Vision 180 - New Set-up Planned - Advice Please! Photos Added!

[Druchii]

Justin at least you`ve got the "River Cobbles" background (pic 3) !

lol - i did have - that was in my first tank beginning of last year, maybe i should have kept in in the new tank to keep in peoples good books

 

[Cheffi]

Dru that coral sand in your tank looked a larger grain than the stuff I have. Mine is crushed so am presuming there are two different grades?

 

[Druchii]

your spot on Cheffi, there is coral sand and coral gravel available,

i had the gravel, and you have the sand right

basically there are two grades, i'm not altogether sure about the physical differences good and bad..

say for instance i know that with the gravel the fish tended not to dig so much, as a result whe nthey spawned most eggs were stuck in the gravel and could not be collected...

that was one of the reasons why i swapped, the other was becuase the gravel started to decompose, ie making smaller particles which when taken in by the fish thorugh their mouths and out of their gills cuased irritation ( i guess it was also sharper than the equivalint normal sand)

Hope this helps,

 

[Cheffi]

Yes it does. I have found that with the crushed coral sand it not only looks nicer than the fine ordinary sand they also don't have a problem sifting through it.

 

[Druchii]

IMHO coral sand is TOO light.

It can wash out some fish colour. a slightly darker tone of regulalr sand can bring out so much more colour of the fish if done right i have found.

or i guess the same could be done if the coral sand is used and you do not over illuminate the fish with high lights and reflectors

there is more than one way to boil an egg

 

[Cheffi]

Yes and thank goodness we are all different and don't like them the same way.

I personally think the cc sand looks fab. I want an overall pleasing look to my tank. The fish colours are fine with it. Unless I was paying a lot of money for wc fish I don't think it's that important myself. Each to their own. Depends what you want from a tank.

 

[Druchii]

i used to have my tank all brightly lit up, coral gravel, ocean rock, white light, blue light and reflectors on both...

8) 8) was a bit bright...


with changing to sand and changing the white light to a duller sun-glo and removing the reflector the tank is almost as bright, which is weird, but its mostly coming from the fish a much better depth of colour which is a big difference, and 75% of them are still the original fish (ie non WC)

so in that sense if you exclude the new WC fish I'm comparing apples with apples if you get my drift

its just a thought not a critasim all all that other people may wish to experiemnt with or not as the case maybe

 

[Nick Sw]

Not really the right thread but i was going to ask you Dru, what lighting you used ?

 

[Druchii]

PM sent Nick

 

[Go_fish]

OK, so am now a bit confused .. have just been ringing round to get some prices on ocean rock, and one shop says .. 'have you considered using slate?' Their African cichlid tank has slate instead of pebbles or ocean rock and they say the fish are breeding like mad.

So, does anyone have any pics of one with slate?

What are the other options?

Am pretty sure I will go with the ocean rock though.

Can I also just check about the substrate - am planning a sand and crushed coral mix - is this ok or is this the stuff druchii said the eggs were getting lost in??

Thanks

ps - am based in Bucks / Oxfordshire border, so LFS include the various Maidenhead Aquatic Stores and my regular 'The Goldfish Bowl' in Oxford (fab place).

 

[Cheffi]

OK, so am now a bit confused .. have just been ringing round to get some prices on ocean rock, and one shop says .. 'have you considered using slate?' Their African cichlid tank has slate instead of pebbles or ocean rock and they say the fish are breeding like mad.

So, does anyone have any pics of one with slate?

What are the other options?

Am pretty sure I will go with the ocean rock though.

Can I also just check about the substrate - am planning a sand and crushed coral mix - is this ok or is this the stuff druchii said the eggs were getting lost in??

Thanks

ps - am based in Bucks / Oxfordshire border, so LFS include the various Maidenhead Aquatic Stores and my regular 'The Goldfish Bowl' in Oxford (fab place).

I think the general consenus was either go with the fine sand, think it's called silver sand or the crushed coral sand not mixed together. The stuff Dru talked about with the disappearing eggs was 'coral sand'. I have the 'crushed coral sand'. It's a lot finer so debris etc sits on the top.

Re slate, yes I have seen tanks with slate in. The shop may have suggested it if they didn't have any ocean rock. I think you'll probably find that Malawi will breed whatever rocks you use as long as they have caves. If you want a more natural look then I'd still go with cobbles or ocean rock rather than the flat slate. It's not so easy to stack and make caves with just slate.

Youl lucky thing living near the Goldfish Bowl. I must get round there one day soon. I got my crushed coral sand from Maidenhead so I know they sell it.

 

[BiffMalawi]

I use these white calcium rocks. Buffer my PH great and look pretty good.

I think slate can be made to look good. I personally use all kinds of rocks(slate, limestone, lava) in my cichlid tanks. Never bought a single one.

Old picture, I now have some lava for a little more colour.

 

[Druchii]

Theres coral sand and coral GRAVEL. I had GRAVEL in my old tank and its larger and corser than the sand.



As Biff quite rightly points out, you can basically use any rock work in the aquarium environment as long as it is first initally cleaned correctly (boiling or just plain old washing with a power washer until the water run clean.

Just make sure that it does not contian any metals or trace metals.
For the Malawi environment something like Limestone or Tuffa rock or Ocean rock is NOT totally inert - and will help to a small degree buffer the ph and keep the water hard as the makeup of the rock leaches into the tank.


The same is true of other materials..

ie bog wood in a community tank..
bog wood tends to leach out taninds ovver time which not only colur the water slightly , but also makes the setup softer and i believe that it can buffer the lower ph from rising.

I hope this helps, but basically, as long as its clean, go for what you like to look of, and if stacking any rockwork, just make sure it is safe

With Malawis that have a tendancy to dig, it is best that when you originally fill the tank with rocks, that you place the base level either directly onto the glass or use something called egg crate.

egg crate is basically a plastic lattice which will prevent the rocks from falling and damaging the glass, but also SPREADING out the load of the weight of the rock above.

Tanks can break due to a pile of rocks being on top of just a few grains of sand/gravel as all the pressure is centred on one tiny area, enuff to break it.

it's abit like trying to break double glassed windows, if you throw a chair at it (PLEASE DON'T this is for an example only ) it is unlikely to break , however if you used a nail (again please do not do this )and punched it with a hammer in one of the corners it will break easily as the pressure is centrered around the tiny c ontact point betwen glass and nail.

Hoe this helps as i've gone a little off topic

 

[Cheffi]

If there's coral sand and coral 'gravel' then there is also 'crushed' coral sand. Too much information at once there Dru. Let's get the poor guy sorted with his choice of rock and substrate before we go off telling him about boiling etc.

As I said in my previous post it doesn't depend on what rocks you have as to whether your Malawi breed or not.

Check out this excellent pinned topic by The-Wolf to see what you have and have not got a choice of. In the end it is indeed down to personal choice.

Rocks for the Aquarium

 

[Druchii]

although a little off topic, i truely beleive that its good just to get a few disclaimers in there - we don't want people going off and filling their tanks up, having accidents becuase we did not warn them first..

Like i said the choice is yours, just be safe