90 Gallon African Cichlid Tank

[Jeff1192]

Well I am finally underway in this project. I have been wanting to do this for a couple of years but life got in the way.

I had kept all the equipment from my 90 gallon planted tank when I shut it down in 2012 because of multiple anticipated moves in a relatively short time (the joys of building a house). I decided to sell off the tank because I didn't like the idea of an empty tank sitting in storage and being moved around multiple times before being used again.

Well the other day I got a great deal on a 90 gallon that is only a couple of years old and in immaculate condition. The person also threw in a Marineland C-360 canister filter that is almost brand new and a 200 watt Eheim heater. I hadn't planned on starting this project so soon but I couldn't pass up the deal on the tank.

So tonight I officially got to work. I have to give the tank a thorough cleaning and then I want to paint the back of the tank black. My last tank was a stick on black background because I hadn't heard about painting the back until it was too late.

Next week (hopefully Tuesday) I'm going rock hunting. I have a couple of spots out in the sticks that I'm going to go searching through and a couple of landscaping places I want to check. I'm going for as natural a look as possible so I want the rocks to be similar. I've also been reading up on the rule of thirds and hardscaping advice for cichlids. So the plan at this point is a larger rock pile on one side, a smaller one on the other and open space in the middle. I'm also going to go with Caribsea Ivory Coast Cichlid Sand for substrate. I'm going to add the substrate after I hardscape the rocks (due to digging that I'm expecting). This makes me a little nervous having the rocks right on the glass but I know it will be fine from the reading I've been doing. I thought about egg crate but lots of people complain that the cichlids dig so much the egg crate ends up showing and looking terrible.

Tonight I figured I'd get a head start on cycling one of the canister filters so I fired up the Marineland with a big rubbermaid full of water. I dosed the rubbermaid with ammonia and added a small dirty sponge from my 15 gallon to help give it a kick start.  I figure by starting the fishless cycle now it will lower the time I have to watch the tank all set up and full of water with no fish in it (which might drive me crazy...haha).


So here's my equipment list as it stands now:

-Eheim Pro II canister
-Marineland C-360 canister
-2 x Eheim 200 watt heaters
-T5HO fixture with 4 bulbs (I think I'll go one actinic and one white bulb so I don't get too much algae but I'm looking for advice on this one ie: how many bulbs, will actinics still promote algae growth, ect)
-probably a power head or 2 aimed behind the rocks to ensure debris doesn't pile up there

The first thing I want to change is the light fixture. I'd love to upgrade down the road to LED. Something like the Current USA Satellite plus or the Aquatic Life Edge LED light is what I have in mind.

Now to start organizing all the extra equipment I have from my planted tank and start my "garage sale". Too bad but I won't be able to make the OVAS garage sale. It would have been great timing.

Jeff

[Mike L]

Hey Jeff
  I recently did a rebuild of my 75 community tank. You can see pics in my profile. I was changing out the gravel for aragonite and decided to change the rock I had for something new. I had been reading a lot about aquascaping for cichlids and the use of rock. Many of the articles mentioned that the rift lakes are home to rocks as small as pebbles to as large as a car.
Their point was that the aquarist should strive to have some rocks that are quite large in the tank. It offsets the smaller ones and gives much better scale to everything in the tank especially the fish . I did just that with very pleasing results.
Like you I was concerned about the digging with regards to egg-crate but someone suggested that I cut the egg-crate slightly smaller then the base of each rock that will be touching the glass leaving the rest of the glass free of eggcrate. Worked great and even if that rock is exposed at the base the support doesn't really show. I personally would use it as it does disperse the weight. Just remember to fill the squares of the eggcrate with some substrate before settling the rock.

Regards Mike

[Jeff1192]

That's a great idea and it would help with my nerves of putting the rocks right of the glass while ensuring that the egg crate never shows. As for the size of the rocks I completely agree and when I go looking I'm hoping to find everything from small soccer ball size ones to pebbles. I think we may even have read the same article!

