Brand New to fish! How to stock a 60 Gallon Tank

[DGJ]

Hey Everyone,

So I've got a 60 Gallon Ciano 120 coming next week.

I will be rock scaping this to create hiding places and caves etc ... and cycling the tank before adding any fish.

I've been reading that I should overstock the fish to curb the aggression of the fish, KGTropicals on youtube said half the gallons and thats the amount of fish, so 30 for my 60 gallon.

My questions is how should I add these? in small additions, but will they get settled and territorial? 30 at once? But this will be expensive and a hige change in the water to keep on top of?

Also would lobe expert advice on the how to create the most colourful and active tank, I think I'm more interested in medium sized fish upto 3 or 4 inches with a high amount of fish rather than a smaller amount of larger fish.

Thanks

 

[Wills]

Hi this sounds really exciting. I think the first thing to decide is if you want to go down the Mbuna route or the Peacock route. Mbuna are generally kept in groups so maybe 2-3 species with some Goby cichlids and some Synodontis Catfish. Peacocks you can keep in a similar way or you can do an all male tank with careful selection but you miss out on the interesting behaviour of a colony and the really intense breeding colours males will show with females in the tank.

Wills

 

[DGJ]

Hey Wills,

I'm super excited but I think under prepared!!!! But it's a bday present so don't have more time to prepare

Would love any newbie tips.

My goal with this tank is to have lots of beautiful vibrant colours and activity to enjoy.

I have the following questions please

• I'm so underprepared that I'm not sure of the difference between Mbuna and Peacock
• What substrate should I use?
• Natural or Fake plants?
• Do I stock all in one go or gradually?
• My tank will be positioned near a window and will get 2-3 hours direct sunlight, is this an issue?
• What stones are recommended for the scape?
• The Ciano 120 comes with an internal filter, do i need an external filter as well or will this suffice?
• Any tips a tank beginner needs before diving in head first ?
• Colour substrate?
• Should I add a backing to make it brighter?

 

[ma27]

Hey! I'm still generally a newbie as well with only a couple of smaller tanks (a 29 gal and a 10 gal), but I would definitely opt for live plants! Make sure to get a light that will promote plant growth, and substrate that's good for it as well (gravel should work perfectly fine as per an earlier question I saw you wrote). Colors in general are up to you, I'm pretty sure there's no difference for the function! Also a small tip I have based off of my dad having larger tanks growing up: be careful with which heater you chose. Sometimes it's worth it to spend more money for something more reliable. He had an issue where all of his fish died because the heater excessively heated the tank and didn't have an emergency shut off, so the fish were basically boiled alive. It's horrible and something I will never forget, and definitely something I always think about when buying heaters for tanks!!
Good luck and have fun!

 

[Colin_T]

What are the tank dimensions (length x width x height)?

What is the GH (general hardness), KH (carbonate hardness) and pH of your water supply?
This information can usually be obtained from your water supply company's website or by telephoning them. If they can't help you, take a glass full of tap water to the local pet shop and get them to test it for you. Write the results down (in numbers) when they do the tests. And ask them what the results are in (eg: ppm, dGH, or something else).

Rift Lake cichlids need a pH above 7.6 and a GH above 300ppm. If you have soft water, you will need to add a Rift Lake conditioner to increase the pH, GH & KH of the water so it is suitable for the fish you keep.

You should cycle the filter before adding fish. This will take about 4-6 weeks but will stop the fish dying from ammonia poisoning. If you don't cycle the filter first, then any ammonia produced by the fish will become very toxic in the water due to the high pH.

Go to a few pet shops and look at their fish. Make a list of the fish you like and then post it here. We can go through it and offer suggestions as to what goes with what.

 

[madmark285]

Mbuna and Peacock

Both are from the Cichlid family from Lake Malawi, Mbuna are territorial rock dwelling, Peacocks are more open water. These are not community fish. plan on a species tank.

I believe Peacocks are dimophic ie: only the males have bright colors. Many Mbuna are not.

Lake Malawi has few plants, I suggest lots of rocks/stones. The Mbuna will just dig up plants and few plant will thrive in the high pH water. For my upcoming Mbuna tank, the entire bottom will be rocks. Buying rocks from a fish store can be very expensive, just find a local source of rocks and collect them for free. Just pour vinegar on any rocks you collect, if bubbles form then don't use that rock (limestone?).

Caribsea sells a substrate called AFRICAN CICHLID MIX, it will help on maintaining the high pH level.

I've been reading that I should overstock the fish to curb the aggression of the fish, KGTropicals on youtube

To be clear, this comment is specific to Mbunas, unsure about Peacocks. You will need another filter if you go the overstock route. Get a big canister filter.

Personally, I think Mbuna are great beginner fish. they are , very hardy. But you may get aggressive behavior which for me, makes them more interesting.

 

[DGJ]

What are the tank dimensions (length x width x height)?

What is the GH (general hardness), KH (carbonate hardness) and pH of your water supply?
This information can usually be obtained from your water supply company's website or by telephoning them. If they can't help you, take a glass full of tap water to the local pet shop and get them to test it for you. Write the results down (in numbers) when they do the tests. And ask them what the results are in (eg: ppm, dGH, or something else).

