Idea's for Iggy's first 50 gallon Cichlid Tank

[Iggy]

Hello!

Well, I decided to give-up my goldfish to someone who has a nice yard pond and try my hand at Cichlids.

The tankwill be up in our dining room, in my 48" x 12" x 20" tank (50 gal). This tank has typical low lighting (2x30w) and I have two Whisper 40 filters on it right now, but I can add or remove filters as needed.

My tap water is a steady 7.8ph, and ithe tanks lowest wate temperature in that room is about 74F, but I will heat it to whatever the species likes.

I plan on using sand as a substrate, getting a pile of lace rock and stacking it up with a rock background OR getting some bleached coral and a blue background.

I would like a nice 4 to 5" cichlid species tank, something that will tolerate my pH and not outgrow my current tank.

I am not partial to rams (low pH and smaller bodies) so other ideas would be helpful.

 

[TaffyFish]

How about a Tanganyikan community?

1m 5f cyprichromis leptosoma
1m altolamprologus calvus or compressiceps
1m neolamprologus tretocephalus
1 pair julidochromis ornatus (start with 6 juveniles)
4 synodontis petricola
1f ancistrus dolichopterus

It would be good to get all the above as juveniles so they grow up together and aggression is minimised, but the bristlie needs to be at least 2" or the cichlids will think it's food.
You won't need much in the way of plants but add some anubias nana, vallis gigantea, java fern, java moss if you need some greenery. The rockwork is more important, pleny of substrate-level caves, plenty of height in the rockwork for hiding places. No bogwood at all, you don't wont your water being softened, so attach the plants to rocks or resin decor. Consider keeping the vallis in pots and burying them in the sand or obscuring them in the rockwork.
You'll need to keep the tank at 77oF / 25oC. If you get tank bred stock your pH should be fine so long as your GH is 10 and the KH at least 4. You'll need to add bicarb and Epsom salts if your water's not hard enough.

 

[blueturq]

7.8ph hmmmm do you care to lower it??

Why not give a group of maybe 4 Keyhole Cichlids a try, they are hardy(lower the ph just to play it safe though), they are NOT picky about food, and they are REALLY peaceful. And maybe you can get a group of Cories.

Do you want a biotope type tank or just cichlids in general????

What you could do is maybe get 4 Discus
4 Keyhole Cichlids
6 cories
And maybe........ 2 Gold Weather/Dojo Loaches(not from the amazon, but if you don't really care about a biotope then.....)

And have the ph at 6.0-7.0(that range is good) and have a temperature of 80-86F(good range aswell)

 

[steve535]

how about
3 pseudo, acie
2 fuelleborni
2 synodontis multipuntatus

 

[FroggyFox]

I like the bright colors...you could get a nice group of mbuna in there Or yellow labs (yellow labs aren't mbuna are they? sorry...shows how much I know about cichlids...)

Congrats on the changes though...we look forward to seeing pictures and hearing stories

Yellow lab:
http://www.myfishtank.net/freshwaterprofiles.php?profile=139

The other one I really like is called the Demasoni...but from what I hear they're very aggressive, even though they're beautiful. Vibrant blue and black vertical stripes. http://www.thetropicaltank.co.uk/Fishindx/demasoni.htm

 

[Iggy]

I think I have decided on a Malawi/mbuna cichlid tank. My pH is best matched up to Malawi (7.8) and they have the size variety in 4 to 5" fish I can fit into my 50 gallon.

I like the Zebra variety, the Electric Yellow Cichlids (yes Froggy, the are mbuna per http://www.cichlid-forum.com/articles/l_caeruleus.php)

I plan on getting at least 7 males, all different types, all at the same time, and overstocking a little. I will have the two whisper 40 filters (with added bio-ceramics inside) and a fludized bed bio-filter (sand canister) running as well, so I should have enough biological filtration and surface agitation to keep the water well aerated.

I plan on using sand this time, instead of argonite or the treated coarse cichlid gravel. And lots of lace rock to form caves and bridges. About 50 lbs of sand and 50 lbs of rock should do the trick.

Just need to save up a little before I go to the store, its gonna be a $400.00 trip!