My 385L Malawi Tank

[jamesmacc]

hey everyone, been a member for a few weeks and already learning way more than i did from just flicking through google. ig always do a journal when building cars so i thought i would keep a journal of my tank and getting it up and running and maybe you kind poeple can give me your advise and keep me on the right track . my love for aquariums started years ago when my best friends grandparents kept a tropical fish tank at the end of there dining room table, when we were eating our dinner we would just sit and watch them swim about, very relaxing. a good few years later and now i have my own house (well almost,its nearly finished) and its time to start my own tank. i started off years ago with the idea of a 100l tank with blue gravel and a no fishing sign etc and some tetras. as soon as a started researching i came across some lovely planted tanks and then i came across cichlids and fell in love with the colours of them and the true beauty of the natural looking tanks. i then decided on a tank built into my dining room wall which is open plan with my living room and kitchen.
first purchase was the tank, its a 50x18x26 385l tank from ac aquatics with black background and glass sliders

then i started to buy the bits and pieces that are needed, i still have some more to buy but here are some.

2x300w heaters
4x bags black moon sand substrate (only one shown)
2x digital thermometer
1x tetratec ex1200 external filter (going to buy a second soon)
1x algae cleaning rod
1x magnetic algae cleaner (scared to use this incase i scratch my tank)
1x api water test strip kit and also a liquid test kit
1X 15m hose and connections for d.i.y python and some eheim suckers to keep it in tank and sink
1x battery powered gravel cleaner
1x 120 cm twin t5 lighting unit and 6k bulbs (they came with it, maybe upgrade to 10's?)
also bought some egg crate for the bottom of tank but its not in picture

11/9/11
bought a Hydor Koralia 1 Power Head 1600lph (not sure if i will need this but got it on ebay cheap
18/9/11- bought a eheim 2217 1000lph filter to work alonside the ex1200
21/9/11- bought a hydor 300w external heater to connect to the filter outlet

still to get:
50kg ocean rock
prime dechloranator
there may be other things i have forgot?
it will be another week or two before i get the tank mounted and set up but i will post pictures up once its fitted in the wall and then i will start cycling and hopefully get some yellow labs to start with 4-6 weeks later.
fish stock: malawi cichlids but havent decided what ones yet, can any one reccomend a few bottom dwellers, i love the zebra loach but that isnt suitable

 

[markandhisfish]

good start . il follow this journal with interest . good to see that youre using eggcrate well worth it for peace of mind . if youre in the uk boots is the place to go for your ammonia . £1.75 for a 500ml bottle . its labeld as boots household ammonioa and can be found with the cleaning products . for your dechlorinator id reccomend seachem prime which can be found on ebay or warehouse aquatics . it works out a lot cheaper as it lasts so much longer than other dechlorinators . theres a list on here somewhere of members willing to donate mature media too . well worth seeing if there is someone fairly close to you , it will speed your cycle up no end . enjoy setting your tank up and il look forward to regular updates

 

[jamesmacc]

good start . il follow this journal with interest . good to see that youre using eggcrate well worth it for peace of mind . if youre in the uk boots is the place to go for your ammonia . £1.75 for a 500ml bottle . its labeld as boots household ammonioa and can be found with the cleaning products . for your dechlorinator id reccomend seachem prime which can be found on ebay or warehouse aquatics . it works out a lot cheaper as it lasts so much longer than other dechlorinators . theres a list on here somewhere of members willing to donate mature media too . well worth seeing if there is someone fairly close to you , it will speed your cycle up no end . enjoy setting your tank up and il look forward to regular updates

thanks for the kind reply mark, i have your journal in my automatic update list . i have heard a few people on about the boots stuff and that is what i had planned to get, i spent hours reading a debate about prime versus other dechloarinators but had decided on prime once i worked out in the long run its cheaper. this may be a stupid question but will mature media die off if its posted and not kept cool? problem is i live on the isle of skye in the scottish highlands and there is no fish shops here and i dont know of any members from here. i have to do a 240 mile trip to go visit my LFS and its a pets at home

 

[markandhisfish]

you will get some bacteria die off but as long as its kept wet with tank water and sent special delivery so it arrives next day it can still help . i sent some to a guy in scotland when his filter crashed and altho there was some die off it did do the trick . if i remember rightly it cost about £15 tho . if you get really stuck and cant find anybody a bit closer and you are willing to cover the cost of postage id be happy to send you some . but its worth tring to find somebody in scotland 1st if you can as there would be much less die-off .

 

[jamesmacc]

thanks for that mate, i would be willing to cover postage and packaging. i will contact some of the people from scotland and see if any of them will help me, surely i could get some from edinburgh to skye (250 or so miles) in about 24hrs. either that or i will just drive and collect it from them, i can get home from stirling in 4.5 hours and thats about 220 miles

 

[markandhisfish]

i think the member in scvotland i helped was called fishiwishie or lilfishy or something like that if that helps . good luck finding some localish . if you get stuck just give me a shout

 

[elisew]

I`ll be interested to see how this all goes, it`s nice to see another member who is taken in by the colour and behaviour of the Malawi`s

I think kiriyama is in Scotland and I`m sure if he`s got some media he`d be happy to help out, I do know he`s been setting up some new tanks lately so it`s possible he doesn`t have any to spare.....but it`s always worth a try

Looks like you have pretty much everything covered and Mark has given you some great tips too, especially about using Seachem Prime
Regarding the bottom dwellers for a Malawi setup.....I have 4 synodontis petricola and 6 syno hybrids as well as 1 bristlenose plec, 1 rusty plec and 1 green phantom plec in my Malawi tank and they`re all doing well. Malawi and mbuna are generally too aggressive for loaches to live with.