Rift Lake cichlids need a pH above 7.6 and a GH above 300ppm. If you have soft water, you will need to add a Rift Lake conditioner to increase the pH, GH & KH of the water so it is suitable for the fish you keep.

You should cycle the filter before adding fish. This will take about 4-6 weeks but will stop the fish dying from ammonia poisoning. If you don't cycle the filter first, then any ammonia produced by the fish will become very toxic in the water due to the high pH.

Go to a few pet shops and look at their fish. Make a list of the fish you like and then post it here. We can go through it and offer suggestions as to what goes with what.

The tank Dimensions are (LxWxH)121 x 40 x 61 cm

The water is hard, I am not sure of the exact GH and KH but will take a sample to LFS to get checked.

Yes 100% I am going to be fishless cycling this time, made the mistake of not cycling before (didn't know I had to) and it's stressful!

 

[DGJ]

Both are from the Cichlid family from Lake Malawi, Mbuna are territorial rock dwelling, Peacocks are more open water. These are not community fish. plan on a species tank.

I believe Peacocks are dimophic ie: only the males have bright colors. Many Mbuna are not.

Lake Malawi has few plants, I suggest lots of rocks/stones. The Mbuna will just dig up plants and few plant will thrive in the high pH water. For my upcoming Mbuna tank, the entire bottom will be rocks. Buying rocks from a fish store can be very expensive, just find a local source of rocks and collect them for free. Just pour vinegar on any rocks you collect, if bubbles form then don't use that rock (limestone?).

Caribsea sells a substrate called AFRICAN CICHLID MIX, it will help on maintaining the high pH level.



To be clear, this comment is specific to Mbunas, unsure about Peacocks. You will need another filter if you go the overstock route. Get a big canister filter.

Personally, I think Mbuna are great beginner fish. they are , very hardy. But you may get aggressive behavior which for me, makes them more interesting.

I will try and find the cichlid mix as I've seen it in a few youtube videos as well, if I can't get this in Dubai, is there a good 2nd suggestions?

I have 2 new canister filters coming on Monday, 1 will go on my fancy goldfish 190L Trigon and the other on this tank. The flow rate is 525GPH so should turn over the water around ten times in an hour.

So now on to the exciting part!!!! The stocking list I've gone right down the rabbit hole on this and been researching solidly for the past few days.

I think I want a tank of fish that will grow to max 3-5 inches and not much bigger as I'd rather have more smaller fish rather than a smaller number of big fish and I want to try and maximise the colours.

As I'd like an array of colours, I would like to get 1 or 2 of each fish, does this work or do I need more of each fish?

• Yellow Lab - absolutely love this fish so thinking 2 or 3 of these
• Electric Blue hap
• Strawberry Peacock
• Red Peacock
• OB Peacock
• Blue Peacock - may drop the blue hap for this as the blue hap seem more aggressive?
• Dragon Blood Peacock
• Ruby Red
• Blue Neon
• Jalo

How does this lis sound? Have I made any glaring errors?

So stocking wise, I've been reading minus 10 from the gallon volume and half and that is the number to stock? so my 60 gallon should be 20-25 fish which sounds like a lot.

 

[DGJ]

Ok so regarding substrate, it looks like the below are the options open to me in Dubai, these were the ones that came up when I put cichlid into the search for substrate

Classica Marine Aragonite - Coral Sand 2MM C1​

AkvaStabil Cichlid Sand - White 0.3-0.8

 

[Slaphppy7]

"KGTropicals on youtube said half the gallons and thats the amount of fish, so 30 for my 60 gallon."

So, for example, 30 oscars in a 60G tank.....lol

Use this instead: http://www.aqadvisor.com/

 

[madmark285]

"KGTropicals on youtube said half the gallons and thats the amount of fish, so 30 for my 60 gallon."

So, for example, 30 oscars in a 60G tank.....lol

But they are not Oscars.

There is alot of info on overstocking Mbuna and Peacocks on the web. The guy who cuts my hair has an overstocked Mbuna tank, it seems to work.

 

[madmark285]

so my 60 gallon should be 20-25 fish which sounds like a lot

It is alot of fish, I would target around 20. A male Strawberry Peacock will be 6" (15cm), these are big fish.

So for the Peacocks, are you buying adult males? That's the problem with dimorphic fish when buying juveniles, you may end up with all females. I have 9 Odessa barbs in my tank, only one is showing the male colors.

Some cichlid breeders in the US will sell you a guaranteed male/female or even a pair but it is more expensive.

The Aragonite substrate should work great.

 

[DGJ]

Just got my rocks to play around with the scape for the next day before the tank arrives

 

[Slaphppy7]

But they are not Oscars.

There is alot of info on overstocking Mbuna and Peacocks on the web. The guy who cuts my hair has an overstocked Mbuna tank, it seems to work.

Like this?

 

[DGJ]

First crack at trying out a hard scape.

some of these are balanced slightly precariously, do you glue your scapes together or does the water pressure keep them in place?