First mbuna tank

[yhbae]

This is my first ever attempt at setting up an african tank. It is only about 3 weeks old, containing two species - Yellow Lab and P Acei. This one is a 33g tank.

What can I do to improve this design?

 

[Aussie]

I think it looks great how it is yhbae and good stuff what size in ft is ur tank.

 

[Aussie]

is it a 3ft by 2ft, how many labs and Pacei do u have

 

[yhbae]

Thanks for the complement...

This one is a 3ft tank. It currently holds 5 of each species but they are all under 2 inches. I want to eventually thin them out to either 1M/2F or 1M/3F. I will be adding couple of Synodontis Multipunctatus soon.

 

[Aussie]

Thats a good setup aswell what rocks are u using.

 

[yhbae]

I have no idea...

I went to the new house construction area (alot of them are around my house), and picked up 3 buckets full of rocks. I made sure that there's no metallic substances in the rock. Initially, it was kind of bluish grey, but they eventually turned into the current color. I guss it will turn more and more green as more algae settles in. These rocks are pretty heavy.

Since I have 4 mature albino bristlenoses, I think I'm going to transfer one of them into this tank...

 

[Aussie]

Sounds good, how do u check to see if the rocks were'nt metallic

 

[yhbae]

No magic - I put a drop or two of the solution #1 of the nitrate test solution, which is a strong HCl (hydrochloric acid). None of my rocks bubble, and I took out all rocks that have brown patches on them. (there won't many which had them to begin with). I believe all the rocks I have in the tank are inert...

 

[vantgE]

Looks great to me yhbae, not much improvements, to be made, actually none, i'd go no plants at all I like the look beter but If that's the way you like then that's fine it's really just personel and java fern should work with them so whatever you want great tank

 

[yhbae]

Looks great to me yhbae, not much improvements, to be made, actually none, i'd go no plants at all I like the look beter but If that's the way you like then that's fine it's really just personel and java fern should work with them so whatever you want great tank

Thanks...

I like java ferns as once they settle in, they look nice and it requires absolutely no special care... As a bonus, they do the usual thing - absorb bad stuff (e.g. nitrates and even ammonia if such dissaster occurs) and produce good stuff (e.g. O2)...

Java ferns in this tank hasn't quite settled in yet - in few months, I hope it will look alot better.

I guess plants in african tanks aren't common?

Oh, I also remembered... There's definitely one improvement I can introduce to this tank... Although it doesn't look obvious, the background is a black garbage bag! I need to find time to visit LFS and get a real background...

 

[bunjiweb]

Looks great and your plans for it sound good although if you are planning on putting some Syndotsis catfish in there research carefully as I was going to get some for my 4 foot/50G tank and my fish shop advised me that they get too big at around 18 - 20cm adult aquarium size.

Ben

 

[yhbae]

Looks great and your plans for it sound good although if you are planning on putting some Syndotsis catfish in there research carefully as I was going to get some for my 4 foot/50G tank and my fish shop advised me that they get too big at around 18 - 20cm adult aquarium size.

Ben

Thanks for the warning - I have been debating on them as well for a while. I've learned that Synodontis Petricola is the smallest, then the Multiplunctatus. Unfortunately, I can't find any Petricola at all around here, and Multipunctatus costs about $20CA each, which is still not cheap.

I am currently in the process of putting together a 80g Lake Tang setup over the next few months. (Currently building the stand first). In the worse case, they will end up in this tank if they turn out to be too large...

 

[bunjiweb]

Sounds like you have plenty of options then

I went for Flagtail Catfish for my 50G tank as they shouldnt outgrow the tank and they are very cute.

I saw some Sydontsis of a different variety in my LFS today but they still grow to 15CM which is fairly large.

Anyway, good luck with your great tanks.

Ben

 

[Fuzzy]

awsome tank

 

[yhbae]

Sounds like you have plenty of options then

I went for Flagtail Catfish for my 50G tank as they shouldnt outgrow the tank and they are very cute.

I saw some Sydontsis of a different variety in my LFS today but they still grow to 15CM which is fairly large.

Anyway, good luck with your great tanks.

Ben

Flagtail catfish? Never heard of it before... Now you got me curious...