Setting Up Rocks In My Mbuna Tank

[australia]

hello everyone, I want to redecorate my 4 foot/160litre Mbuna tank, at the moment i only have alot of driftwood in there, so i have decided to add rocks now.

I am wondering am i best of having just rocks in my Aquarium? or a mix of driftwood, rocks, etc?
and does anyone have any ideas on how i can make a cool looking aquarium out of rocks?

 

[MojoDex]

you should not really have any driftwood in a malawi tank and im 99.9% syre thats what everyone is going to tell you as well. Most people will also tell you more rocks the better as well and i would agree

 

[australia]

okay thanks mate, If i take all the driftwood out and replace it with rocks will it have a affect on my tank?
ect, will i loose bacteria and risk having to do a cycle on the tank?

 

[ziggy_jacob]

ok the drift wood makes your water softer and for malawi they need hard water and on the downside of drift wood it stains your water a dark colour,i hope i helped ya

 

[australia]

ok the drift wood makes your water softer and for malawi they need hard water and on the downside of drift wood it stains your water a dark colour,i hope i helped ya

okay thanks, yeah my tank water is stained from the driftwood, ill take it out and im going to the sand and gravel place tomorrow to get some nice round stones

 

[typhoon]

yeah drift wood is a no go unless u have a small quantity then no harm done i dont think my tank is full of spaghetti rock with 2 bits of wood jsut to break it up and for my plecs really. the more rocks the better is correct. as for affects on the water chemistry as far as i kno they are good effects because the rock should raise the PH of the water to roughly 8 -8.5 i think which is correct for mbuna's

correct me if im wrong

 

[Castellop123]

...

 

[dthoffsett]

You don't have to have rocks that buffer/raise your PH if you have a high PH with high KH. If you're like me, some kind of buffering is necesary, I have high PH at around 8.3 from the tap, but a low KH of 3, I started out with crushed coral as the substrate, but that didn't help much, so I added some to the filter (in a filter bag of course), that helped some. What really made a difference, was changing the substrate to aragonite sand, I don't even need the coral in the filter anymore, and the added advantage is that with a ton of rocks in your tank, you don't need as much substrate. I used 30lbs in a 75gal tank, I'm thinking of adding another 15lb bag, but that's just cause I like the sand a little deeper.

Take a look at the memeber tanks for some great scaping ideas.
http/www.fishforums.net/index.php?showtopic=169788

 

[australia]

You don't have to have rocks that buffer/raise your PH if you have a high PH with high KH. If you're like me, some kind of buffering is necesary, I have high PH at around 8.3 from the tap, but a low KH of 3, I started out with crushed coral as the substrate, but that didn't help much, so I added some to the filter (in a filter bag of course), that helped some. What really made a difference, was changing the substrate to aragonite sand, I don't even need the coral in the filter anymore, and the added advantage is that with a ton of rocks in your tank, you don't need as much substrate. I used 30lbs in a 75gal tank, I'm thinking of adding another 15lb bag, but that's just cause I like the sand a little deeper.

Take a look at the memeber tanks for some great scaping ideas.
http/www.fishforums.net/index.php?showtopic=169788

thanks dthoffsett i looked though all of the tank profiles and i like your tank the best

i am going to get some landscaping rocks tomorrow and set my tank up with then, it looks like it would be easy to keep clean and you can see all the fish nearly, and it looks very stable


any info i need to know about setting my tank up with landscaping rocks?

eg, do these rocks raise ph etc?

 

[dthoffsett]

Thank you. The rocks I got do not raise PH, but somtimes you can find limestone cut like mine and that will raise you ph over time. I found the easiest way to set mine up was to make an outline of my tank on the floor then arrange the rocks to my liking. I then took a couple of pics of the rocks so I could set them back up in my tank the same way. Having an extra pair of hands helps too.

 

[australia]

Thank you. The rocks I got do not raise PH, but somtimes you can find limestone cut like mine and that will raise you ph over time. I found the easiest way to set mine up was to make an outline of my tank on the floor then arrange the rocks to my liking. I then took a couple of pics of the rocks so I could set them back up in my tank the same way. Having an extra pair of hands helps too.

great thanks alot mate, i was thinking along the same lines

can you please tell me how you go about cleaning the substrate rocks and under the rocks etc? and should u have the bottom layer of rocks on the surface of the glass or on the substrate?

 

[dthoffsett]

You should place the rocks directly on the glass and then add the substrate. Mbuna are diggers and can collapse your rocks if they aren't on the glass.

I use a Python system (it attached to the sink and you can drain and fill with it) and I just detach the cleaning end and use the hose to suction the poo off the surface of the sand, works great for me.

 

[australia]

You should place the rocks directly on the glass and then add the substrate. Mbuna are diggers and can collapse your rocks if they aren't on the glass.

I use a Python system (it attached to the sink and you can drain and fill with it) and I just detach the cleaning end and use the hose to suction the poo off the surface of the sand, works great for me.

thanks alot again mate ill post some pics when i am finished

 

[australia]

i could only get my hands on some granit, will this be ok for my tank?

 

[dthoffsett]

i could only get my hands on some granit, will this be ok for my tank?

Sounds fine to me.