240gal mbuna setup ideas

  • We are currently upgrading MFK. thanks! -neo
In that size tank, I would house large groups of mbuna. You will see more natural behavior, spread aggression, and have a great looking tank. If it were me, I would have a tank with these fish:

40 Ps demasoni - pombo rocks
24 Metriaclima msobo (4m,20f)
12 Ps acei - yellow tail
20 Iodotropheus sprengerae

I would also keep a group of catfish - 8 syno multipunctatus.

The driftwood is fine, just keep an eye on your PH.

Use some actinic bulbs to bring out the blues - especially in your demasoni and msobo males.
 
I have wood in my 240 hap/peacock tank and it has not messed with the PH at all. It's cypress I think (tag said monster swamp cypress or something like that. I have a reefkeeper controller on the tank and it reads the PH...it swings from 7.9 to 8.2 depending on the day. The wood is new for this tank and has not released any tannins that I can tell...maybe because of the kind of wood. I am lucky to have that PH coming out the tap so I don't add any buffers or anything and use estes ultra reef sand that does not effect PH. If you look at the link in my sig you can see how I did mine (lots of pics)...I also have some vid's in the media section above. I only have 2 different Mbunas in the tank and nothing but male haps and peacocks with a slew of catfish. If you want action and color...this is it...its like boiling water when I walk around the tank.

For light...i run 2 400w MH bulbs...0 algae or heat problems. I run them about 2' off the water so it not too bright and covers the whole tank. You have to run a UV and keep the nitrates and phosphates down tho or you will be in pea soup in no time. My tank has been running for several months now like this and only have to clean my glass every now and then...and even then its not bad. Over kill...definitely...beautiful shimmer effect in the water and great colors on the fish...definitely yes as well.


I'll make it easy for ya...heres the links to the vids :D

http://www.monsterfishkeepers.com/forums/showthread.php?t=266652

http://www.monsterfishkeepers.com/forums/showthread.php?t=267986
 
Sorry for the slow reply, i always post in the CA/SA forum and i forgot about this post. That tank looks amazing, thats alot of money invested in there. I happened to have a friend with a ton of Cyrtocara Moorii (blue dolphins) that he would give me for free. What would be a good mix with these? Can't find many nice colorfull electric yellows around here.
 
The mbuna that have caught my interest so far have been the following species:

Metriaclima SP. Zebra Chilumba
Metriaclima SP. Galilea
Cynotilapia SP. Mbweca
Cynotilapia SP. Chimete
Demasoni SP. Pombo Rocks
Red Zebra
Auratus

This will change as i am still looking through a bunch of mbuna. I have been keeping large SA/CA cichlids for quite a few years now. I was just wondering when introducing new mbuna to an established tank. What do you do? With my americans i would introduce during a water change and disturb and move rocks. Is this what you do or can you introduce them straight into a tank?

Thanks in advance, Jordan
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
MonsterFishKeepers.com
Top Bottom