i am going to start up a peacock tank i just aquired a 75gallon tank, pine wood cabnet and canopy, 48inch 4x65 orbit light with 4 moonlights made by current usa i need to know what type of light bulbs should i use cause they have a lot of types like what is a 50/50 bulb?? or Actinic bulb?? i think the 10,000k is like sunlight, and what kind of substrate should i use i was thinking of either crushed coral or reefsand, and how many should i stock up with?? the guy at the shop said 18 cuase they will kill eachother off and you can have like a max of 12 in the 75... i'm not sure if he was trying to sell me alot of fish or something... i am also getting confused with haplochromis and peacocks (alanacara or something like that) what kind of filtration would be good?? i was thinking of a power filiter hangon like the marineland penguin 350b or something... wet dry for african cichlids never really worked for me... this is going to be my first real cichlid tank (i dont consider my frontosa, dubois tropheus, calvus tank a real ciclid tank cause i have gravel and clay pots in the tank) and i want it to be awesome... thanks oh and what is good to build caves with?? what type of rock?? i was thinking of texas holey rock or is there anything better?? o and should i even use the moon lights?? will it benifit them or anything?? and the light has two switchs so if its too much light i can cut it in half from 260 watts to 130 watts...
please help having trouble deciding
- Thread starter xxt2goodxx
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There are certain types of bulbs out there that will Bleach out the colors of your peacocks. I know it sounds weird. I didnt believe it until one of my customers showed me his fish after he bought new lights. I will check to see if I still have the box from my bulbs to see what they are. I would go with this sand called African cichlid sand. I have it in my tanks and it works and looks great. It has a buffer already added to it to help maintain your PH. Stocking is going to depend on the size of fish you want. Peacocks are the Less Aggressive of the cichlids. I have yet to have one of my Peacocks kill each other. You have to be more worried about the Haplochromines and Mbunas killing each other rather than the peacocks. Haplochromines and Peacocks are both from Lake Malawi. Haplochromines get much larger than your Peacocks do. They are considered open water Predators and will feed on smaller fish when they get large enough. Alonacara is part of the Scientific name for peacocks. If you see that then you are getting some type of peacock. If you want a variety of colors in your tanks go with the peacocks. If you want the larger Bad Ass Appearance of the Predators go with the Haplochromines. I use two emperor 400 HOB Filters in my 150 Show tank. I added a sponge filter in the atnk and that works great. To build caves you can take PVC pipe and cover it with the sand so it blends in. They love large holes and caves. If you do peacocks use texas holey rock. It is more expensive, but worth it. It has tons of natural made tunnels and is a buffer for your PH too. If you go with Haps they swim more in the open water. I am not sure where you are located in Florida. I am in Palmetto Florida just south of Tampa. If you need anything (fish, Advice, etc.) let me know.
tuffa rock is also great to add to help with the ph... peacocks love said so have open areas to let them dig after feeding. Also don't use crushed coral use sand they will dig and if the coral is too big or sharp they will cut themselves. Do not use too small of sand or it is a pain when cleaning and will take time to settle... just what I did for my peacock tank... I know it says there are a few mbuna under my name in there but i have to remove all the gravel left in my tank and finish off with all sand instead one side so they will come out then. I ran out of room in my temp tank for them... Now their own larger tank is ready... FYI for those how see my posts
thanks you guys. N-E CICHLIDS i'm located in orlando and i just started to visit tampa alot now... cause i have nothing better to do... just drive and think... maybe i will stop by your shop one day and pick up a few!! thanks for the advice too mike!!
I moved to all sand last night. Unfortunately I had to go to another store tp find more sand. When I asked for help find it in the tank filled Uncle Bills the guy there told me that the sand I wanted was for marine only... I told him thanks and bought it anyways since it said African cichlids on the bag... It looks alot better and I got the livingstoni out and the lab. I was looking at the livingstoni and now that he is three inches I noticed he is a ventus not a livingstoni... The trouble buying baby fry and raising them up... Don't always get what you thought. Oh well...
the sand i was going to get was CaribSea Seaflor Super Reef Sand... is that the one you are talking about?? only thing is that its like 80 lbs i need and its like expensive.... but its also agronite too so it will buffer the water for me
you guys will spend alot of money on that sand why not go with pool filter sand about 10 dollars for 50 pounds
pool sand is white quartz sand or silica sand both are really fine and i think it will clog up my filiter... and it wont buffer the water...