# 150 gallon dwarf cichlid tank, thoughts???



## lucky777*** (Dec 5, 2005)

So I've done she'll dwellers, mbuna, all male peacock , fronts etc..... My 150 is now empty and I was thinking about a large community tank with apistos, rams or some other south American dwarfs. Also I was considering doing a proper planted tank.

Anyone have experience with dwarfs in a large tank? 
What kind of tank mates did you have? 
How many pairs I such a large tank? Water flow and how much? 
I was envisioning a giant school of cardinals and rasboras, a large school of panda corys and then a bunch of mid level fish.

Any advice would be great or just share your experiences.


----------



## zimmy (Aug 13, 2010)

I kept apistos and keyhole cichlids along with large schools of cardinals, rummynose and rasboras in a heavily planted 5' 120G. I also had panda and sterbai cories along with cherry shrimp and horned nerite snails. It was a fun tank in that there was always lots of activity. I filtered it with an Eheim 2262 and 2217. Mine was a high tech set-up (with CO2) but you could go low tech by choosing plants carefully. I had 5 keyholes and 2 pairs of apistos.

I never had any aggression issues. Keeping it densely planted helped but was a lot of work maintaining the plants. If I was to do it again I would have chosen fewer plant varieties.

Here's a shot of the tank early on while the plants were still getting established.


----------



## lucky777*** (Dec 5, 2005)

zimmy said:


> I kept apistos and keyhole cichlids along with large schools of cardinals, rummynose and rasboras in a heavily planted 5' 120G. I also had panda and sterbai cories along with cherry shrimp and horned nerite snails. It was a fun tank in that there was always lots of activity. I filtered it with an Eheim 2262 and 2217. Mine was a high tech set-up (with CO2) but you could go low tech by choosing plants carefully. I had 5 keyholes and 2 pairs of apistos.
> 
> I never had any aggression issues. Keeping it densely planted helped but was a lot of work maintaining the plants. If I was to do it again I would have chosen fewer plant varieties.
> 
> Here's a shot of the tank early on while the plants were still getting established.


That's pretty much the concept with mix I was going for. Nice tank.

I'm thinking this is the way I want to go. How many dwarfs were in the tank. How many species how many of each?

What did you use for substrate for the plants? I have 2 36" dual t5 fixtures, is this enough?

Do you recommend any forums for planted tanks?

Hopefully you dont mind all the questions Basically I'll buy whatever I need to but I want to do it right.


----------



## zimmy (Aug 13, 2010)

I had 9 dwarf cichlids in the tank (5 keyholes, 2 pairs of apistos).

For substrate I used ADA Aquasoil and fine silica sand. I tried to keep them separate with a divider in the substrate with only moderate success. I wanted a sandy area for the cories but it was hard to keep separated and I never came up with a better way of setting it up.

There's a forum called The Planted Tank Forum that is very helpful. Another one is the Barr Report Forum (run by Tom Barr) that also has really great information.

The suitability of your lights will depend on what kind of plants you want to keep. Your tank is very deep so you'll need pretty strong lights or go with lower light plants. I had LEDs (from BuildMyLED) on a dimmer, which was great as it allowed me to have precise control over how much light I supplied to the plants. Tropica's website is very good for providing guidance on the types of plants to choose. I'd stick with the Easy plants unless you want to go the high tech route.

I'm happy to try answering your questions.


----------



## jamntoast3 (May 15, 2015)

Keyholes are awesome fish, I would get some again in a heartbeat if I had the space. Sorry to hijack your thread here. Zimmy, how did you secure that branch at the top?


----------



## zimmy (Aug 13, 2010)

jamntoast3 said:


> Zimmy, how did you secure that branch at the top?


I bought a square aluminum tube from HD and cut it to sit on top of the brace and then tied the driftwood to it. I've taken the idea a bit further on my current tank.



Sorry to hijack the thread Lucky777.


----------



## busterny (Feb 12, 2014)

zimmy said:


> jamntoast3 said:
> 
> 
> > Zimmy, how did you secure that branch at the top?
> ...


Can you post a pic of the brace? I also apologize for hitchhiking on the hijack


----------



## halffrozen (Sep 24, 2011)

Going to attempt the brace with-in the week when I get my spider wood.

So cool!


----------



## jamntoast3 (May 15, 2015)

Yea pls post a pic, I think I know what you mean but it would be nice to see what it looks like. That second pic looks amazing. Very cool


----------



## zimmy (Aug 13, 2010)

Deleted post.


----------



## zimmy (Aug 13, 2010)

Rather than hijack this thread completely, I've posted some photos at this new thread.


----------



## THQ2 (Nov 4, 2015)

Given that you have had Africans before and I suppose no set up for live plants eg., correct lights, CO2 injection, fertilizer, etc etc, are you sure you want to go planted route? Cleaning my planted tank is a huge PITA for me compared to my bare gravel tank. The amount of detritus and mulm that gets between all the plants is very high maintenance. Maintaining a good looking, proper planted tank is so much more work it's not funny. I am planning on just bleach bombing my entire planted tank (after rehoming fish) and starting all over again with fake plants like I have in my other tanks.

Are you positive you don't want to go the CA/SA large cichlid route? Would work well with just bare gravel and few flower pots. Live plants won't work as they will destroy them. Seems like a bit of a waste of a 150G to go with dwarf cichlids and tetra schools when you could basically do the same with a tank 1/3 of the size. My motto is don't waste a big tank on small fish! But each to their own.


----------

