Setting Up A 125 Gallon Malawi W/pics-going To 75 Usg Now

[kj23502]

I decided I had better "officially" check our tap water to make sure I know where its at. I have before as soon as i filled a cup, but i heard it's better to let it sit for awhile to let the gases escape? or something like that. That it'll give a more accurate reading. What it read was:

Nitrate 0
Nitrite 0
Total Hardness (gh) 75 ppm
Total Alkalinity (kh) 80 ppm
PH was around 6.8-7.0

Thats really close to what I got before I let it sit for 24 hours.

Today my tank read:
Nitrate 20ppm
Nitrite 0
Total Hardness 300ppm
Total Alkalinity 300ppm
Ph about 8.2

I bought 3 pundamilia neyerei and put them in a few days ago. I'll be getting some more at the beginning of march. I'm prepared to do 2 water changes a week when they arrive.
i'm going to try to speed cycle my 125. Put in some sponge filters from my 29 gallon as well as using that eco complete sand thats supposed to have bacteria in it. I don't know...I'll have to keep testing my water to see how it goes. I'm almost bummed about going on vacation(how weird is that)(i think my husband's thinking i may love my fish more than him!) LOL!

The fish are only about 1 inch long (2.5cm). They lighten and darken their vertical stripes. It's really neat. Most of the time one is ALWAYS dark. And one is almost White!!! The other is in between. Every now and then they will ALL get dark. then the others will lighten up again. It's all in a matter of minutes! It's really cool. I can tell already that these fish have a lot of personality. (my husband is a fisherman and says they look like perch, but says they are neat)

My lights came in that I had ordered on ebay. One of them broke in transit, though. Suprisingly, all 4 bulbs are all right. I checked them all in the good light. Thank god I asked the sender to put insurance on them for me. He talking to ups and figuring out what we need to do.


I'm filling my big tank today to check for leaks! I'll post how it goes later! I don't have a python system yet so I'll be using a 3 gallon jug and filling all 125 gallons that way! Wish me luck.

----edit----
OK, I gave up on filling it by hand and went and bought an aquarium filling system. It's pretty much full....just have a few more inches to go until it's where it'll be when I add everything. Doing good so far!

 

[kj23502]

Everything is great! No leaks. I'll begin putting everything in when we get back from Arizona!

 

[CathyGo]

I'm considering a Mardel live meter kit. It attaches right to the aquarium glass inside the tank and constatnly monitors ph ammonia and temp levels for up to 4-6 weeks. They sell the refill strips to replace the old ones for the ph and ammonia. i'm thinking that this will be especially helpful with my 29 gallon temp tank. Since I may end up w/about 8-9 fish in there ammonia, nitrite levels will be a concern. Mardell LiveMeter Kit

Those are EXTREMELY unreliable. When I was cycling my tank one meter was telling me that the levels were so high my fish should be dead while the other one wasn't reading hardly any ammonia at all. In reality the ammonia was elevated at normal cycling levels. I also heard similar results from customers and fellow employees. I would never go by them for anything. The test strips are fine if you don't want to do the liquid test but throw the meters in the trash.

Everything is great! No leaks. I'll begin putting everything in when we get back from Arizona!

Maybe you should bring some AZ water back with you lol. The ph stays at 7.6-8.2 year round. Perfect for cichlids! Gotta have something that removes the chloramine though.

 

[kj23502]

Those are EXTREMELY unreliable. When I was cycling my tank one meter was telling me that the levels were so high my fish should be dead while the other one wasn't reading hardly any ammonia at all. In reality the ammonia was elevated at normal cycling levels. I also heard similar results from customers and fellow employees. I would never go by them for anything. The test strips are fine if you don't want to do the liquid test but throw the meters in the trash.

Thanks for the tip on those meters!

 

[kj23502]

Got back from AZ yesterday. It was nice to get out of the frigid South Dakota weather!

Today I bought 90 lbs of slate and ordered 60lbs of the Eco complete cichlid sand. I'll be getting the filters by this weekend. I'm getting more aquarium safe glue to glue my rocks together. That way I know they won't squish my fish by falling over. (I'll buy more slate if I need it. I'll get it set up and see how it looks. If i need more slate I won't glue it all together until I'm happy with the set up and the amount of rocks.) I'm going to get some of that egg crate lighting cover to put on the bottom of the tank. It's supposed to help defer the weight of the rocks so the pressures not only on certain spots. It should help prevent cracking.

 

[kj23502]

Just thought I'd add this for any cichlid enthusist in the U.S.A.

American Cichlid Association

They get together and bring fish to their conventions. It sounds really neat and I think I'm going to join!

 

[fishyfreak]

Got back from AZ yesterday. It was nice to get out of the frigid South Dakota weather!

Today I bought 90 lbs of slate and ordered 60lbs of the Eco complete cichlid sand. I'll be getting the filters by this weekend. I'm getting more aquarium safe glue to glue my rocks together. That way I know they won't squish my fish by falling over. (I'll buy more slate if I need it. I'll get it set up and see how it looks. If i need more slate I won't glue it all together until I'm happy with the set up and the amount of rocks.)

Just a suggestion before gluing all your rocks together. I know personally that I'm occasionally buying new fish to add to my tank, but to do this you need to re-arrange some of your landscape to create new territories for your fish, especially once they're mature, otherwise the newbies will get tormented by the alpha males.

I know what you're going through, I just bought a 200 gallon yank but won't get it until March 1st! I'm not sure I can hang on that long!

 

[kj23502]

i sent freaky fish a message about rocks and gluing and this was the response.

QUOTE
hi you just left a post on my 125 gallon tank. What do you think about the cement instead of the glue? My bro in law thought i might be able to break'em apart?! I just don't want to loose fish b/c of rocks falling when they dig. What do you think is the best way?



