Tank stocking questions.

[c_man7]

I have two african cichlid tanks, one mbuna tank and one shell dweller.

40gallon long 48"x12"x16"H
Mbuna
6 yellow lab between 1.25 and 2.25"
5 socolofi between 1 and 1.75"
5 cyno jalo reef between 2 and 2.25"
1 bristlenose 2"
2 sun sun 302 filters

50gallon low boy 48"x24"x10"
9 adult multies
50+ fry from wiggler to .25"
3 possible 4 julie maleiri 2.5" and a couple fry, I had 4 but have only seen 3 lately.
6 syno petricola between 2-3"
1 bristlenose
2 sun sun 302 filters

How do these tank look as far as stocking. The shellie tank has been up for 9mons or so, only problem is I'm sure the synos are eating the multie fry.

The mbuna tank for about a month or so. I ran all 4 filters on the 50 low boy for almost a month then switched them to the 40 gallon to skip a cycle. I am thinking of bumping up filtration on the mbuna tank its pretty cloudy which i think is from not rinsing the aragonite sand.

 

[Gourami Swami]

The sand shouldn't cloud the water for a whole month. Do you have test kits? Any ammonia, other concerning levels? What is your water change schedule like?

The 40 gallon seems a bit overstocked to me. It's really the smallest tank you could possibly keep mbuna in, I would have stuck to a group of 10 fish, of the same species. Or I suppose 2 groups of 5. All the filtration in the world won't remove nitrate from the water, so water changes are more important than getting more filtration IMO. And with two canisters, that's already quite a good amount of filtration for a 40 gallon.

The 50 stocking is fine, though the multi fry will overrun you if you don't sell them off.

 

[c_man7]

I was told on another forum to stock it the same as a 55 gallon tank and most places have 12-15 total fish. I planned to keep the stocking of the 40 down to 12 with 4ish of each species, I just got a couple more of each to weed out any males or runts. I try to do about a 10-15g water change everyweek on the tank. All levels are fine. One of the larger labs keeps digging pits and it kicks up so much dust. When I vacuum the sand the water looks like milk in my bucket. I thought it was possibly a mini cycle but anytime it touch the sand it makes a cloud of dust. I've never had a problem like this. All my other tanks are crystal clear aside from my convict tank but thats from tannins.

 

[deeda]

Which brand and grain size of aragonite sand are you using?

I often seen the complaint of cloudiness when Mbuna move this type of sand around but have no personal experience using this product.

 

[c_man7]

It's the caribsea aragonite, I've used it in my salt tanks, I didn't rinse it off this time and I'm starting to regret it. I was planning on running a aquaclear 50 or so stuffed with floss and see if it would help clear it up some.