Tanks Mbuna Tank Diary (pics & Video)

[Nick Sw]

Yeah In my house in the Living room back corner away from the window hopefully it will be ok there and fit in.
Yes I think 1M 2F Labs would be a good start I`ll look into it, I`m going to buy a book maybe tomorrow and have a read up more on Cichlids specifically. The tank comes with a External Fluval 305 I think this will be ok to begin with but do you think I`ll need to add more filtration as more fish go in?
[/quote]

Ok from what I have read so far, the ideal filtration for a fully stocked cichlid tank is 5 complete tanks cycles per hours. That means you are aiming at approximately 1320 l/h for your tank. The fluval 305 does 710 l/h therefore you are only achieving a little over half the recommend filtration per hour. This maybe ok for the initial stock of three fish but it might be wise to get the other filter at the start. The reason being, if I recall you said you wanted to carry out a fishless cycle? it will take a lot longer to cycle the tank properly with only the one external.

Does the tank also have an internal?
Just out of curiosity do you live in England and if you do what part?

My filtration is as follows
The external filter is a Tetra ex700, this "as the name suggests" has a flow of 700lph.
The juwel internal filter has a flow of 600lph.

Thus the combined flow will be 1300lph or a complete tank turn over 7.2 times every hour or 174 times a day.
[/quote]

Ok thanks for that information so I basically need to double my filtration eventually, I might keep an eye out for another Fluval 305 then or look at an internal as well. Maybe best to stick with 2 Fluval 305`s .

Just checked the Fluval 305 does 1000 lph so I`m ok for a bit , it`s the 304 that does 700lph. So If I got an internal as well then I could always move that to a temporary tank for emergencies ?

Yes I`m going to do a Fishless cycle this seems the best way from what I`ve read , I intend to get some ammonia and an API master test kit, I think it`s that one anyway. Theres a guide to follow on the forums here somewhere.

Yeah I live in England - Halifax, West Yorkshire.

 

[denis coghlan]

I would go with another external if I was you (another 305). If you are looking into buying another filter I would reccommend these guys. They are aquatics-online I use them all the time and the prices are very compeditive. I order from Ireland the stuff arrives in two-three days, including postage I am usually paying 30% less then I would in ireland. I bought my external ex700 for 64 pounds of something like that, If I was to buy the same filter here I would pay 159 euro or 110 pounds.

Sorry about getting the flow rate for your fluval 305 wrong, just goes to show you cant believe everything you read.

 

[kennygater]

hi great tank and fish just a quick question when you wired your moonlight kit up what did you power it with?
thanks

 

[denis coghlan]

hi great tank and fish just a quick question when you wired your moonlight kit up what did you power it with?
thanks

with one of these little fellas

 

[mark7616]

i run my 55g mbuna tank on a 600lph internal and a 1000lph external and its great also my tank is heavily stocked ignor my sig i need to change it just been busy but been reading a book recently that as we know over stocking with mbuna spreads aggression and also in the wild they live all crampped up on top of each other like sardines weird huh i would post a pic but not good idea due to copyright.

 

[denis coghlan]

So it is now the third week after I put the first batch of fish into the tank (Mpanga and labs) and I thought it was about time to introduce the rest of the posse. I had originally intended to add three Afra cobues and the guy in my LFS said that they would have been arriving in yesterday. Not to my surprise I arrived at my LFS today to find no afra’s, when I asked the boss man he said that there wasn’t a batch of afra’s due and that I was fed false information. Great!!!

Well I had to go home with something and the shop had just got an order, so I asked for the shop mbuna reference book and I started in the field research. I had gone through nearly all of the tanks before I found these new arrivals. Metriaclima sp. "Aurora Yellow"

I immediately wanted them and that was the end of that. I took four; they where still very young so we had no idea of the sex. Lets hope that its one male and three females, and pigs might fly.

Some pictures of the new beauties Metriaclima sp. "Aurora Yellow”

let me know what you think?

tanks

 

[Nick Sw]

Yeah they look like nice fish , in my Cichlid book they look light blue with a yellow underside and look great. Will the blue come out with age or am I looking at something different?

The colours of your fish in your tank look really bright and healthy, great pictures again.

 

[denis coghlan]

In my Cichlid book they look light blue with a yellow underside and look great. Will the blue come out with age or am I looking at something different?
The colours of your fish in your tank look really bright and healthy, great pictures again.

Sounds like you are looking at the right fish.

See this link for confirmation. Metriaclima sp. "Aurora Yellow” (cichlid-forum)

The fish in the pic is a very dominant male, I'd say I will be lucky to ever achieve those sort of colours with the other fish I have in the tank. The females just look like a larger version on the juv's except they are darker.

tanks for the comment about the healthy fish, I try my best to keep them happy.

tanks

I will post more pics when they have settled in and arnt so stressed. Hopefully some more colour will develop.

 

[Themuleous]

Make a great addition to the tank is this the tank officially stocked now? Or you adding more?

 

[denis coghlan]

Make a great addition to the tank is this the tank officially stocked now? Or you adding more?

Yeah that is the final stocking for the moment. I will have to see how well the fish do, interact and how well I look after them. Hopefully there will be no mortality and that I don’t have to make a trip back my LFS for another while. My wallet could do with a break. I will keep the pictures rolling in as the fish mature and I will post if anything major happens. I would really like to get the fish to breed but that is for another post and another time.

Thanks for all the comments

 

[denis coghlan]

While I had my back turned, one of them is only after going and getting herself pregnant. The youth of today!!! Its only been a month sine I put the first drop of water in the tank they must like their home.

This is just the excuse I was looking for, time to buy a fry tank.

Sorry the pictures are of poor quality, if I get any betters shots I will change them with these.


tanks

 

[Themuleous]

Thats wicked! Nice one indeed a fry tank is a must.

 

[Nick Sw]

Nice One , they must like thier tank. Keep us posted Tanks.

 

[Ginge]

Nice the same happened to me here is my fry tank. What is the full fish list of fish in that tank now.

 

[denis coghlan]

I really like your fry tank, but I think it would be a little over the top for what I am looking for. Going to keep mine simple with no substrate but I might put one rock into it.

The final stocking in the tank goes as follows

4 * Labidochromis caeruleus (lions cove 1) 1M 3F
3 * Ps elongatus "mpanga" 2M 1F (have to change one of the males for a female)
4 * Metriaclima sp. "Aurora Yellow" ( 1 male for sure, dont know the sex of the rest)

tanks