Tank Setups • Malawi Tank Wietze Bron (350x80x80 / 2200 litre)

[WietzeBron]

Is that one the father of these two?
How long have you been line breeding them?

He is the grandfather of those two. I also still have the father male that is a little bigger than those two.
I have been breeding them for almost 15 years, but with every generation (2 at the max) I bring in fresh blood.

[WietzeBron]

My Moorii blood-line for instance, I already have had it for more than 15 years I guess.

I have to say, this is the nicest setup I have seen! I would love to see this in person. I am sure it is unbelievable. When we get our next house with a basement, it is my hope to have something like your tank in it. Thanks for the inspiration!

Thanks man. Wish you lots of succes with your setup. Please keep me informed.

[Marduk]

I still love your tank man... Are those dimensions you listed in centimeters or inches? If they are in centimeters...that means your tank is approximately 11 ft long...


You have an awesome tank. I'd love to one day own a tank that size. Where in your home is that tank? Basement?


I am currently in the process of finishing up my stocking for my 265gal tank which is 7ft long by 2ft wide and 2.5ft (30inches) tall or 1,003.13412 liters and 213.36cm x 60.96cm x 76.2cm.
My stocklist contains the following species but I did NOT list the quantities. Depending on how they get a long and how crowded it looks when they're all adult size I may remove a couple:

Lichnochromis acuticeps F1
Exochochromis anagenys
Tyrannochromis nigriventer F1
Tyrannochromis macrostoma/maculiceps Wild (not sure which variant, the macrostoma or the maculiceps...time will tell)
Aulonocara stuartgranti Ungi
Aulonocara stuartgranti Maulana
Aulonocara stuartgranti Ngara
Aulonocara stuartgranti Cobue
Aulonocara baenschi
Protomelas "steveni taiwan" Taiwanee Reef
Protomelas spilonotus Mara Rocks
Protomelas "spilonotus tanzania" Liuli
Mchenga conophoros Otter Point
Taeniolethrinops furcicauda Chiofu Liwani
Lethrinops sp. "Green Chest" Manda
Synodontis decorus
Sciaenochromis fryeri Marleri Island
Buccochromis spectabilis F1
Buccochromis nototaenia
Buccochromis rhoadesi
Chilotilapia rhoadesi
Cyrtocara moorii
Ancistrus sp. "Albino Bristlenose"
Otopharynx lithobates Zimbawe Rock
Dimidiochromis compressiceps half blind male (rescued him from certain culling at my LFS...got him for free)

Like I said, from the list it sounds very crowded. Currently though I have the tank aquascaped with minimal rocks and mostly open water and so far everybody is fine except for the stuartgranti peacocks that spar for dominance and the two sulphurhead protomelas have been fighting recently (will have to sell one of them soon).

I plan on having a breeding group with the Lichnochromis and the Taeniolethrinops, and maybe a breeding trio with the Exochochromis.

Anyway, just out of curiosity what do you think of my species choices for my list? I do certainly love your tank, especially the B. rhoadesi, the C. rhoadesi, the T. maculiceps, and the T. holotaenia...

~Ed

[WietzeBron]

I still love your tank man... Are those dimensions you listed in centimeters or inches? If they are in centimeters...that means your tank is approximately 11 ft long...


You have an awesome tank. I'd love to one day own a tank that size. Where in your home is that tank? Basement?


I am currently in the process of finishing up my stocking for my 265gal tank which is 7ft long by 2ft wide and 2.5ft (30inches) tall or 1,003.13412 liters and 213.36cm x 60.96cm x 76.2cm.
My stocklist contains the following species but I did NOT list the quantities. Depending on how they get a long and how crowded it looks when they're all adult size I may remove a couple:

