210L Mbuna Journal

[Ben M]

Hi, I'm setting up a 210l mbuna tank soon, so I thought I'd start a journal for it. ATM the tank houses a few community fish that I haven't moved yet (so if anybody near Hornsea wants a female krib, 5 bronze corys and 2 Corydoras copei possibly pm me). Once I've got all of the fish moved out then I'll totally empty the tank and clean all of the algae out. My dad is getting me some perspex to cover the base of the tank then I'll stack my rocks (sandstone) on top. The sand I'm using is 3mm coral sand to raise my pH (and it's really heavy; I struggle to pick it up lol). I'm putting some heather branches in for my BNs, but not loads as I want the water to be hard.

I'm stocking it with the following fish:

2 L144
yellow labs,
Cynotilapia afra 'jalo reef'
Pseudotropheus ndumbi red top
Pseudotropheus elongatus neon spot

I'm not 100% certain on numbers or that these will be the exact species that I'm going to get; this is just a rough idea. I will see what other species are available from the breeder when I go, so I might change a few species.

I will put some pics of how I'm thinking of arranging the rocks later.

Cheers

 

[micko]

Sounds good.
Would love to keep mbuna one day.

What's the deal with the heather branches? Any pics of them?

 

[elisew]

Good choice of fish, they`re all compatible and different looking which is what you need with the mbuna to reduce crossbreeding

As I have the same fish as you`re looking at stocking, I can suggest from personal experience that you could also add some socolofi and mpanga to your list. You could also add some synodontis petricola or multipunctatus.
You need to be looking at a minimum of 2 females to each male OR you could go for an all male setup. 1 or 2 males of each mbuna species would work, too many males will just encourage aggression. Overstocking and lots of filtration is a necessity on such a setup, overstocking to reduce aggression and lots of filtration to cope with the overstocking.

The bristlenose don`t NEED the wood, they`re more than able to cope with algae that grows in the tank as well as hoovering up the food that you feed your fish, the choice of adding any wood is purely a personal one. Wood isn`t considered 'normal' for a malawi or mbuna setup though.

 

[Ben M]

Thanks for the replies. I'll get some pics of the heather in a few mins. Thanks for your suggestions for other fish. I have a large external filter on the tank ATM, and as the fish grow I'm going to add another external.

I know that the BNs don't need the wood, but I've found that they love it, so I thought I'd add some for them. I won't be adding much wood, and hopefully with careful placement it won't look out of place.

Thanks for your thoughts, I'll go and get some pics now.

 

[Ben M]

Here are the layouts that I've made up to now:

1st Layout

2nd Layout.

I also plan to have some slices of stone covering the back of the aquarium, which is what my dad's friend did successfully. I'll fill the gaps between the big stones with smaller slices, which will hopefully look like a lake Malawi cliff face. Here are the sort of stones that I'll be using:

And this is the sort of thickness.

And this is the heather that I'm going to be using for my BNs:

My mum thinks that the stones I'm going to be using are too small, and that it would look better with fewer, bigger stones in it. What do you think? I might go back and get some more rocks that are thicker, so I can use them as bigger pieces without them looking like paving slabs.

cheers

 

[markandhisfish]

looking good . i think i like rock layout number 2 best . nice choice of fish too , and the extra suggestions fronm lisa would fit in nicely as well . mpangas are lovely when in full colour .

 

[elisew]

Those rocks will be fine. I have only a few of the chunkier bits of slate, the majority is 'slices' like you have. If you stand a few of the pieces upright and then just lay other bits across and build from there you`ll find it`ll produce enough cave areas

I`m not 100% happy with the look of my tank but I`ll be stripping it all down when we move so I`ll put up with it for a bit longer. I`ve posted a couple of full tank shots, just scroll down the thread, it might give you some idea of what I mean about the placement of the rocks:

http/www.fishforums.net/index.php?/topic/367222-new-additions-to-my-malawi-tank/

 

[Ben M]

Thanks for your opinion. Your tank looks great! I see how you've placed your rocks.

I've added a few slightly bigger rocks that I managed to find. I have made another layout which includes the slightly bigger rocks, and I have put the rocks background rocks against the back. I have filled the gaps around the background rocks with small pieces of rock, which didn't work very well in the pic as they kept falling everywhere, but in the tank they will be siliconed in place. Do you think that idea would work?

Here is the pic:

What do you think?

 

[Tizer]

What are you going to have under the rocks? I would imagine if it was a sand the caves at the bottom might vanish into the sand. looks good though, i hope to do similar one day!

 

[Ben M]

Hi, I've decided to scrap the background idea, as it would probably result in stuck fish and dead spots. And I would struggle to ever remove it if I changed the use of the tank.

I am putting a piece of perspex on the bottom of the aquarium to protect the glass. Then the rocks will go on top of that, and then the sand. I'm not going to use loads of sand, and I'll keep it quite shallow around the rocks (although not too shallow as it would stop the fish digging), so not too much should be hidden.

I have had another rescape to try to make it look more natural rather than a neat stack of rocks. Here is what I've come up with. On a Malawi forum it has been suggested that I add some rocks to the foreground to break it up a bit, so I'll do that when it goes in the tank.

And here is a shot from above, so you can see how much room is at the front (the gap in the gravel is where the front of the tank would be).

cheers,
Ben

 

[Heyfool]

I think your Mum might have a point with the rock sizes, they are all very similar, would be nice if you could break up the uniformity of either the height of the pile or the the size of the rocks. How about a break in the pile?

I have run tanks in the past and always used the rule of thirds. So a pile of rocks should end 1/3 or 2/3 along the tank and be 1/3 or 2/3 high. Avoid halfway at all costs, halfway up or halfway along rarely looks right to the eye. IMO

 

[Ben M]

I got the egg crate delivered today, so I've set up the tank. First I moved the fish (7 x l144) into a 20l tub with tank water. I then emptied out all of the decor and water. Then I put in the egg crate and rocks. And finally I washed the coral sand and put it in, followed by the water and then the fish.

This is how the tank looks now:

What do you think? I'm considering getting some more rocks to stack towards the top and around the pipes on the right.

cheers,
Ben

 

[Ben M]

I got the fish yesterday, and they are settling in well. I got:

7 acei,
4 ndumbi red tops,
4 labs,
4 Afra jalo reef,
4 mpanga,
4 neon spot.

The neon spots seem to be in charge at the minute, but nobody is getting bullied. Here are some pics:

Labs:

Ndumbi red top:

Jalo reef:

Mpanga:

Neon spot:

Full tank shot:

Sorry for the bad pic quality, but they are really fast lol.

cheers,
Ben

 

[Liam2368]

Wow looks great, are the rocks free standing?

I'm from hull and just wondering where you got the fish from? Also being cheeky, you don't still have the corys do you?

 

[Ben M]

Yeah, the rocks are just stacked on top of each other. I've put the biggest flattest ones on the bottom to make sure it's stable.

I got the fish from tony (www.tonysafricancichlids.co.uk) he's based in brid. His fish are amazing, I've never seen so many fish in one place. If you look on his website you'll see how stunning the fish are.

Sorry, I don't still have the corys; my brother took them.

cheers,
Ben