My first "big" aquarium

  • We are currently upgrading MFK. thanks! -neo
Really wish I was at home to do some work on this tank, but still out of town for a wedding in the family. Person watching the fish says everything is still good and no more adventurers to the overflows. The replacements lights and purigen has arrived so I will be setting all that up when I return, along with the rocks and fish.
 
So I got back home yesterday to my a beat up UPS box which was supposed to be my new lights. Of course all the bulbs were in the fixture, and all of them broke. They are the Coralife 65 W bulbs, so about 1/2 the cost of the light is going to need to be replaced. Called the company I bought from and they seem to very acting quickly to send out the replacement bulbs, hopefully they arrive soon. Now I just get the fun part of cleaning out all the small glass pieces. I actually bought some extra light bulbs from another company that also arrived, so I may just put one bulb in it for the mean time in the older fixture to get a full tank of lights.

Checked the ammonia and its zero, so things are going smoothly. Added 5 more Cichlids last night (2 more electric yellows, 5 total now, a small blue peakcock, some albino hybrib I think, as well as some orange/red hybrid). Everyone seems to be getting along fine.

What would be a good number of cichlids to have in this 120 gallon? I plan to add more rock work (entire back of tank) this weekend.
 
With your filtration you could keep quite a few fish, as long as your keeping up with your waterchanges. Tank looks nice so far so good, keep it up. Your cichlid count is good, could maybe add some sort of small tough catfish, or even a pictus. Your cichlids should leave it alone. I like variety in my tanks.(fish swimming at all levels.)
 
I got tired of netting the fish out of the overflows, so I put some plastic gutter guard screens in the overflows with some zip ties until the fish get bigger. Only the smallest one can fit in there, but hopefully they won't. Planning to go to same landscaping place as before to get lots more rocks and maybe a piece of driftwood if they have anything I like this time.

On the other topic of number of cichlids that can fit in this tank, I am planning on moving in 2 years (when I finish PhD) and then will be able to buy a house and get a much larger tank (still glad my apartment in on a concrete pad). I haven't been able to find a good reference for how fast an African will go to its full size, so I am wondering if I can put 30-40 in here and they will be fine for 2 years, or more or less. Would love some input on this topic!
 
I went to the landscaping place again and picked up about 100 more lbs of rock to finish up what I had planned for the rock work. I really like the back wall, but I am thinking about maybe taking out the few rocks in the front and replacing them with some driftwood?

So far everyone seems quite happy, most of the time only about half of the fish are visible because they keep swimming through the open area between all the rocks. Idea is lots of hiding spots and territory for lots of cichlids to join the current 8.

Here are some pictures of the updated rock work, water is still a bit hazy, I washed off the rocks before putting them in, but a few of them have been bubbling for a while, and I did a 30% water change at the same time. Enjoy!

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Plan is to keep stocking it up, 5-10 fish per week, till the tank hits 30 and then see how the water parameters hold up if more go in. But right now with 8, it looks very bare, so maybe even up to 40-50.
 
jtalley;3155289; said:
I went to the landscaping place again and picked up about 100 more lbs of rock to finish up what I had planned for the rock work. I really like the back wall, but I am thinking about maybe taking out the few rocks in the front and replacing them with some driftwood?

So far everyone seems quite happy, most of the time only about half of the fish are visible because they keep swimming through the open area between all the rocks. Idea is lots of hiding spots and territory for lots of cichlids to join the current 8.

Here are some pictures of the updated rock work, water is still a bit hazy, I washed off the rocks before putting them in, but a few of them have been bubbling for a while, and I did a 30% water change at the same time. Enjoy!
Click to expand...

Looking really good dude. I would stay away from drift wood in an African Cichlid tank doesn't look right to me :grinno: just my opinion, plus drift wood lowers ph.
 
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