New Tank Build

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j.aaron08

Feeder Fish
MFK Member
Sep 6, 2010
47
0
0
Michigan
Hello everyone, just thought I'd post my first freshwater Tank build. I was into reef tanks, but after a bad power outage and the loss of all my stock and fish; I've been out of the hobby for a while. This here's my 60 gallon 24x24 cube. I'm going to be adding Cichlids and corys only. Any advice on stocking would be greatly appreciated. Right now as you can see from the pics, I'm running a wet/dry sump, and a Eheim 2217 both packed with Seachem Matrix and Eheim strat Pro. I"m using a rio pump running at about 300-350gph in the sump, combined with the eheim at 200-250 gph. I'm running about 8-10 turnover in my tank. I may add a power head to move waste from the sand if necessary, but thought I'd wait and see. The river rock is all hand gathered from lake Michigan shoreline(It's great to live in Michigan). And the sand is just filter sand. The light just arrived this week, and I'm not to happy with it. It's a 24" marineland Single bright LED. The reviews on it said it was brighter than a single florescent, but it's not. I guess after being in saltwater using 1-2watt Leds, T5s, and Metal Halides not much else compares. Any ways back to stocking. I would like to add cichlids, I'm not to familiar with the different kinds other than american and African. Water parameters are no problem for me. I purposely chose cichlids do to there high ph and like of hard water. Very open to suggestions on species. Detailed stocking help would really be appreciated. Also if Cichlids are jumpers, I'll need to add some type of hood. What are some suggestions to use, tried eggcrate. Looks ugly on rimless. Thick Plexy maybe? I will be adding water here in a couple hours, just waiting on some pvc glue to dry. Thanks :D

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I would go for African cichlids in that tank. They'd look great and stake territories in the river rock giving the tank lots of color and movement.
 
IMG_0261.JPGIMG_0262.JPG Got it up and running this evening. No Leaks yet. Yey, probably the first one with out any kinks. African cichlids are hat I'd like to go for. However like I said I have no idea what kind, or how many? Cory's ?

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Is that about 60g? I would say if you wanted Africans, with the way the rocks are now, stick with lots of smaller fish. I think there could perhaps be some more hiding/territorial areas in the forefront of the tank.
 
Does anyone have any good links of comparability charts for African cichlids? Not with other species, but of other African cichlids.
 
Wow that looks great man. Africans would look nice have to agree.

These may help... the first one is of africans x africans i believe..

http://www.cichlidrecipe.com/cichlidchart/flashchartd.html

http://www.pinellasaquariums.com/Freshwater_compatibility_chart__.JPG
^ africans with other spices of fish.

http://www.malawicichlidhomepage.com/aquainfo/african_cichlids_harmony.html
^ seems like the guide lines for a peaceful african tank.

Awesome, this is exactly what I was looking for. Second question, I was thinking about keeping 8-10 juveniles in my tank. How fast would they out grow my tank, if at all. I'll probably upgrade within a couple years, but not guaranteed. So I want to be sure my fish are happy in my 60g.
 
They got roughly 1 - 2.5 a year depending on what cichlid and some grow faster but not much more. Like for me my peacocks grows rough around that with 1 or 2 water changes a week and 2-3 feeding a day. If you don't want to have big cichlids than you can go pseudotropheus demasoni. They maxed out at 2.5 to 3.5 and their both equally colorful. Love them they were my first cichlids and just love them before I move on to peacocks and haps. Hope that helps and good luck



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