Stocking 200 litre aquarium

[**sarahp**]

Where abouts in the UK are you?

 

[JP!]

Near bristol

 

[JP!]

So any advice over the species I talked about, I'll post the list again:
Cyprichromis leptosoma
Neolamprologus Brichardi
Neolamprologus leleupi
Any Juli
Any shell dwellers
( sorry for any misspellings)
Like I said I don't know how many numbers of each or if they'll get on, my ideal would be
6x Cyprichromis leptosoma ( any suggestions on any other Cyprichromis or sardine cichlid that may be better)
4x Neolamprologus leleupi
2x Neolamprologus Brichardi
2x Juli
Group of maybe 6 shellies

I have no idea if that's a good or bad and o really don't wanna mess it up so any help would be so great
Thanks in advance

 

[Essjay]

We do need your actual hardness, not from a strip which can be inaccurate.

Places near Bristol get their water from either Wessex Water or Bristol Water.
Wessex Water is the easiest, just type your postcode in here http://www.wessexwater.co.uk/waterquality/ and it gives your hardness in several different units. You want the numbers for calcium carbonate (mg/l) and degrees German (dH)
Bristol Water is a bit trickier. Look at the map here https://inyourarea.digdat.co.uk/bristolwater Zoom in close on the place where you live. At the top left of the map is a box for water quality. Click on that and it will say your water hardness, probably as hard. Click on the drop down arrow, then on click here. That takes you to your water quality report which includes the hardness. You want the degrees German number.

 

[JP!]

Okay so the calcium carbonate is 63 mg/l and degrees German 12dh, anyway as I said the water would be changed accordingly for the fish

 

[Essjay]

Can I ask you to check those numbers, please.

63 mg/l calcium carbonate converts to 3.5 Geman degrees and is soft.
12 German degrees converts to 214 mg/l calcium carbonate and is hard.

Both numbers cannot be right.

 

[JP!]

Okay that was me being stupid I read the wrong one , it's actually 197 mg/l the German degrees does say 12dH though, which still doesn't match up but that's what it says!

 

[Essjay]

Yes, whichever conversion table you use, 197 mg/l calcium carbonate does convert to 11 german deg.

But 11 and 12 are close enough for our purposes. However, I have soft water so I'm afraid I don't know much about hard water fish. Looking at Seriously Fish, it seems that your hardness is right at the lower end of the ranges of the fish in your list. I would prefer to see a hardness nearer the middle of their ranges.
But I would take more notice of people who know more about these fish that I do.

 

[JP!]

Okay well like I said water isn't the issue as that can be changed, it's really the stocking I was really needing help with, any idea who may know anything about tanganyikas? Point them this way

 

[hobby5]

I very much like that you inform yourself before taking action!

For most cichlids 200l is on the small side, so don't expect too much. Shell dwellers would be a very good option though, as they are small. If you want propper advice I would highly recommend to turn to a forum specialized in (rift lake) cichlids. Haven't seen any good advice on those here recently.

 

[JP!]

Okay thank you

 

[JP!]

How about peacocks from Lake Malawi? Just saw a video and they look awesome, what would be my stocking when it comes to that?!

 

[hobby5]

Sorry, but 200 l is too small for any (!) of the malawi cichlids.

 

[JP!]

Okay no problem I'll stick with my tanganyika idea, thanks for your help