of flow, as it'll help keep crud from building up on the bottom and push it down your overflow. If the return seems too much, T it off and return some back to the start of the sump. A powerhead is a good idea if you can't get the flow you want from your return.

50% weekly WCs are what I do on my tanks. Most weeks, it's just a hose and strait WC, no vacuuming or any other maintenance. Put the water from your tank into your houseplants and garden, I get plants to flower that don't normally flower, and lots of my flowering plants are always in bloom! :) If you notice mulm piling up in a corner, suck it out once a month or so, and maintain your mechanical filtration in your sump as often as you need (don't want it too clogged and cause bypass or overflow).

Have fun!!

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That's great advise, glad I don't have to be overly concerned about ph. I've looked into socolfi as well as the rustys, lots to consider. basically I should be stocking the more docile yellow labs and yellow tails first though? What's a good way to introduce my initial stock once my cycle is complete ( don't want to overload my nitrogen cycle and end up with ammonia spikes adding too many at once) Ive got a 33g community tank with some prestila tetra zebra danios and a couple of angels I could rehome maybe the danios (if I can catch them) into the 75 to increase benefitial bacteria then remove them. What I'm getting at is that I'm not sure how well even the more docile yellow labs would act in smaller numbers during an initial stock without having an ammonia spike.

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Also should I be concerned about the weight I'm adding to the aquarium in stones? I do have egg crate down and have lined the back of the tank with some big heavy river stone (not leaning against the glass back wall) then will be stacking smaller stones on top... So far I've got about 120lbs of stone gathered in large stones alone. My stand is a solid stainless steel frame that the outer perimeter of the aquarium sits on. Thanks again for all the advice

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For stacking, head to the Member Journal forum and check out what I've done in the past - lots of tanks w. stacked stone... even resting against the glass.

If you do the fishless cycle right, your filter should be able to handle all the fish at once; however, if you don't add many at first, the large BB colony will shrink to handle just what you have in there, and you'll have to add just a few at a time.

For mixing spp. I usually go with 4-6 of each sp. if I'm wanting them to breed (which I almost always do), and tend to try not to mix genera to avoid hybridization.

If it were my tank, I'd try to add 10-20 young fish right off the get-go - basically 2 or 3 species. If you add them all at once, they'll set up territories and you won't have to worry about new fish being kept away from established territories down the road.

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Once again thank you! I will Emulate a full bioload of ammonia during my cycle prior to stocking, and will stock all at once. That's a lot of info to get me started, really appreciate it all. I will post pics in this thread once I get everything setup the way I like it. Been a busy week, haven't accomplished everything I had hoped by this point, still have quite a bit of stones to scrub and boil lol. Thanks again

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image_zpsaajnthss.jpeg this pic was taken right around the time of the initial post

image_zpsxtvrojxh.jpeg This is basically now, trying to create as many caves as I can, taking my time with the aquascape as despite my efforts with nitrifying bacteria adding a bunch more media including fluval bio max and squeezings from my 33g's sponges still haven't gotten over my initial ammonia spike... Have more stones boiling now though lol.

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