# Officially committed to a 75G African tank



## hose91 (Mar 5, 2014)

I'm Hose. 30 some years ago I failed miserably as a teen aged fishkeeper, and I've decided that now is a good time to try again. I've recently retired from the Navy and returned to grad school in preparation for a career change, and as such, I have several advantages over my 13 year old self, namely: my own house, a flexible grad student schedule, some disposable income, and the internet, not necessarily in that order! I've given it some thought and research over the last couple of months, picked out a spot in the house near our home office alcove (which I mostly occupy) and been soaking up the info here on this forum. Last weekend I tracked down a 75G acrylic tank on craigslist locally, along with the sellers various fish stuff (she kept discus for a few years) , and tonight I've just finished ordering a couple Eheim 2217's and a current Sat+ light fixture. So the train has left the station...

In my internet travels across the many freshwater sites in general, this forum impressed me with the knowledge and dignity that is generally displayed here, and now that I've actually committed some funds to this project, I'm working hard to not be too overwhelmed by the choices (and the fear of jacking it up terribly! The following are some thoughts I've had while contemplating starting this new hobby, and I find it helpful to put them down "on paper" as it were. So, in no particular order...

- I've got three boys, and I think they'll help some and be involved, this (first?) tank is not "for them" but rather for me. They're already talking about putting "pirate ships and divers with the bubbles" in (the youngest are 8 and 9), and perhaps they'll be in line for their own tank in due time. I'm hoping that there might be some good teachable moments, the circle of life, survival of the fittest, babies and parents, basic chemistry, etc.

- In the big picture, I was looking for "salt water color' without the salt, and wanted a tank that was entertaining and active. I'm ok with a little work to maintain it. If I wanted to do no work, I could have just installed the aquarium screen saver on my PC, and if I wanted to care for fish 24/7, I'd have applied for work at the Seattle Aquarium! However, I think you always appreciate things a little more when you have to work for them, so all that led me to a cichlid tank, most likely a Mbuna setup.

- The tank will be on the second floor (acrylic was attractive for this reason), but in an external wall corner, and I think the floor joists run perpendicular to the tank. It's between a window and a glass door, but they're west facing, and this corner gets no direct sunlight (plus I live in Seattle, so sun isn't usually a huge player!). I ended up with a 48" x 15" by 24" tank, oak stand and canopy, so a bit tall for a 75G, and not as much floor space as I'd have ideally liked, especially since I interested in adding a 3D background down the road. I'm planning on painting the back black this weekend and leak checking it. I rounded up some pool filter sand, eggcrate, pure ammonia and some new "fish tank only" 5g buckets today in prep for the rockscape and fishless cycle. I have an API master test kit from the prev owner, but it looks pretty rundown (and is old enough to include the hardness test, which is no longer in the master test kit that I bought today). We're on well water here, so I'm not sure what the water profile will look like, but I'll get that done this week.

- Rocks/hardscape are probably next, while I wait for the filter and lights to get here. I've not had any luck finding a super local stoneyard yet, but will hop on the ferry across to Seattle this week and check one or two out. (Finals are over Tues, then 10 days of spring break! Not so crazy as a 44 year old family man. Laughed to watch my younger classmates planning their trips to CA, or Mexico, or someplace warm and sunny!).

- I'm trying (unsuccessfully) to not think too much about stocking since its likely to be a few weeks before the tank is ready, but I've definitely perused the cookie cutter setups for some ideas, and will be soliciting opinions on those ideas in the future.

- Closest LFS are the two big box chain stores (only real options without getting on a ferry). OK for supplies, not so much on the fish. I've strongly considered mail order, but then discovered that there is a fairly large fish dealer in Portland, OR about 3 hours south of me, and about 20 minutes from my Dad's house in southern WA, so when the time comes, I think we'll road trip down there and bring them home.

- In the time it took to write this, I watched most of the 1 hour "chill out tank video" in the Lake Malawi thread. Looking forward to being able to do that in person! If you have any thoughts on things I might be missing during a first time set up, please chime in. Also, without breaking any "personal info" rules, should you have any knowledge of the local Seattle "fish scene" that you'd like to share (LFS to frequent (or avoid), swap meets, breeders, etc), I'd love to hear them in a PM.

