[fillyb21]

I have the opportunity to change over a great 55 gallon window tank at my office from freshwater to Malawi's and I am looking for some tips on what to put in it. I currently have a couple red zebra's and yellow lab's cycleing the tank. This tank is going to be strictly for show and was thinking of doing all male peacocks. Has anyone ever done this? Any aggression issues? how many should I put in a 55g? I put in light colored sand along with similar color limestone holey rock and a couple small fake plants, no background as it looks into another office.

Any suggestions or tips are greatly appreciated.

 

[Doane]

I don't know what you should put in it but I would say that many african cichlids are not good for cycling if you intend on keeping them. I have heard horror stories about what has happened to the fish after the cycle.

 

[cichlidaholic]

Malawi cichlids are freshwater fish.

Are you saying that other freshwater fish were in the tank before? If so, the tank was actually cycled and the red zebras and Yellow lab are just "keeping" the cycle.

You can do an all male peacock tank. Many people do. The key is in getting males that do not look similar to each other. The yellow lab would be okay to stay, but the red zebras would likely be too boisterous for the peacocks.

You could also put some of the smaller male haps in the tank. Copadichromis are nice, and some of them are small enough for the tank size.

 

[fillyb21]

What I meant by "freshwater" was a bunch of Tetras. I know that African's are freshwater. I actually cleaned out the tank completely as it was coated with algae and nitrates were through the roof. I've had it set up for almost a week with 2 small yellow labs and the red zebras. This is only my 2nd african tank, what are the issues with having 4 africans cycleing the tank? I am still fairly new to this.

 

[DJRansome]

Maybe the algae problem is from the window? Can you provide more information about the "window" tank? Managing algae and nitrates is going to continue to be an issue, do you have a plan?

 

[fillyb21]

I don't know that I have a plan, the tank does get a good amount of sun. I am currently covering the side that gets the sun on the weekends but during the week there is not much I can do about it as it is in the main reception area and needs to be on display. I'm not worried about the algae as I already have a great pleco who is by no means starving. As far as nitrates I think that I am unfortantely going to have to go into the office every weekend to do water changes.

 

[Dewdrop]

Yep those weekly water changes are about all you can do to keep the nitrates under control. I did buy some stuff by Tetra called Easy Balance that was suppose to help with nitrates and reduce the frequency of water changes but I heard some bad things about it like it would make your fish not be able to reproduce so I'm not using it.