240 litre (63 US gallon) freshwater aquarium diary

[Helina14 6]

Hello! Welcome to my diary!

It is happening, God permitting, tomorrow or day after tomorrow a new used, well looked after aquarium with a beautiful cabinet, arrives!

Home is ready!

My only current aquarium 54 litre (14 US gallon) aquarium moved to bedroom next to my desk. It's been running since 2020. You can find its diary here. I thought it was an impossible dream to have a second, larger tank in this 2 room apartment, but it'll become reality now! I am super excited!

The new aquarium will have its current inhabitants moved with it. Which are:

6 x adult Labidochromis caeruleus Yellow Lab Cichlid
1 x adult Iodotropheus sprengerae Rusty Cichlid

So, a Malawi lake cichlid aquarium it'll be.
I have seen in several places in the internet plecos being cept with cichlids, though my aquarium store told me to forget that idea. We'll see. I'm investigating it, and will gladly hear your experiences and ideas about it. Cheers!

 

[Jennet25 83]

I think I am almost as excited as you to witness this thread having kept Malawi's in the 80's without knowing sufficient about them. I had two yellow lab Cichlids in my tank and a few blue's and blue stripe, plus a few others. Never kept anything else but Cichlids in mine, so looking forward to this journey with you.

 

[Helina14 6]

I think I am almost as excited as you to witness this thread having kept Malawi's in the 80's without knowing sufficient about them. I had two yellow lab Cichlids in my tank and a few blue's and blue stripe, plus a few others. Never kept anything else but Cichlids in mine, so looking forward to this journey with you.

I'm supper happy to hear this!
It's THE tank which picture I posted to my other tanks diary. With super beautiful cabinet and stony decor. Custom-made cabinet, crafted on the spot! I got nearly 30% off the price that she was originally asking! Such a blessing!

She said she is already starting to miss them cichlids, but that she and her husband are getting old and she thought it's a good time to let go. I said the aquarium will be most appreciated and that I'm actually really happy to get the fish too, despite that my original plan was to buy the aquarium without fish. As I looked into the fish, I started to really want them too! I'm excited to see the beautiful fish and what they are like!

I plan to try to add some Anubias hard leafed plants and Java Fern among the stones and see if they last. But I need to wait with that till November I think.

 

[Naughts45 117]

I have seen in several places in the internet plecos being cept with cichlids, though my aquarium store told me to forget that idea.

What species of pleco?
Generally your cichlids need a water hardness of 10-25GH, hard water. And pleco are considered softer water species 2-12GH.
So what is the GH and what species are you considering adding?

 

[Helina14 6]

So what is the GH and what species are you considering adding?

Ideally a zebra pleco L046. It's reported to do well in also slihtly alcaline water and I was going to aim for water hardness in the lower end of what cichlids require, GH 10.Temperature needs to be around 27 celsius I believe.

But if that won't work out well then maybe some variety of Bristlenose pleco instead. And I plan to add pleco caves amongst rocks if I see this plan through. How does this sound?

 

[Naughts45 117]

How are you “aiming for water hardness”?
I wouldn’t do cichlids at 10GH. Fish do best in parameters in the middle of their range.
The L046 would be outcompeted for food with your fish.