Busy Re Organising My Cichlid Tanks!

[brewyn]

hello all.
I have had a realy busy day today as I cleared all of the rock and mbuna cichlids out of my 6ft tank, leaving only my happs and peacocks, and a few mbuna cichlids that I will move on. I have also started to syphon out the gravel inorder to replace it with sand. what a day its been, I have had to move all of the community fish out of there 4ft tank and into a smaller tank, move my mbuna out of the 6ft tank and into the 4ft tank, including all the rocks and its not something that I would wish to do again. I have had to leave the biggest pieces of ocean rock out as its too heavy to be swapping and changing. hope to finish off tomorrow by removing the rest of the gravel, adding the sand and maybe find some easier to manage rocks. it will be worth it in the end when the happs start to grow and start to fill the tank.


anyway, I have about 20 or so cichlids that are FREE to a good home if anyone is interested, red zebras and a greshaki type cichlid. I would say they average between 2 to 5 inches in size, if no one is interested then its a trip to the LFS with them.

Also I have for sale the 5 large pieces of ocean rock, they must weigh the equivalent of 2, 6x2x2 tanks. they are extremely heavy and only for the enthusiast cichlid keeper with a very large tank. they have lots of natural holes and they are great shapes. I will be looking at £60 or a swap for lava rock. if interested in the fish or rocks then give me a PM.

 

[denis coghlan]

Good luck with the spring cleaning sounds like quite the task. You've gotta post some pics when you have the new sand in. Is the sand a mix or just fine course, what colour have you chosen?

 

[rixy]

sounds just like me lol.i took all of my rock out yesterday.i'm selling all my malawi's and changing to oddballs(again) i used to keep a fire eel and a lima shovel nose plus some cichlids.good luck with the move brewyn.sand is so much better for all fish in my opinion.

 

[brewyn]

hello guys. just decided yesterday to narrow down some of the fish that I had too many of and it really went from there, one thing led to another and before I knew it I was paddling in water, you all know the score LOL. my Intention in the beggining was to have a happs tank and a mbuna tank. the mbuna tank is a similar set up as before, just a smaller version for now but with the intention of putting them into a 100 gal and also a 75 gall tanks that I already have, but 1 step at a time, they will be much better off. and now I only have my happs in the 150 gall tank which has pleased me no end, just need to take out the few remaining zebras, sift through them and see what is going, and what is staying, also some feather fin cats need transfering over as the smaller happs dont stand a chance whilst they are still in there, especialy as there are no rocks in there for cover. the 6ft tank looks very boring now, but I know in 12 months the fish will have grown a lot and the tank will start to look the part.
I plan on using only fine sand, a few elephant rocks piled in one corner and some pebbles scattered around. I will show you a photo of what the tank was like yesterday, what it is like now, and one when I have finished, will also have to post 1 in 12 months time to show the same fish and tank, but much more established.will also post a picture of my small 50 gall happs tank that has been set up for 6 weeks now, just to give you an idea of what i want to achieve, plus I willpost a picture of the temp mbuna tank, lots of photos, sorry guys.
THIS WAS MY TANK BEFORE.

THIS IS ONE OF MY TANK NOW, NOT YET FINISHED AND STILL MORE FISH TO REMOVE YET.

 

[brewyn]

HERE IS A PHOTO OF THE TEMPORARY MBUNA TANK

AND HERE IS ONE OF MY SMALL HAPPS TANK

sorry the photos are not great, was messing about with the computer the other night and it has made the photos to big.

 

[Nick Sw]

Good Luck looks like you`ve got your hands full, you`ve got some fantastic fish in there really Nice, sand looks a lot better.

 

[mamafish68]

LOL another translation issue (tips cowboy hat)

what you call ocean rock, we call Texas Holey rock (limestone)

 

[brewyn]

well I have finished doing my tank, here we go.

 

[Ferris]

Looking good, lots more space. Very nice!

 

[brewyn]

cheers ferris. theres only a few small mbuna left in there, and once I have set up my 101 gall, they will be coming out. this tanks for my happs and peacocks only, thats why I decided to change and go for swimming space.

 

[denis coghlan]

Hello brewyn, didn’t mean anything by my last comment on the other post!
With all these tank adjustments and rock moving that you have been doing, my question to you is simple.
How do you do your water change, my question is not about getting the water into the tank but about the temperature of the water going into the tank.

For my cichlid tank, I siphon off about 10 gallons directly into the sink in my bedroom as I have designed the stand to be higher than the sink, thus letting gravity do all the work. When I refill the tank, I have to use the taps on bath to fill the 2 gallon bucket; I mix the warm and cold water in the bucket till it’s similar to that of the tank and I have to do this over and over and over till the tank is again full.

My life would be so much easier with a hose!!

My question is, if you use a hose, how do you regulate the temperature of the water going into the tank? Or do you just put cold water straight in and let the heater warm it up on its own accord.

I figure you’re the guy to ask as I’d say you have to do some sort of water change at least once a day.

tanks

 

[brewyn]

hello tanks, youve lost me mate, I havent seen your post about water changes etc. where is it?

 

[brewyn]

right, ive searched high and low for the post regarding the water changes, cant find it anywhere!!!!!!!. are you talking about me, possibly being small and making the rock look big???, not sure what it is you have said that you think you may have offended me, but whatever it is, im not offended and if it was regards to me being small, well I found that remark very very funny, I was laughinng my **** off!

To answer your question with regards to water changes, I syphon of 20% every week, using the same method as yourself, only I use the water to water the garden, the hose pipe just runs onto the flower beds. I re fill using just cold water and stress coat, I trickle it in so it has more chance to warm up, it takes an hour or so with the wife constantly tripping over the hose pipe (dosey cow), but its better than gushing it in, and drasticaly changing the temperature. I also fill up next to the filter inlet, this particular filter has an external heater attached so it warms up as it flows through the heater. I have not had any problems so far and I do all my water changes in the same day, as passionate I am about my fish, cant be bothered doing a different tank every day.

just thought of something, if you were talking about my comment about being a cheeky *******, then I apologise, I was refering to nick coment about me looking like that weight lifter. LOL

 

[Nick Sw]

I apologise Brewyn if I said you looked like a weight lifter, to be fair you were pictured lifting the largest Ocean Rock I`ve ever seen !. Like I said it was a good photo.

 

[brewyn]

like I said on the other post nick, I took it as a joke, theres no need to appologise mate.