If you have any other questions then don`t hesitate to ask, there`s enough of us 'Malawi obsessed individuals' to help you out

 

[jamesmacc]

I`ll be interested to see how this all goes, it`s nice to see another member who is taken in by the colour and behaviour of the Malawi`s

I think kiriyama is in Scotland and I`m sure if he`s got some media he`d be happy to help out, I do know he`s been setting up some new tanks lately so it`s possible he doesn`t have any to spare.....but it`s always worth a try

Looks like you have pretty much everything covered and Mark has given you some great tips too, especially about using Seachem Prime
Regarding the bottom dwellers for a Malawi setup.....I have 4 synodontis petricola and 6 syno hybrids as well as 1 bristlenose plec, 1 rusty plec and 1 green phantom plec in my Malawi tank and they`re all doing well. Malawi and mbuna are generally too aggressive for loaches to live with.


If you have any other questions then don`t hesitate to ask, there`s enough of us 'Malawi obsessed individuals' to help you out

yeh they are stunning fish, before i knew about them i thought heavily planted tanks with tetras etc looked nice but then i stumbled upon a photo on google of a malawi mbuna tank and i instantly knew that this was the route for me to take, i just need to be carefull with my stock list since im a total noob to malawis. i just googled the synodontis petricola that you have and they are stunning, love the colours. what do they live off? once my tank is cycling i plan to research as much as i can into what fish to choose that will be ok together.
thanks again to you both for your advise, this forum was a great find

 

[markandhisfish]

another cihlidophile is born

 

[elisew]

yeh they are stunning fish, before i knew about them i thought heavily planted tanks with tetras etc looked nice but then i stumbled upon a photo on google of a malawi mbuna tank and i instantly knew that this was the route for me to take, i just need to be carefull with my stock list since im a total noob to malawis. i just googled the synodontis petricola that you have and they are stunning, love the colours. what do they live off? once my tank is cycling i plan to research as much as i can into what fish to choose that will be ok together.
thanks again to you both for your advise, this forum was a great find

The petricola are a really nice addition to Malawi tanks, I have the dwarf petricola (lucipinnis) in my Tanganyikan setup as I love them so much. They move quick enough that the Malawi don`t really bother them
They eat whatever the fish don`t get to, I feed mine premium granular and also algae wafers too

It`ll be a bit of a long read but I did a thread a while ago when I first set my Malawi tank up, you`ll get a good idea of the mix of fish I have in there but if you have a look through this section for my other threads you`ll see the fish that I`ve added since:

My setup thread:
http/www.fishforums.net/index.php?/topic/352272-380l-malawi-setup/

another cihlidophile is born

 

[jamesmacc]

yeh they are stunning fish, before i knew about them i thought heavily planted tanks with tetras etc looked nice but then i stumbled upon a photo on google of a malawi mbuna tank and i instantly knew that this was the route for me to take, i just need to be carefull with my stock list since im a total noob to malawis. i just googled the synodontis petricola that you have and they are stunning, love the colours. what do they live off? once my tank is cycling i plan to research as much as i can into what fish to choose that will be ok together.
thanks again to you both for your advise, this forum was a great find

The petricola are a really nice addition to Malawi tanks, I have the dwarf petricola (lucipinnis) in my Tanganyikan setup as I love them so much. They move quick enough that the Malawi don`t really bother them
They eat whatever the fish don`t get to, I feed mine premium granular and also algae wafers too

It`ll be a bit of a long read but I did a thread a while ago when I first set my Malawi tank up, you`ll get a good idea of the mix of fish I have in there but if you have a look through this section for my other threads you`ll see the fish that I`ve added since:

My setup thread:
http/www.fishforums.net/index.php?/topic/352272-380l-malawi-setup/

another cihlidophile is born

i already looked at your tank a few days ago, but the pictures dont work on my computer.... gutted

 

[elisew]

i already looked at your tank a few days ago, but the pictures dont work on my computer.... gutted

Ahh, that`s probably my fault because I moved my photos on photobucket

You should be able to see all of my photos here:
http/s569.photobucket.com/albums/ss140/Elisew/Malawi%20Tank%20380L/

 

[jamesmacc]

bought a Hydor Koralia 1 Power Head 1600lph on ebay. not sure if i will need it but got it cheap

 

[markandhisfish]

good buy . a bit of extra water circulation is good particilarly for the heavy stocking levels with mbuna . i use 1 in my tank and im pretty sure lise uses them in hers too

 

[elisew]

She certainly does

They`re a good addition, as mark says extra circulation is great, it`ll help keep waste moving towards the filter