Lichnochromis acuticeps F1
Exochochromis anagenys
Tyrannochromis nigriventer F1
Tyrannochromis macrostoma/maculiceps Wild (not sure which variant, the macrostoma or the maculiceps...time will tell)
Aulonocara stuartgranti Ungi
Aulonocara stuartgranti Maulana
Aulonocara stuartgranti Ngara
Aulonocara stuartgranti Cobue
Aulonocara baenschi
Protomelas "steveni taiwan" Taiwanee Reef
Protomelas spilonotus Mara Rocks
Protomelas "spilonotus tanzania" Liuli
Mchenga conophoros Otter Point
Taeniolethrinops furcicauda Chiofu Liwani
Lethrinops sp. "Green Chest" Manda
Synodontis decorus
Sciaenochromis fryeri Marleri Island
Buccochromis spectabilis F1
Buccochromis nototaenia
Buccochromis rhoadesi
Chilotilapia rhoadesi
Cyrtocara moorii
Ancistrus sp. "Albino Bristlenose"
Otopharynx lithobates Zimbawe Rock
Dimidiochromis compressiceps half blind male (rescued him from certain culling at my LFS...got him for free)

Like I said, from the list it sounds very crowded. Currently though I have the tank aquascaped with minimal rocks and mostly open water and so far everybody is fine except for the stuartgranti peacocks that spar for dominance and the two sulphurhead protomelas have been fighting recently (will have to sell one of them soon).

I plan on having a breeding group with the Lichnochromis and the Taeniolethrinops, and maybe a breeding trio with the Exochochromis.

Anyway, just out of curiosity what do you think of my species choices for my list? I do certainly love your tank, especially the B. rhoadesi, the C. rhoadesi, the T. maculiceps, and the T. holotaenia...

~Ed

The tank is indeed 350 centimeters / 11.5 inch long. The tanks is in the living room.

You have an impressive list there. A lot of fantastic fish. The Spilonotus Mara Rocks and the L. Acuticeps are on my wish list too.

However I am afraid that when they all are grown up, you probably will be able to maintain about half of the list (in a 265G tank). Especially more species of Bucco's together will be difficult. Also the Chilo and the Moorii are rather competitive. When you have a lot of swimming room and few caves, the Aulonocara's will not be very happy and will fight over the hiding places.

[Marduk]

I still love your tank man... Are those dimensions you listed in centimeters or inches? If they are in centimeters...that means your tank is approximately 11 ft long...


You have an awesome tank. I'd love to one day own a tank that size. Where in your home is that tank? Basement?


I am currently in the process of finishing up my stocking for my 265gal tank which is 7ft long by 2ft wide and 2.5ft (30inches) tall or 1,003.13412 liters and 213.36cm x 60.96cm x 76.2cm.
My stocklist contains the following species but I did NOT list the quantities. Depending on how they get a long and how crowded it looks when they're all adult size I may remove a couple:

Lichnochromis acuticeps F1
Exochochromis anagenys
Tyrannochromis nigriventer F1
Tyrannochromis macrostoma/maculiceps Wild (not sure which variant, the macrostoma or the maculiceps...time will tell)
Aulonocara stuartgranti Ungi
Aulonocara stuartgranti Maulana
Aulonocara stuartgranti Ngara
Aulonocara stuartgranti Cobue
Aulonocara baenschi
Protomelas "steveni taiwan" Taiwanee Reef
Protomelas spilonotus Mara Rocks
Protomelas "spilonotus tanzania" Liuli
Mchenga conophoros Otter Point
Taeniolethrinops furcicauda Chiofu Liwani
Lethrinops sp. "Green Chest" Manda
Synodontis decorus
Sciaenochromis fryeri Marleri Island
Buccochromis spectabilis F1
Buccochromis nototaenia
Buccochromis rhoadesi
Chilotilapia rhoadesi
Cyrtocara moorii
Ancistrus sp. "Albino Bristlenose"
Otopharynx lithobates Zimbawe Rock
Dimidiochromis compressiceps half blind male (rescued him from certain culling at my LFS...got him for free)

Like I said, from the list it sounds very crowded. Currently though I have the tank aquascaped with minimal rocks and mostly open water and so far everybody is fine except for the stuartgranti peacocks that spar for dominance and the two sulphurhead protomelas have been fighting recently (will have to sell one of them soon).

I plan on having a breeding group with the Lichnochromis and the Taeniolethrinops, and maybe a breeding trio with the Exochochromis.

