# NEW TANK - Lake Malawi Cichlid



## Tobmeister (Jun 17, 2013)

Hi All,

New to the forum so hopefully you'll all be a great help for me as time passes.

Acquired a Fluval Roma 200 litre off a friend with Fluval 205 external canister filter and aiming to go for Lake Malawi cichlid tank and at present thinking Mbuna.

Anyway, cleaned all the tank up on Saturday and put my sand and rock in before filling it and starting the cycling. Picture below at my first attempt, looking for honest assessment please:



Now my first thoughts are that I haven't piled the rocks high enough but I'm really struggling to balance them all and I'm reluctant to use putty. Plus I've run out of rock! I'm happy to buy more but I'm worried about the added weight in the tank? My fiancee wasn't happy to take over the old cabinet (didn't match apparently!) so I went out and bought an oak cabinet to put it on. I'm sure it's probably stronger than the other one but it still worries me a bit.

So any advice on rockscaping please? What do you think of my attempt so far? Please be honest and no offence will be taken as I appreciate I'm not the most creative person in the world!

I'll keep you updated with progress.

Thanks,

Toby


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## SOU812 (Jun 11, 2013)

what are the dimensions of the tank?I have found that river rocks are difficult to stack,and make them look unnatural


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## Tobmeister (Jun 17, 2013)

100cm long x 40 cm wide x 50 cm tall. I quite like it how it is at the moment and it looks nice and fairly natural as well as having a few tunnels/caves for them to retreat in?


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## SOU812 (Jun 11, 2013)

Have you considered a species only tank?pseudotropheus saulosi is a really nice looking mbuna,they stay relatively small,3-4 " ,you could add a group of around 5 synodontis petricola,which are also one of the more common, smaller synodontis ,with the saulosi you could get away with 3 males and around 12 females


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## Tobmeister (Jun 17, 2013)

They look nice and I wanted to get some syno anyway. I was hoping to overstock the tank to reduce aggression. The LFS said I could have at least 30 fish in a tank that size providing I get the species right but I thought this seemed really excessive?


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## SOU812 (Jun 11, 2013)

I think with 15 saulosi and 5 synos,that would be bordering on overstocked,they stay relatively small for mbuna though,you are probably going to have to add more filtration as well,I doubt the fluval 205 will be enough,I had a 4 foot 75 gallon saulosi tank,which ended up with 1 male and around 12 females(cant remember exactly how many females),very rewarding set up,and one lucky male..lol


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## Tobmeister (Jun 17, 2013)

Thank you for your advice. Do you think the rockscape is suitable then? I am a bit worried about them toppling them and breaking the glass but can't risk stacking it too high. Just want it to look nice from the outset and concerned I dont have enough tunnels etc


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## SOU812 (Jun 11, 2013)

you'll need to at least double the amount of rocks,its safer to stack the rocks and then add the substrate,try leaving space between the glass and rocks,much easier to syphon and vacuum the sand during water changes


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## Tobmeister (Jun 17, 2013)

Just hope the oak cabinet can support that weight! Down side to keeping it off the glass is the fish toppling them and subsequently cracking the glass?


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## Deeda (Oct 12, 2012)

Is the oak cabinet designed for that particular aquarium or is it just a piece of furniture that you like?


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## Tobmeister (Jun 17, 2013)

Piece of furniture that I like. The tank is currently on it and seems OK (touches wood). I spoke to the manufacturer before I purchased it and they said it'd be strong enough?


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## Deeda (Oct 12, 2012)

Well without knowing how the cabinet is constructed, it will be difficult to say it is appropriate to support 400 pounds of water + the aquarium and other equipment. Additional pictures of the cabinet construction may be helpful to garner additional advice from the members here.


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## Tobmeister (Jun 17, 2013)




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## Tobmeister (Jun 17, 2013)

'Traditionally built' apparently lol


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## Mr2Good (May 9, 2013)

its always hardest o figure out a good scape to start with... if you could afford it.. i would buy 2-3 large pieces of river rock to offset the height... any attempt to stack the current rocks to the top may appear man made... use a large rock that will stand up on its side... and build u scape off that rock being the main focal point... do some research on the rule of thirds it will help u out alot man... best of luck!

if u need ideas u can hit the link in my signature i have my tank videos....


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## Tobmeister (Jun 17, 2013)

Thanks mate. Ye I must admit I'm thinking of two large pieces in there that will pretty much reach the surface and then building off it with the existing rocks I have in there. By incorporating the rule of thirds it should hopefully fill the tank a bit more and wont look so bare


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## Mr2Good (May 9, 2013)

Tobmeister said:


> Thanks mate. Ye I must admit I'm thinking of two large pieces in there that will pretty much reach the surface and then building off it with the existing rocks I have in there. By incorporating the rule of thirds it should hopefully fill the tank a bit more and wont look so bare


sounds like u got it! cant wait to see your new scape!.... here goes mine.. just to give u an idea! :thumb:


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## Tobmeister (Jun 17, 2013)

Lovely! Like the plants to give it a bit of colour. Did you glue any of the rocks together or just do it naturally?


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## Mr2Good (May 9, 2013)

Tobmeister said:


> Lovely! Like the plants to give it a bit of color. Did you glue any of the rocks together or just do it naturally?


no glue at all need to be able to move them to clean if needed... u will be surprised how u can us sand to create the illusion of hills and valleys in your tank... try sloping your sand front to back and build your scape from that... since your not building high with the smaller rocks u can just dig them into the sand and the the sand support them... if the fish do dig the rocks are small enough that a it wont hurt anything...

plants help add color and keep nitrates down.. as u kno cichlid water changes are a pain.. plants allow me to get away with 1 %75 water change a week...


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## letsgoflyers6387 (Jul 19, 2010)

To me it looks like that cabinet could support the weight. Is there a local river or creek that you could collect additional rocks from?


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## letsgoflyers6387 (Jul 19, 2010)

And Mr2Good... very nice tank. I've been considering adding plants to my tank. Have you had any problems keeping the plants with an elevated pH/hardness? Do your cichlids dig them up? It looks like you have some type of Anubias or Java Fern?


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## Mr2Good (May 9, 2013)

Yea I have plants with hard leaves java fern,anubus plants, amazon sword. So far I haven't had any issues with fishing digging. I have plants wedged between rocks with the exception of the sword. It has had time to root pretty good. Water hardness and ph has not effected them. Give it a try I really notice diff in nitrates the more plants I add. Best of luck to you man


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## Wentfor10 (Jun 18, 2013)

Well, it is awesome. :dancing: 
To me, I prefer more green plants in it.


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## Tobmeister (Jun 17, 2013)

Thank you Wentfor10, means a lot! The more I look it at at home the happier I am with it. I will try and find a larger river rock or 2 and rescape but if not I think this is a pretty good attempt and has plenty of caves etc. It looks a lot better in the flesh, the photo makes it look quite bare!

Agree on the plants front though, I think it needs a bit of colour or something in there. I'll go for some real plants maybe if recommended here


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## Yael (Nov 25, 2012)

I think you'd be better off with different, more easily stacked rocks - to my eye, river rock just doesn't look right when stacked anyway.


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## Mr2Good (May 9, 2013)

any update on the tank man?


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