# Rock out or not



## BigFish77 (Feb 1, 2009)

I have a 180 gallon mixed hap/peacock tank which is almost filled with lace rock and assorted hiding spots. Is it more beneficial to have open swimming areas or lots of cover and rock work. I will be posting a tank pic, once I get some feedback. The fish are doing fine as is, but I am wondering if aggression issues will increase/decrease with a lack of territory space. Please let me know what you have experienced. I change the rock work every 2-3 weeks so that I can get all **** out under the rock and am coming up on my next rock shift and am wondering if I should eliminate some or not in order to create a larger open swim area.
Tanks Alot
mike


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## venustus19 (Aug 30, 2007)

i do not have an all hap/peacock tank, but i always thought that haps/peacocks liked the open space and that mbuna are the ones that like the caves...

i would post a pic for us to comment on, and go from there... but i say take some out if you are filled to the brim with no open space for them to swim, but that's me...

good luck


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## bones06 (Sep 26, 2007)

My 180g is mainly haps/peacocks, with a few mbuna and cats. Once I took out a bunch of rocks the haps and peacocks were much happier. They love the wide open spaces that I made them and have more floor space to sift sand. The best part is that the mbuna and cats didn't mind at all, I just made sure to leave enough smaller caves for each one. I would suggest taking out rocks and giving them the extra space, but can't suggest too much more till I see some pics.


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## BigFish77 (Feb 1, 2009)

Here are some pics, the water is a bit foggy because I just made a water change. The dimensions for this tank are not the average for 180. It is 5 feet long, 2 feet wide and 2.5 feet tall. The rock work is not fully stacked all the way up. I tried to show the caves etc with huge clay pots, pvc, and slate which are made and then stacked with lace and coral rock. From these pics it seems small, but the width and height really make it large. It has only been set-up since Nov 2008, but it is not empty even though the pics make it look that way. I have penty of fish, just waiting for some to grow so I can select what I want to hold onto.


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## Lostlilkidd (Jan 27, 2009)

nice rock work!


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## @nt!x (Feb 9, 2009)

If it were mine I would add tall plants to the top. Place them in the corners. The fish love to hang out in them. It also gives them a place to hide all the way to the top. My tank is somewhat similar in that its a strange shape 3'x3'x2' 135g. Tall tanks are the best  Looks like an awesome tank, love the shape. I bet you cant wait for the fish to get larger.


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## @nt!x (Feb 9, 2009)

in this pic you can see my plants in the corner. I know they are fake but the fish love them


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## venustus19 (Aug 30, 2007)

looks nice, but very uniform in height... i would make one side taller than the other, or maybe even 2 seperate rock piles, but that is just my opinion... looks nice either way.
you are the one looking at it, so keep with what you like.
your tank dims seem weird, but also seems like it would make for one nice unique tank.


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## bones06 (Sep 26, 2007)

I like the actual rock material, but would personally redo it all. If you are doing haps/peacocks I would take out alot of the rocks and just make a couple small piles as suggested above. They really do not need alot of rocks, and prefer a more open floor space. That being said I would also take out the gravel and switch the substrate to sand. Believe me you wont regret the work it takes to do it. The fish will then show their true behavior, they love to move the sand around. My 180 used to have pvc, and clay pots under the real rocks but you could always see it in the pictures, I don't regret taking them out either. If you like alot of rockwork and the gravel then leave it, I just think they would like it better the other way. Just remember it's about what you like and the happiness of the fish, not what we think :thumb:


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## vfc (Feb 13, 2007)

My Haps and Peacocks also like open space. The Mbunas hide in the caves.

I see Fronts in the tank. They like caves that are completely sealed except the entrance (not stacked rocks). I ended up getting a few large caves from KensFish

http://www.kensfish.com/ceramicsupplies ... one640.JPG

Each Front has claimed one as a home.



I have a 150G Tall. Same dimension as your tank but only 4 ft wide (48Wx24Wx30H). I used tall plants, driftwood, and rock structure to allow the Peacocks to stake territories at various depths. I have a Fossorochromis rostratus who is happy swimming along the open space at the top of the tank.

Here's a pic. I have since added three more of the caves so each of the Fronts has their own home.


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## BigFish77 (Feb 1, 2009)

After taking out some of the rock and adding some plants...


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## venustus19 (Aug 30, 2007)

i like that much better... i do agree with bones 06 though about switching over to sand... i do like the gravel, better to have that(being more natural) than the colored gravel, but i am a fan of sand... my haps really enjoy themselves sifting through it all day long... 
i am also not a huge fan of plants in tanks, again just my opinion, if you are to keep them, maybe try hiding the pots somehow... put the pots behind some rock work or something, not quite sure, but overall, it is getting better with each pic...
nice job.


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## BigFish77 (Feb 1, 2009)

I pot the plants so I dont have to worry about them being up-rooted. I will try to hide them next water change to see what that is like. If I switch to sand, won't I loose some of the biological filtration I have with the gravel? If I switch how much sand do you use and what grade type etc? With the plants in pots it makes it easy to move them around and clean/ rearrange everything even though make look bit basic.


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## venustus19 (Aug 30, 2007)

i don't use plants, so i can't really give advise on that, especially with live plants, but i wuold try and hide them, just to try and make the tank look as natural as you can... i am a big fan of natural looking tank as opposed to colorful looking tanks, but again, that's just me...

as for the sand issue... what i did when i switched from gravel to sand is i emptied all my water into rubbermaid containers (i had help from gravity and my brother)... my tank was up on the 2nd floor, i drained into the rubbermaid containers into the main floor, and then filled tank back up in basement where it is now... so it was fairly easy for me with water flow since it was always going down... so, while i was draining the tank, i siphoned very well all the **** that was trapped in the gravel, and i actually put it all back in the tank after i made the switch to sand... i am not sure you really need to do that, i think with your filters, you probably have enough biological stuff, but i wanted to be on the safe side, so i kept it...

the sand i use is quickcrete medium sand from home depot... it is like $3-4 for 50lbs... you do not want as much sand as you would gravel... i have heard that with sand, there can be gasses that get trapped... Joea did a video of this, i would watch it and see what he says about it... when you do waterchanges, you should stir your sand up and around to release the gasses... of course, do this after yu shut off your filters... :wink: i think i have about 1.5" of sand in my tank...

good luck if you decide to switch.


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