Anyway, just out of curiosity what do you think of my species choices for my list? I do certainly love your tank, especially the B. rhoadesi, the C. rhoadesi, the T. maculiceps, and the T. holotaenia...

~Ed

The tank is indeed 350 centimeters / 11.5 inch long. The tanks is in the living room.

You have an impressive list there. A lot of fantastic fish. The Spilonotus Mara Rocks and the L. Acuticeps are on my wish list too.

However I am afraid that when they all are grown up, you probably will be able to maintain about half of the list (in a 265G tank). Especially more species of Bucco's together will be difficult. Also the Chilo and the Moorii are rather competitive. When you have a lot of swimming room and few caves, the Aulonocara's will not be very happy and will fight over the hiding places.

I'm aware that it won't work out long term that whole list in that size tank.

With the Aulonocara, they actually rarely go in the caves (might be because of the 8" Synodontis decorus that reside in them though). Perhaps you are thinking of Aulonocara jacobfreibergi which are cave dwellers? I believe that most Aulonocara species are sand/rock dwellers and not cave dwellers....

I will have to sell some of them real soon though. The stuartgrantis have been really shredding each other up recently with constant sparring. I'm definitely going to keep the Ngara, and either the Cobue or the Maulana...haven't decided yet. The Ungi is definitely going...don't like him as much.

With the Buccos, I may try and see if I could get two species to get a long, but I am likely going to just grow out all three and pic the one with the best colors. So far I am leaning more towards B. spectabilis or B. rhoadesi based on pics of adults I've seen.

With the Tyrannochromis I am undecided. My alpha male T. nigriventer is a true stunner, 2" larger than the rest of the group and at 6" already nearly fully colored (still needs the blue to intensify though, but color on the entire body). Part of me would love to breed him based on how awesome he is with some of the females I have in the group, and part of me just wants him and the wild 4" T. macrostoma to live in there.

With the Exochochromis, I'd be happy with just one male specimen but I'd love to have a trio or pair.

And lastly, I am planning on having a breeding group with the Lichnochromis and the Taeniolethrinops. I am prepared however to possibly in the future invest in a separate 125gallon tank for a Lichnochromis species tank if they don't do well in the 265g. Currently I have one large F1 male in there 7" and am growing out 10 (previously 12, two died unexpectedly) F2 Lichnochromis acuticeps to be the breeding group.

Hopefully all will go well. Of course though I would much rather keep all the fish I listed... I just wanted to acknowledge that I am aware that once they are all adults it will not work out well with the quantities of each species and number of species I want. Luckily, the ones that I will be getting rid of should be worth quite a bit or at least easy to sell to a good owner... Currently the majority of the fish I listed are all juveniles/young adults so I have some time to make any changes until I decide on a final stocking list. And for example I only got the B. nototaenia and the T. macrostoma because I got good deals on them, the B. nototaenia was $15 at 3-4" and sexed as a male (confirmed it recently, he's starting to show blue on the face), and the WILD T. macrostoma male at 4" was $10. The B. nototaenia I mostly planned to just grow out to like 5-7" and then sell him off, but I am thinking of keeping the T. macrostoma since it is wild caught...

Thanks for your input though on my list. I always find it beneficial to get other inputs and see what they see as a potential problem since sometimes I may read something I did not think about before, for example I wasn't aware that I could have problems specifically with the Moorii and the Chilo in the future. I'll probably end up keeping the Chilo since I have a snail problem in that tank anyway...

One last thing I wanted to ask you, was do you keep any other fish tanks? And how much in Euros or US Dollars did it cost just for the tank and how much just for your stand for that tank? And did you have to reinforce the floors at all from all the weight or is it in the basement/ground floor?

~Ed

[WietzeBron]

One last thing I wanted to ask you, was do you keep any other fish tanks? And how much in Euros or US Dollars did it cost just for the tank and how much just for your stand for that tank? And did you have to reinforce the floors at all from all the weight or is it in the basement/ground floor?

~Ed

Marduk, at the moment I have 7 other tanks for backup and breeding. At least for backup I think it is very usefull to have extra tanks. I could also run into problems with my stocklist at a certain moment (2 Bucco's and Tyranno's/Fusco/Thola). With backup tanks you never have great immediate problems.

