New Setup

[Jammiedodger]

Hey Guys,
Just recently managed to get my old Fluval Roma 200L set up again (approx 4ft by 2ft) and started decorating it. I've decided to go for quite a dense layer of plants, sand at the bottom and rocks spread throughout with a driftwood centerpiece. Only problem is now... What should I put in it? I would like some colorful, medium/large sized fish and have been looking mostly at African cichlids but I'm open to suggestion, any ideas?

Thanks,
Jamie

 

[fluttermoth]

It would help if you could tell us, even roughly, what the hardness of your local tap water is. Do you get a lot of limescale in your kettle/showerhead, for instance?

I's much easier to choose fish that suit your water than try to change the water to suit the fish.

A lot of African cichlids; certainly the Rift Valley ones, aren't really suited to planted tanks; there are no plants where they live in the wild and they tend to just pull up/ rip any plants apart.

 

[Jammiedodger]

The water is classed as 'slightly hard' and is naturally slightly alkaline, the plants I have on order and can easily change the numbers by giving some away, hope this helps.

Thankyou.

 

[fluttermoth]

Most of the African cichlids should be alright then, though you might want to add some coral sand to your substrate (don't use it on it's own, it's too sharp) or your filter, in a mesh bag, to keep the hardness up.

Or there's central American cichlids.

 

[Jammiedodger]

Thanks for the help, i'll try and get some coral sand sometime soon and I've just been building on the rocky formations today. It's just going to be a case of finding an LFS that stocks a good variety of cichlids now...