NEW TANK

[nagus]

Having kept a community tropical tank for just over a year, I needed a new challenge and after much nagging to my wife (whose not interested in fish in the slightest) and a piece of good fortune (a friend gave up fish keeping and gave me his old tank), she finally relented and agreed to another fish tank in the house . Anyhow, i've decided to set up a small Lake Tanganyika Aquarium. The tank has been fishless cycling for the past 5 weeks, and I think has finally finished cycling, my problem now is what fish to add? After browsing various websites i've now become even more confused as to what would be a good mix of cichlids for a begginer to start with.

The tank is a Juwel Vision 180, i.e 180 ltr. (not an ideal size I know, but hey it was free) and the water parameters are as follows
ph: 8.2
Ammonia: 0ppm
Nitrite: 0ppm
Nitrate: Very High, but will reduce with water changes
gH: 15
kH: 10

At present the tank has an aquarium sand substrate with lots of ocean rock (about 30lbs of rock) and no plants. Also, besides the standard Juwel filter I have also added a fluval 3+ HOB filter for extra filtration.

Can anybody please advise me on

1. What would be a good mix of fish to add, and in what order.
and
2. Are my water parameters ok for a Tanganyika set up

Any advice would be greatly welcome - and thanks for reading.

 

[freddyk]

2. Your water is perfect. Like most aquarium fish they really aren't picky, as long as things are stable. Tanganyikans do need pristine water, so make sure filtration can keep up. One problem with these all-in-one aquariums is that they're designed for a typical community aquarium, so filtration can sometimes be lacking.

1. This is a very tough question. There are so many fish to choose from, and in a 180 you have lots of options. People can recommend to you what they like, but everybodies taste is different. Perhaps you can list a few that you like so that we can get an idea.

How is your tank set up? Is it mostly rock scaped? Is there open sand at all? Is the tank tall enough to house schoaling fish? Since the tank is set up already this may be a good starting point.