# What do you guys think of my tank?



## PiccoloJr (Oct 14, 2013)

This is my first legit Cichlid tank. I had a 55-Gallon tank with cichlids (moved to this tank) before this, but I do not really consider that as my first tank. 
I did not know much about cichlids when I stocked the 55-gallon tank, and the fish from that tank are all in this current tank. I tried to stack the rocks really heavy on the left to draw the 2 Mbunas that I have to that side. I have since learned a lot more about the fish that I am keeping, and I am going to get a much larger tank to re-home the larger fish that I have. Im looking around the 150 gallon range.


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## Iggy Newcastle (May 15, 2012)

The darker rocks look like what I see around here called Aqua Blue. I think the tank would look much better/natural with only one type of rock, such as the 'Aqua Blue.' Maybe remove the wood as well, or place it differently as it looks kinda thrown in.

Fill your tank all the way up. This will help with hide the waterfall from the HOB. I would also put the HOB intake extension tube on to get it closer to the substrate. I personally don't like the bubbles from an aerator, and it's not needed as long as you have proper surface agitation. Maybe move your heater to one corner and the intake for you canister to the other to 'hide' the equipment showing in the tank.

I really like your substrate, and you have the perfect amount IMO. Some tanks have twice as much as is needed, which can lead to problems and kind of an eyesore. I love the darker stones. If you got some more of those to replace the lava rock, your tank would look sweet. The dark background is great. Looks like you have some beautiful fish as well.


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## chiroken (Sep 25, 2007)

agree with Iggy. Raise water level (tank doesn't look level by the front water line? could be photo trickery  ) and try to draw water from lower with your tube extender in that back left corner. With that much rock it'll be easy to hide your heater behind it, even if it's near 1 end. Tilt it if you need to hide the green top. If you've only got a couple of mbunas you probably have way too much rock to start with and you can have more open water. Good water flow will circulate the warming water to keep even temps. I prefer a single type of rock as well. I think either you have works based on your favourite. I like an uneven height as you have rather than everything at the same level. I personally go for as close to natural as possible so I wouldn't stack on end the rocks you have in the middle and right hand side, they look very "placed". The red of the thermometer pops out to so you could move that really low to the back right corner, out of the way. I think I might take out the wood too, might even be counter productive to your pH desires.

I think the tank looks great, a few more touches and it'll be even better! Got some nice fish in there too.


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## NJmomie (Jan 17, 2013)

Love the way the rocks are stacked but as Iggy said, it would look much more natural with one color rock. On the side with the high stacked rocks, can you get back there to vacuum or do you have to move the rocks? If the latter, that must be a pain in the behind.


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## PiccoloJr (Oct 14, 2013)

Thanks for the feedback guys. I literally just foud a landscaping place like two days ago that sells that black rock for 50 cents a pound. I bought a bunch. I move all the rocks and vaccuum behind them occasionally, and the next time I do it I'm going to try and switch it all to that rock as I think it looks a lot better too. I also just put the rocks there on the right as well. It was just completely open so I figured I'd give the fish some more places to go. I agree with you on the wood, Iggy. The wood on the lava rock was indeed just thrown in. My plecos love the wood though, and I have a juvenile gold nugget who hides in the big rock stack and he doesn't like going out in the open to get to the other driftwood.


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## PiccoloJr (Oct 14, 2013)

I re-stacked the rocks, put the filter extension on, hid the heater a little, and took out some of the driftwood.


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## NJmomie (Jan 17, 2013)

Right side looks great! Left side still needs to have the same color rocks. Once that is done, tank will rock.


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## K5MOW (Apr 19, 2010)

The tank looks great!!!!

Roger


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## PiccoloJr (Oct 14, 2013)

Thanks guys. I'm probably going to slowly convert the tank to just that black rock.


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## jimmie (Oct 23, 2002)

You should kept the lava rock, take out the black rocks, get rid of the bubbles add another powerhead , don't put no plants in.


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## Mbuna_Bill (Oct 14, 2013)

I like the changes you've made so far. As most members stated, I agree that the lava rock needs to go and so do the bubbles. A wavemaker pointed toward the surface of the tank works great and gives the tank some current which Mbuna seem to appreciate as long as it's not over powering.


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## jimmie (Oct 23, 2002)

Yeah change my mind,, go with the black rocks,


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## PiccoloJr (Oct 14, 2013)

I am going to go with all black rocks in the next tank, It was easier to replace the black rock than it would have been to replace all of the lava rock that I had.
Here's what I came up with&#8230;

















Then I added some new fish and had to re-arrange the rocks again and it ended up like this&#8230;


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## k7gixxerguy (Jan 12, 2012)

Just a fyi, that lava rock can be rough on the fish if any haphazardly fly past some, its quite abrasive. Also it tends to hold and trap detritus among the stacks more than a less porous surfaced rock will. I have a bunch of it as well as lace rock that I got from a guy that I bought a ton of fish off of who was getting out of it. After all the maintenance and roughed up mbuna from them digging for fry around it, I removed 90% of it.

I do like the looks of it by the way though.  I have one piece of driftwood in my 67 gallon simply because it is very well seasoned and I buffer my water as well as watch my parameters pretty closely. Oh, and because the one section of it truly looks like a skull and it gives my synodontis lucipinnus somewhere to go and hide rather than around the overflow on my 67. Its creepy when they swim in the "mouth" and out of the eyes, lol.


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## k7gixxerguy (Jan 12, 2012)

What size is this tank btw? 90?


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## PiccoloJr (Oct 14, 2013)

Yeah it's a 90. I like the look of lava rock, but it is very dirty. Every time I clean out the filters they're FULL of red dust. I'll surely go with that black rock in my next tank. I also hate having a tall tank. I dislike trying to stack the rocks super high just to utilize the tank height.


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## PiccoloJr (Oct 14, 2013)

Yeah it's a 90. I like the look of lava rock, but it's really dirty. Every time I clean out the filters they're filled with red dust. I'm surely going with the black rock in the next tank. I also dislike having a tall tank because I don't like stacking the rocks super high in order to utilize the height. I don't think my fish have had any issues getting hurt on the lava rock, but then again maybe some of the things I thought were from aggression (missing/peeling scales) could have been from the rock?


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## NJmomie (Jan 17, 2013)

PiccoloJr said:


> Yeah it's a 90. I like the look of lava rock, but it's really dirty. Every time I clean out the filters they're filled with red dust.


Wow, did you clean the rocks before you put them in the tank? They shouldn't bleed out red dust at this point.


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## k7gixxerguy (Jan 12, 2012)

NJmomie said:


> PiccoloJr said:
> 
> 
> > Yeah it's a 90. I like the look of lava rock, but it's really dirty. Every time I clean out the filters they're filled with red dust.
> ...


+1


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## PiccoloJr (Oct 14, 2013)

I rinsed them, boiled them, and rinsed them again afterwards. They seem to constantly erode.


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## PiccoloJr (Oct 14, 2013)

My tank never has red dust in it, but the canister in paticular has a lot of red sediment in it when I clean it. I also seem to be constantly pulling out little broken off pieces of the rock. It's probably because I've been moving them around so much.


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