Starting Up An Mbuna Cylindrical Tank..help Please!

[courtneyh]

hi everyone, i have bought a aqua one cylinder 100 (largest one they made ) 156 gallon tank, and i'm planning on having it as an mbuna set up...
i've never kept malawis before, only community tropical tanks (ie severums/sharks etc) and would love some advice,

the tank is obviously completely round with a pipe going up the middle which is the filter sump tube thing (sorry im a bit new at this)

i'm just wondering if there'd be a way for me to cover the plastic tube with a rock sort of formation and if so how the heck would i get the rocks to stay as it'd be quite high (approx 41">?
the guy that im buying it off of had it set up as a marine tank, so had loads of coral to cover the tube it did look spectacular i must say

any info greatly appreciated, thanks x

 

[fluttermoth]

You could use aquarium safe silicone to glue the rocks together so they don't fall. Is this the tank in Newquay by any chance? It should look spectacular when it's set up

 

[courtneyh]

Ah ok thank you I didn't know it existed!! It is the tank in Newquay yes haven't got it yet but should do in about 3 weeks as it's on hold until I raise all the funds...exciting stuff!! I'm just thinking would ther be any better species to put in it?

 

[fluttermoth]

You can buy small tubes of aquarium sealant in most LFS, but you might want a big tube which you need a mastic gun for, you'd need a DIY shop or online for that; do make sure it's proper aquarium safe sealant though, as the bathroom ones often have a fungicide added that would be lethal to your fish.

It's a nice big tank; there's lots of exciting things you could do with it! I think I'd do some sort of planted/rock/wood structure up the middle with a shoal of small tetras and some dwarf cichlids, but that's just my favourite style of tank!

I don't know all that much about mbuna myself but there's a lot of Rift valley specialists in the 'Old World cichlids' forum further down the page who would be happy to help you out

 

[KkAaNnEe]

I would definately suggest cichlids for a tank like that with a rock formation on the filter, i use AquaMate silicone which you can buy a large tube of on ebay for £5