Lake Malawi Species • First video of my 55 US Gallon Malawi setup

[jnick]

Hey all,

I'm a complete newb to this hobby. This is my first real tank - ever. It's a 55G Malawi tank. I am trying my best to get a stable, healthy and established tank so the fish have a healthy life!

The main focus of the video was to show some water clarity issues in another thread I have going ( http://cichlid-forum.com/phpBB/viewtopi ... 3de3f5ba51 ) but figured I'd post this up to get ideas and comments on how to improve.

Check out the HD video - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qi_yObl8 ... AAAAAAAAAA

Here are my plans thus far for phase 3:

1. During the next cleaning, remove ALL of the fake plants and the fake rock (the orangish/brown "log") and have just the real rock and sand in the tank. I will then begin rock scaping.

2. Remove the Peacock eel and two pleco's to my girlfriends community tank. The eel has been getting picked on so it's time to save him!

3. Work on modifying the lighting as the plastic brace causes a nice dead/dark strip down the center

4. Look to possibly increase water movement as I'm unsure if I have enough?

5. Add some more cichlids! (Current count at 9 - we have lost a few due to a bad bloat epidemic about 2 months ago.

Any thoughts/comments?

Thanks!

[jnick]

Any thoughts or ideas on how I could improve?

[GTZ]

I'd add more rock, doesn't necessarily have to be Texas holey rock.
Depending on how heavy your substrate is, you may want to raise the intake to the next section.
You may wish to add a powerhead, some do some don't.
Your stocking likely still needs sorting out, I'm not sure what you have left since you lost some earlier.

[jnick]

Thanks for the response! My water is soft from the tap, pH around 7. Therefore, I need rock that will act as a buffer. Any suggestions? Personally, I'm not to fund of texas holey rock. The look just doesn't suit me. Therefore, I'd like to add some different type of rock WITH the texas I have now.

I was contemplating a powerhead for more circulation, but wasn't sure on what would be suitable for the tank? I don't want to go overboard and I don't want it to look ugly

and thanks for the tip on the intake. I'll definitely take that into consideration!!

[Soup3777]

7 ph is wayyy too low. u need like 7.8+


aragonite sand will raise ph

lace rock will raise ph (best looking rock imo, comes in all natural colors) many people here stack them and make caves/walls.

[stoogie]

If you can find some limestone, that will help a bit with the pH, but you'll likely still need to buffer. Otherwise, aragonite is excellent (I use it in my tank, it keeps the pH at a steady 7.8 )

Is that a ps. crabo in your video? I've never kept them, but I've heard they get pretty nasty, especially for a smaller tank size. What species are you currently keeping?