I deas for stocking.

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M

mzhantsche

Feeder Fish
MFK Member
Nov 3, 2010
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I am looking to stock a 60 gal tank. 45"x16"x24". I wanted to do a heavy planted tank. I know what direction I wanted to go on the plants but I really want to do cichlids as well. I know nothing about them and im slowly reading the stickys. I am getting kind of lost because of how much information their is.

So what would be suggestions for a 60 gal planted tank. No upgrading so im assuming dwarf cichlids will be a large part of my choices. I’m looking for a very busy tank and if possible several different types of cichlids.

Don’t be afraid to honest. If theirs no way a heavily planted tank with work with cichlids....let me know.
Thanks
 
First, are you doing high-tech or low tech? What is your lighting? Substrate/co2? Certain plants are also more liked by cichlids, so it would nice to see your list as well.

Anyways, before I would bring in any fish I would let me plants root and grow for at least 2-3 months. You want the plants strong and growing before any cichlids get there. However, lets talk about fish. Rams and Apistos are gonna work best. You can do angels and discus too.
 
Intense lighting 1000K 54w. the light will be shorter than the tank but will be hung from the ceiling so the light disperses more. So the ends of the tank will have slightly less direct light.
Probably a plant substrate. looks like tiny lava rock.
DIY Co2 for now.
Plant wise...simple stuff like Anubis, tiger Lillis, jungle vial, nothing too delicate. I would like to grow a large are of dwarf hair grass.

I was also planning on building a rock wall background for the tank. I wanted to put lots of ledges to create barriers for the fish. The rock walls tend to raise the ph high. Probably around 8.0. Will this limit things?

Definitely going to get the plants well established before I add fish.
 
I'm not sure if you know this already but watts isn't what is important, PAR is what is important. However, 54 watts is generally not enough for a 60 gallon tank. You should look for around 180 watts of light (3 watts x 60 gallons). I would go some dirt on the bottom, eco-complete/flourite mid-layer, and then a top layer of sand/gravel.
 
my cichlids always messed my live plants up. I had better luck with community fish. gl show pics when up and running.
 
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