Setup Suggestion Help Please...

[mamcamhtm123]

I have a 40gal cube tank that I set up and is currently cycling. I'd like to populate it with fish that are suited for harder, higher ph water like the A. Cichlids. But I am not too familiar with them, so I was hoping for some suggestions.

Also, to make matters more complicated, I want to plant the tank rather heavily - so I'd also want to limit the fish to fish that wont eat the hardiest of plants that I need to get (like crypto, anubia, a. sword).

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Mike

 

[Bebobb]

Well all Africans like harder water. And if you want to have plants in an African tank, then good luck! African cichlids like to dig up plants. Really, you should have sand as substrate, and most people have some type of rock wall in the back, whether it be slate, Texas holeyh rock, lava rock, or coral rock. Most people reccomend a 55 gallon minimum for mbuna. I would love to see a colony of multies in a 40 gallon cube, but they dig so much that you will have the floating gardens of Babalon.

 

[mamcamhtm123]

Well all Africans like harder water. And if you want to have plants in an African tank, then good luck! African cichlids like to dig up plants. Really, you should have sand as substrate, and most people have some type of rock wall in the back, whether it be slate, Texas holeyh rock, lava rock, or coral rock. Most people reccomend a 55 gallon minimum for mbuna. I would love to see a colony of multies in a 40 gallon cube, but they dig so much that you will have the floating gardens of Babalon.

Thanks...

The substrate is equal parts flourite, crushed coral and sand. Aside from the difficulties with plants, are you saying that I should not do cichlids in this tank? What about if I were to start them here and migrate them to a larger tank in 1yr or so?

Also, if i secure the plants in say, mesh bags secured to the bottom of the tank...that might work. But are there certain cichlids that dont eat the plants?

 

[Bebobb]

You can do cichlids in this tank.. New worlds would fit your tank way better. The don't dig up plants, you could have more of them in it, and they don't need harder water. That would be the problem if You already have hard water, maybe you could filtedr through peat. The tank would just all around work better as a new world tank. You could put a pair of keyholes, a pair of apistogramma, 10 pygmy corries, and a shoal of neon tetras. As long as you water is in the range of neutral to slightly acidic. But if you have naturally hard water, then you should really look into filtering through peat.

 

[mamcamhtm123]

That sounds good. I really didnt want to change the substrate out so that might work. If I go this route, how often do you need to change the peat?

 

[Bebobb]

I do not know the answer to this qeustion as I have never used peat moss. There is another way of doing it where you put it in the bottom of a bucket with a hole in it and let it go through that and it works. I would just stick some in my filter and change it every 2-4 weeks to be on the safe side. You can buy a huge bag for liek $10 here.