Thanks a ton for reading this far! Happy fishkeeping!

Hose


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## zimmy (Aug 13, 2010)

Welcome to the forum, Hose. I enjoyed reading your post. I can relate to your point about being a middle-aged man in grad school. I'm about a month from finishing the journey (for now) and am counting down the days.

Sounds like you've done your research as you return to the hobby.

I would replace that API master test kit with a new one. They have a tendency to give you strange readings when they get old. The buckets will come in handy but you may also want to consider getting a "python" to make water changes easier. If you stick with getting mbuna, you'll need to be doing big ones and the buckets will get to be a pain.

Look forward to hearing about your progress.


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## ozman (Sep 7, 2012)

hi and welcome to the forum.
it certainly sounds like your on the right track.
the extra hight will be of no help with mbuna. it sounds like this is the way you want to go, but given your 48x15 i'm sorry to say that you will best stocking at a 55g size.
unfortunately floor size is very important, not just gallons. don't be disheartened by this as you can still have an awesome looking tank with breeding etc for you and the boys 

great to hear inmo that your using pfs sand, easy to clean and the mbuna love to dig pits by excavating with little mouths full and then you see this little head pop out and spit the sand out the way. so funny to watch, great characters.
you don't need eggcrate, whilst some use it many don't. so long as your rock are stacked down on the glass not on the sand and be carefull to stack securely you wont have any probs. re the sentence above on this point.
as far as a 3d b/g goes have a look at universal rocks flexible b/g's they do a fairly flat one that *** used in my 5ftx18in and still gives the visual appeal of looking 3d (limited of course) that goes inside the tank. i love it.

don't forget a good quality heater, my personal pref is ehiem/jagger but there other quality products to choose from. please don't waste money on cheap rubbish as this is very important for your climate. (im in oz even so it does get chilly too)
there are much more knowledgable people here than me so over to others.
your going to love getting yourself and your boys into this hobby, every best wish...ozman


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## hose91 (Mar 5, 2014)

Zimmy - Thanks for the welcome, glad to run into another "old man" grad student. I'm just about halfway through. First quarter was fantastic, then the novelty wore off a bit and I remembered why I was so happy to graduate the first time! Thanks for the advice on the API kit. I did buy another already, as I didn't trust it, necessarily, but I wasn't sure if that mistrust was justified or not. Not sure if I could keep some of the regents or just toss it altogether. Unless otherwise advised, I'll probably just toss it. Funny, but I also bought the water changer yesterday as well. I have the buckets for general "mess containment" but I'm definitely past the "bucket hauling phase" of my life. I inherited an adapter from the prev tank owner, and confirmed yesterday that I can hook up to the closest bathroom sink!

Ozman - Glad to be here! That bums me out a bit on the 55G stock plan vs the 75G stock. I would have preferred the lower, wider tank, but it was a nice acrylic tank, close to me, decent price and so I pulled the trigger. This is one reason I'm conflicted over getting a 3D background from the outset, since I feel like the fish will swim higher and utilize more of the tank with a rock background vs the more traditional rockscapes. I've not gone hunting yet for rocks, and it was always my intent to get some height in the tank anyhow. I love the bg's from Univ Rocks. Any thoughts on securing them into an acrylic tank? I hear that silicone and acrylic are not terribly compatible. Maybe some of their big Holey Rock pieces would work instead. I'm excited to get the tank up and running, but want to minimize regrets later, and thus get it "right" the first time!

I've inherited 5 heaters with my tank, at least one of which is an Eheim/Jaeger. I've not op-checked any of them yet to make sure they work, but I'm hopeful that they will, and if not, I'm all over it during the cycle!

I'm definitely leaning towards the Mbuna for their personality and limited size (4-5 inches max in a 4' tank seemed appropriate) and because you can get a few more fish for the same space vs Hap/Peacocks. I'm not terribly interested in CA/SA cichlids at this point, so I'm limiting myself to the Africans for now. I've definitely thought about the stock plan, and have lots of questions, but am trying to keep the cart behind the horse, as it were! Thanks for the comments and advice, looking forward to the experiences!!


