My 60G Cichlid Tank Planted....whaaa?!

As mentioned in the title its a 60g tank with mostly mbuna cichlids.  I'm experimenting with plants to see if I can get them to work.  I have valisneria and anubias both of which are surrounded by rocks to help keep the cichlids from pushing them around.  The vals are struggling a bit but I still have hope for them to pull through.
 
What's in the tank:
         -substrate: cichlids sand mixed with gravel
         -heater shatter proof API
         -filtration: Fluval 306 canister plan to build a sump for it later this spring when I have time
         -Rocks: Utah volcanic rock, obsidian, slate, various unknown rocks from the garden
 
Stocking:
demasoni x 10
Electric yellow labs x 4
Black Congo calvus x 2
synodontis ocelifer catfish x 2 I believe, they were sold to me as a Syno cat so not 100% sure
 
Couple of pics I managed to get
 

Good luck man it will be cool if you can get it to work.
I tried to get some plants to work in my 65 gal cichlid tank and couldn't get it to work

Those guys are some diggers!
Maybe they will dig away from your plants.

This is my 65 gallon cichlid tank
https/www.dropbox.com/s/m4qblcvpecjqiuc/2013-12-12%2018.26.47.jpg

RRaquariums said:

Good luck man it will be cool if you can get it to work.
I tried to get some plants to work in my 65 gal cichlid tank and couldn't get it to work

Click to expand...

what were the problems you ran into? any foresight may help out
 
 

lrhodes said:

Those guys are some diggers!
Maybe they will dig away from your plants.

Click to expand...

yeah so i hear and i see them digging out some caves for themselves.  I got some good rock fortification going so im hoping that will help combat this. 

As you can see by the picture I have a heavily stocked tank and when I had the plants in with them they kept bumping into the plants and picking at them when they got bored and when they got hungry in the morning they would take small junks out of the plants.
So ultimately while the plants where living they looked pretty bad and I decided to remove them and go with a more natural rock and sand tank they seem pretty happy with it and I don't have to worry about them eating my plants.
This is the cave my bumble bee cichlid has dug you can see he likes it
https/www.dropbox.com/s/pjglwoi772337w7/2014-02-06%2018.32.22.jpg

RRaquariums said:

As you can see by the picture I have a heavily stocked tank and when I had the plants in with them they kept bumping into the plants and picking at them when they got bored and when they got hungry in the morning they would take small junks out of the plants.
So ultimately while the plants where living they looked pretty bad and I decided to remove them and go with a more natural rock and sand tank they seem pretty happy with it and I don't have to worry about them eating my plants.
This is the cave my bumble bee cichlid has dug you can see he likes it

https/www.dropbox.com/s/pjglwoi772337w7/2014-02-06%2018.32.22.jpg

Click to expand...

they havnt displayed to much interest in eating my plants.  i feed them various veggies and garlic pretty regularly.  im not sure if this helps or not but i only occasionally see them nipping at the vals.  this is actually a twofer for me cause they keep the vals from growing to long lol.  thanks for the input ill def keep an eye out for more aggressive eating. nice pics by the way.

Well good luck hopefully you can make it work

here is a vid i shot for the fun of it
http/youtu.be/BmBXn90YxQE

i tried putting a couple plants in with my jewel cichlids and it wasn't long before they destroyed them

Yes my jewel is a destructive little guy and loves to destroy things to lol.
This is just my opinion but you may want to get some more fish African cichlids should be heavenly stocked so they don't fight or if they do it is spread out more.
Again that's just from my experience with African cichlids.

Yeah the plan is to get more but I need to up the filtration before I do that.  Wont have the time to build my sump till late spring so will get more fish then.  For now the aggression is minimal and chases don't last for more than a few seconds.  Keeping a close eye on them though.