My tank is on the ground floor of the living room. According to the builder my floor should be strong enough. It is a concrete isolated system floor with strong carriers. The tank is very near to the foundation.

The tank and the stand are both self-made. The glass (15 mm) + glue was about 1400,- Euro. The steel for the stand was about 450,-- Euro. The BTN decoration and the equipment was the expensive part.

[WietzeBron]

Some more pictures:

[blairo1]

Lookin' good brother!

The blaze on that last one is just spectacular!!

[remarkosmoc]

love the linvingstoni

[WietzeBron]

[FLGirl1977]

What kind of water maintenance schedule do you have with this tank? What percentage water changes do you do and assuming it is a large one.... how do you handle that much water at one time. Do you have an RO unit? Sorry for all the questions... I'm just in awe.

[WietzeBron]

What kind of water maintenance schedule do you have with this tank? What percentage water changes do you do and assuming it is a large one.... how do you handle that much water at one time. Do you have an RO unit? Sorry for all the questions... I'm just in awe.

I change one third to half of the water every 14 days (sometimes 7 days). I have a pond filter (pressure filter) with different positions. The filter is connected directly to the drain. I can flush the water out through the filter within 20-30 minutes. I have pictures of the drain in this topic, so you can check this.

[WietzeBron]

Here is a small film of my tank:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0c4AgoU1BNc

[Saxochromis]

That is a fantastic setup you have there Wietzebron! That would truly be my dream tank.

The first time I saw your setup was just recently in the form of the youtube video you have. I was impressed with that but I must say that your high quality pictures, here on the forum, far exceed the low resolution we see on youtube. Great job man!

I'm brand new here but I can see already that this forum is going to be one of my favorite online places to visit.

I just want to ask you a question or two. I apologize if you've covered them here already. If so please just direct me to the appropriate page or thread.

The background in your tank is amazing! I know you made a few references as to how it's set up and I think you referred to it as "BTN"? Is that correct? If so, where do you get it? Perhaps more importantly for me, do you think something like that could be accomplished as a DIY project? If so, what might be a good starting point?

If I ever own a tank larger than 55 gallons it will likley be a plywood tank that I build myself. Or maybe an indoor pond setup of some sort. Where there's a will there's a way so maybe some day......

Thanks for all your help.

Nice to meet everyone and I look forward to discussing more Malawi stuff with you all very soon.

Again, awesome tank setup Wietzebron!!

[WietzeBron]

That is a fantastic setup you have there Wietzebron! That would truly be my dream tank.

The first time I saw your setup was just recently in the form of the youtube video you have. I was impressed with that but I must say that your high quality pictures, here on the forum, far exceed the low resolution we see on youtube. Great job man!

I'm brand new here but I can see already that this forum is going to be one of my favorite online places to visit.

I just want to ask you a question or two. I apologize if you've covered them here already. If so please just direct me to the appropriate page or thread.

The background in your tank is amazing! I know you made a few references as to how it's set up and I think you referred to it as "BTN"? Is that correct? If so, where do you get it? Perhaps more importantly for me, do you think something like that could be accomplished as a DIY project? If so, what might be a good starting point?

If I ever own a tank larger than 55 gallons it will likley be a plywood tank that I build myself. Or maybe an indoor pond setup of some sort. Where there's a will there's a way so maybe some day......

Thanks for all your help.

Nice to meet everyone and I look forward to discussing more Malawi stuff with you all very soon.

Again, awesome tank setup Wietzebron!!

Hello Saxochromis,

BTN stands for "Back to Nature". I have used their backgrounds and modules. They have different type of backgrounds. The type I have is Malawi. The modules are fitting best with the Malawi type background I think. The product comes from Sweden. Here you have a link where you can find a ditributors list also: http://www.backtonature.se/ . I am afraid there is no distributor in the US. The BTN backgrounds are considered to be one of the nicest and best quality backgrounds. I think it will be very difficult to make such a product yourself (with that kind of detail).

Wietze