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## ozman (Sep 7, 2012)

sorry if *** bummed you out a bit re stocking, but thats inmo. as said you will still have an awesome tank with smaller mbuna :thumb:

well my tank is glass re siliconing a b/g and don't know about how you go with acrylic so i can't help you on that....others will.

when your ready perhaps start a post in the lake malawi forum to get good info on what you would like, and see what others think re compatibility m/f ratios, your tank size etc :wink:


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## hose91 (Mar 5, 2014)

Alright. I tracked down my first new (to me) tank from Craigslist


Ordered some new accessories for my new toy. Great fun!


Spent some evenings in the garage practicing rock stacking for the enjoyment of my future Mbuna. I found this to be harder to do than it looks. 
Great inspiration from the many outstanding tank owners on this forum helped a ton!


Put it all together, moved it to it's final destination in the house, and added some water. Eggcrate under the rock helps. I sort of accidentally stacked the 
2 largest ones, looking for height, and they fit together like that very solidly, despite the leaning look to it. Ammonia in, fishless cycle under way. On day 7 now, 
tank processes 3-4 ppm ammonia in 24hr pretty handily, but the nitrite processing bacteria seem to be a bit slow to catch up. I've slowed the ammonia input, working
on multiple small water changes to keep the nitrites down below 5 ppm while the bacteria get on board. 


Now planning the family trip to the large semi-local fish store for the first tank denizens, probably next weekend. Here's my assistant Fishkeeper, Bentley, 
offering 155 pounds of help. He would get INTO the tank, if he could, fish or no fish. The tank ended up on the wall behind the rocks in this picture. It's hard to tell 
in the dark in the prev picture. Gets nice ambient light all day, but not much direct sunshine. There's a deck just outside that also makes a convenient spot to store extra gear


I have a wavermaker to put in, and some fake plants that may or may not go in, once the cycle is complete. I can't wait to get the fish in, should be fun, 
thanks for following along! Off to the Lake Malawi forum for some stocking advice!


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## ozman (Sep 7, 2012)

hey just wanted to say thats one cute dog. is it a flat coat retriever? i had a golden retriever who lasted 17yrs, i was devestated when he left the family  
give him/her plenty of love during your new passion for cichlids hey!
mine was all over me when i was doing my first cichlid tank and reminds of where your at, as if to say whats this, don't forget me, i'm still your best friend :thumb:


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## boomer92 (Apr 17, 2013)

I like how your rocks turned out. Hope I can achieve the same look. Heading to landscape supply in next week or two for some limestone.


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## hose91 (Mar 5, 2014)

Thanks for the good words, and good luck at the rock yard. Hopefully you've got a good sized wholesaler with a big selection of stones. I drove around my local quarry twice before stopping in front of a pile. Had I to do it over, I might go with a a darker brown or more salt and pepper granite, instead of the pinkish champagne color. A spray bottle or bucket of water to help you know what they look like wet would also have been helpful. I think I'd focus on the biggest ones first. I forgot my tape measure when I went, and would have liked to know how tall the rocks I was looking at were relative to how tall the tank was. Once you have the tallest "centerpiece" kind of rocks, then you can get a big variety of shapes and sizes for the rest. I'd strongly recommend cutting out a piece of cardboard the size of your tank footprint, and have a go at stacking them inside the footprint, where you have lots of room to maneuver and to get the sense of how each rock balances. I enjoyed that part quite a bit. Once you're happy, take a picture to help you put it back together in the tank close to how you liked it. I left that low spot in the middle, thinking the fish would use that part of the water column, but based on constructive criticism here, I'll probably add some more rock to build it up a little once my cycle is complete.


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## partsrep (Mar 14, 2005)

Looking good!


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## boomer92 (Apr 17, 2013)

Thanks for the great advice! There is a large supplier nearby with what looks like lots of choices online, so I'm hopeful!


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