Ya I guess that's just the risk I take by not gluing them, not only can they hurt the fish but they could go through the front of your tank! If you're not staking them too high they should be fine as long as you keep the larger ones at the bottom and push them down as far as you can into your gravel. Or you can glue 3 or 4 or 5 (depending on the size) together and make sections that you can safely move around.

I don't know about you but I love re-arranging the landscape in my tanks once and awhile, even if I'm not adding new fish, it's winter gardening for me. end quote

I just thought that it might help other people who are going through this also so I put it on!

 

[wslinky]

i sent freaky fish a message about rocks and gluing and this was the response.

QUOTE
hi you just left a post on my 125 gallon tank. What do you think about the cement instead of the glue? My bro in law thought i might be able to break'em apart?! I just don't want to loose fish b/c of rocks falling when they dig. What do you think is the best way?



Ya I guess that's just the risk I take by not gluing them, not only can they hurt the fish but they could go through the front of your tank! If you're not staking them too high they should be fine as long as you keep the larger ones at the bottom and push them down as far as you can into your gravel. Or you can glue 3 or 4 or 5 (depending on the size) together and make sections that you can safely move around.

I don't know about you but I love re-arranging the landscape in my tanks once and awhile, even if I'm not adding new fish, it's winter gardening for me. end quote

I just thought that it might help other people who are going through this also so I put it on!

With slate you should be able to stack it and make it pretty stable, also with the egg crate you can stack the bottom layer righ on it so the fish digging shouldn't affect it very much. I have flagstoneand some other bigger rocks stacked in mine and I can push on it without it moving.

Edit
I forgot to say that 90lbs of rock is probably not going to be enough, I have about 250lbs in my 80 gallon. But some of the flagstone I got is very heavy.

 

[kj23502]

With slate you should be able to stack it and make it pretty stable, also with the egg crate you can stack the bottom layer righ on it so the fish digging shouldn't affect it very much. I have flagstoneand some other bigger rocks stacked in mine and I can push on it without it moving.

Edit
I forgot to say that 90lbs of rock is probably not going to be enough, I have about 250lbs in my 80 gallon. But some of the flagstone I got is very heavy.

I figured it may not be enough . That's all I can get at this moment from the guy I'm buying from. If more becomes availabile, I'll be buying!! Thanks for all the tips everyone!!

 

[kj23502]

I just got my sand in today and my slate should come by Wed. at the latest. I just ordered blue aquarium background.

One of my nyererei's died. I think it got the bloat. It sat on the bottom and did look slightly puffy. Then it just dissappeared! I haven't found him yet. I guess they are carnivores. I'm wondering if my snail and the other two fish would've eaten him?? I've been feeding them Omega One natural protein formula *the small pellets (it says Cichlid on the container). Any ideas?

I only gave them 4 pellets. They were kinda big for there mouths, but they would suck and spit'em to break'em up. Then they'd eat the peices. I now put two pellets in a messuring cup that has aquarium water and break'em up a bit so it's easier for them to eat..

----edit----

I did a water change and filled it in such a way that it swirled stuff around. I was hoping that I might be able to flush out the dead fishes body. BUT, still no sign of him/her....

 

[kj23502]

I hooked up one of my eheims to my 29 gallon tank to get some bacterial growth started in it. After a few weeks, I'll transfer it to the 125 when I move the fish in. I'm expecting to get 12 fish in the mail either Wednesday or Thurdsay. I think's it's probably a good thing I'm adding extra filtration on the 29 gallon, since that's where they will be for a couple of weeks. I figure once the bacteria is started and growing good with all the fish in there that I may be able to transfer all the fish to my 125 when I fill it and move the eheim to it.....ANYONE please correct me if I'm wrong!!!

It's the first canister filter I've ever had. I CANNOT believe how quiet it is. My air pump thing is noiser than the filter. I expected there would be more noise with it being so big and all (compared to the HOB filters). (Yes, it's working....I checked *twice* to make sure...LOL). I ended up aiming the spray bar at the wall that it's suctioned to. I have the HOB on the left side of the tank and a huge air stone( about 5.5" or 14 cm) on the right. With the addition of the eheim, I felt like the water swirled too much!

 

[kj23502]

One more thing....

I think one of my nyererei's is male. His tail is starting to turn red and he's getting red on his dorsal fin. How exciting. It is my understanding that only males color up. The two that are in there are very funny!!!!

The one I'm assuming is male even flares his fins at me sometimes when I come up to the tank. If they see eachother they compact their tail and turn semi sideways and quiver at eachother from a distance. Then one usually takes off and chases the other for a second. After that they usually return to their hiding spots. When they're doing this is when the vertical black stripes darken up!

Sometime, when I approach the tank to watch, it's as if they are studying me. They swim to the front of the tank and just sit there seeming to be staring! Crazy....

These fish are soo interesting, I wish I would've known about them years ago!!!

 

[caboose_122]

arnt they amazing fish!

both of the nyererei's could be male, the way they are acting is sounds like its a domanince thing over a territory, the one that looks female could be a male just not showing its colours becuase of the domanint males agression.

 

[kj23502]

arnt they amazing fish!

both of the nyererei's could be male, the way they are acting is sounds like its a domanince thing over a territory, the one that looks female could be a male just not showing its colours becuase of the domanint males agression.

thanks, i was kinda wondering that! I figure when I gat my other 12 fish in, then that would help curb agression between those two since there'd be more to chase!

I don't know for sure if Josh will be able to mail my fish or not tomorrow. We're getting freezing rain and snow today. He doesn't mail them if there's really bad weather on either end(he's in Illinois) to ensure the fish don't get stuck somewhere. It seems he's very thorough!!