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Sorry this may be a repeat bit was having issues posting on last post so am trying again.

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   MogwaimarshallNew Member
   Hi I have had this tank which I purchased of a friend.i was expecting to just buy a tank as a previous one was leaking.thishow ever came fully stocked with Malawi child's and a cat fish and all equipment included.im running two filters plus a wave machine.i however need advice we have now lost several fish generally getting eaten and getting the levels seems hard.the ph seems OK.but we have hard water. Any advice on how to keep the tank in top notch. I'm doing numerous water changes.just wondered how often I been to be doing this. Also what's the best way to remove all this poo I've been using a suction pipe seems to work but time consuming. Ive included photos of what I have and am thinking maybe adding more fish to lower the aggression.any help would be appreciated as we have grown very fond of them and some even have names
   Cheers in advance

To better help you, you need to give water parameters of ph, temperature, ammonia, nitrite, nitrate. How often and how much are you changing water. Are you adding a dechlorinator? Are you matching the water temperature thats going into the tank with the temperature already in the tank?

The suction pipe is called an undergravel water siphon, and to do it quicker either get one with a larger tube or invest in a python. You can just buy the green replacement part if you have a hose already but i am unsure about the connecting parts. You may have to change your kitchen tap if you are in the UK as our taps generally do not have a screw attachment

I would just point out that Malawis need hard water; they soon get diseases (often organ failure) and die if kept in soft.

As you need to stock Malawis quite densely to reduce the aggression, you need to do quite big water changes; 60 or 75% every week would be what I'd recommend for a starting point; the actual poo is not a huge issue, apart from visually; it's the water quality that's critical.

I'm afraid I can't help ID your fish; there are hundreds of species of Rift Valley cichlids, many of which look very similar (my mum used to keep mbuna, and we spent ages trawling books to try and ID some of them ), but the yellow ones are Labidochromis caeruleus.

Do please post the actual numbers from all your tests, as neoyyf asked

Thanksall for your help.big issue now have come home this evening to find eight dead fish and all the same variety and strangley none of them have been eaten.which was what was happening. The insides of the filters were changed at the weekend I have two fluval 305. And some tap safe was added and they had been fine until today

What exactly do you mean by "the insides of the filters were changed"? What exactly did you change, and what, if anyhting, did you not change?
Have you tested the water for ammonia and nitrite?

If you changed a lot of the media, you would have thrown away a lot of good bacteria and you may well have a lot of ammonia and/or nitrite in the water, both of which can kill fish.

The first thing to do when fish die is a big water change - but test the water first to see if that was the porblem.

Hi the media inside was changed as it was over a year old.kept the same sponges as they were ok.nitro does seem a bit high what can I do about that I also done a 25% water change

Fluval 305s can be customised but they recommend the bottom basket should have prefilter (or carbon or zeocarb - but carbon is not necessary and zeolite removes ammonia until it gets full, then it stops so I wouldn't use that either). They suggest using the middle basket for biomax (or more carbon or ammonia remover, but again I wouldn't), and the top basket for more biomax.
Of these media, only carbon and zeolite need to be replaced regularly - every few weeks - but as they are not actually needed full time it is better to use 2 baskets of biomax. This does not need replacing until it falls to bits, and will last several years.

When the media does need replacing, it is safe to replace only one third of the total media at one go, and the next batch a few weeks later.


While the new media you put in is colonised by the bacteria you will need to monitor the ammonia and nitrite levels daily and do a water change every time you see either of them above zero. The water change needs to be big enough to get them to zero.

Currently doing. A50% water change at the moment

"Nitro does seem a bit high"...if this refers to nitrite, it must always be zero. All fish are susceptible to nitrite above zero, cichlids particularly so with any of the nitrogen forms (ammonia, nitrite, nitrate). This is likely the cause of the several fish losses.

A major partial water change of 70% of the tank volume, daily, until ammonia and nitrite are remaining zero is needed. You cold also use a bacterial supplement in case the filter replacement mentioned destroyed much of the nitrifying bacteria. And if you can get a small bottle, Prime or Ultimate (either) are good conditioners to use as they detoxify ammonia and nitrite (no others do nitrite, that I am aware of), until things are back to normal (meaning zero ammonia and nitrite consecutive days). The detoxification by these conditioners is temporary, 24-36 hours, and nitrite will still show in tests whether detoxified or toxic so long as it is present.

The GH of the water is critical as fluttermoth mentioned, so it would help to know this. If not sufficient hardness, it weakens the fish making all this even more problematical.

Just done a test

Might I suggest getting a liquid test kit. The strips are known to be very inaccurate and that will throw things off.

Sent from my SM-G570F using Tapatalk

Do the strips test for ammonia? I know that not all of them do, and you need to know the level of that in your tank.

Mogwaimarshall said:

Just done a test

Click to expand...

Sorry, but I have no idea what those colours refer to, either subjects (nitrite, nitrate, pH or whatever) nor numbers.