New Tanganyikan Tank - Stock Suggestions

[Tonyb111111]

In March I will be moving away from my tropical set up and would like to start a Tanganyikan set up.  So my first question is whether my hardware is up to the job.  Curently I have got a 200L tank with approx 1750 lph internal filtration and a Koralia 1 for additional water movement, though I may move to an external filter with at least the same throughput.  My tap water is pH8.2, GH =14, Nitrate = 40ppm, which I think will be fine but the nitrates are a bit on the high side.
 
If the above is in line with the sucessful keeping of Tanganyikans, mainly the tank size, can anyone suggest a good stocking inventory to keep interest at all levels of the tank.
 
I probably missed some critical information off this but someone will tell me if I have

Thanks
 
Tony

 

[bullit]

what do you like the look of? cheers

 

[webbie]

I would def go for external filtration,maybe two external filters,ideally giving you 2,000 lph ,apart from your nitrate all else is ok ,what's the length of your 200 Ltr?,do you know what your kh reading is ?

 

[Tonyb111111]

Apologies for the delay, I was waiting for my my API KH test kit to arrive.  KH result is 7.  What do you think

 

[webbie]

You could do with raising your kh to around 14,this can be done by adding bicarbonate of soda,easy to buy at your local supermarket,fill your tank check the pH and add bicarb bit at a time till you get around kh of 14,when you do water changes add bicarb to exchange water to get it the same as your main tank

 

[Tonyb111111]

Thanks for the advice.  So in a nutshell, fill the tank, just tap water and bicarb, and weekly 25-50% water changes, and the water conditions will be good.  What about the high Nitrate?

 

[webbie]

nitrate reading of 40 ppm is a bit high but if you do regular water changes ,and be careful with feeding the fish ie don't overfeed, you should be ok, there are products on the market which are supposed to remove nitrates ,don't know how effective they are, ranging from nitrate removers that take nitrate out of your tap water (quite expensive) to filter pads or filter material which you could prob put in your internal filter, but how good at actually removing nitrate they are who knows, you might consider adding essential minerals in the form of salts to your set up ,seachem lake salts is a popular one used by lots of tang keepers,what sort of stock you looking at putting in?