[Mike L]

 Read that article that I sent you. Even though it is a bout tangs it is one of the best articles I've ever read and most of the info works with Malawians as well. BTW I'm still going to try  and convince you to go tangs. You won't regret it.
Mike

[Jeff1192]

Yes I did read it.  Very interesting and useful info for sure. Still leaning towards Malawi but there's still time. No way I'll have things up and running for at least 5 or 6 weeks probably.  Haha

[Jeff1192]

Ok so the egg crate was picked up today along with some paint.

I finished scrubbing all the green spot algae that was on the glass and cleaned the outside of the glass off. The first coat of black paint is now done as well.

[Mike L]

 Smart idea to use paint. I will never go back to backgrounds again. What are you using for paint and application.

[Jeff1192]

I read a bunch of peoples experiences for painting the back and ended up going with a semi-gloss latex. I'm using a big roller to put it on and touching it up with a brush on the edges. I have used the stick on black backings in the past but was always frustrated by air bubbles or humidity marks.

Jeff

[fischkopp]

Looking forward to see this tank up and running! What fish will you be keeping in this setup?

[Jeff1192]

I'm still not 100% sure. I'm leaning towards saulosi, acei, maybe yellow labs or rusties. It wil probably depend on what I can find once it running and cycled.  I'm thinking a day trip to Montreal will be in order to check out Quebec-Cichlides and a couple of other places.

I'm planning on going rock hunting tomorrow. I'd like to build up one side of the tank with rock work at least 2/3 of the way up to the surface. I may look at using waterfall foam to keep things secure. I've seen a couple tanks on the  cichlid forum where guys did that.

[Mike L]

 hey Jeff
In all my years keeping large rock piles I have never had a rock slide. Just make sure that each rock is secure and place the base rocks on the glass not the substrate. At some point you are going to need to remove the rocks for some reason and you want that to be somewhat easy.
Mike

[charlie]

Hey Jeff, waiting to see the end result & keep in mind they are some plants that compliment the cichlid tanks  
Errol
Check out the images in post #105 on page 11
http://www.houstonfishbox.com/vforums/showthread.php?30284-Complexity-s-90g-Planted-Tank-Journal/page11

[Jeff1192]

Hey Mike,

The waterfall foam was only an idea I came across in the Cichlid forum. I'm only thinking of using it if I really don't like the stability of my rock pile. Even then I'd only glue a few rocks together so that I could still easily remove them and change things up if needed. I only thought of it cause I'd like one of my rock piles to go up at least 2/3 of the tank height. No matter what the rocks will be on egg crate directly on the glass. I'll add the sand after I have placed the rocks.

So yesterday I did some rock hunting and got some great pieces. I'm pretty sure they're sandstone as there were some that I liked but didn't take because they were too brittle. I found a few pieces that have some great formations to form caves when stacked. I've blasted them once with the pressure washer and I think I'll do it again today. I've read that some people do a bleach bath as well. Is this necesary or overkill?

Here's a photo of what I found. The biggest pieces are about 1.5ft.

My fish less cycle is well underway as well. I have one of my canisters running in a 25 gallon Rubbermaid tub. I am dosing ammonia to 2ppm and it's disappearing within 2 days.

And Charlie, don't worry, there are definitely plants in my plans!  

Jeff

[Mike L]

Hello Jeff
What your doing will be fine. I have used hot water and a scrub brush with great success and have also used the pressure washer method. I would place as much of the rock as you can in the tub you are cycling the filter in. That way beneficial bacteria can start to seed on the rock.  how do you plan on doing the rock set up. It is always a good idea to do a dry run outside the tank first to get a feel. Once you have done that recreate in the tank.Looking forward to seeing the finished product
Mike

[Jeff1192]

I definitely plan on doing some dry runs on the floor with a cutout the size of the tank bottom. I'm a little compulsive about my aquascapes so I'm thinking I'll be playing for a while. I have read those articles you sent me and they were a great help. I'm sure I'll post some photos for feedback while I tweak it too. 

Jeff

[Mike L]

 Looking forward to the pics.

[Jeff1192]

Ok so I managed to get out to the garage sale this weekend and picked up a few nice plants that will go in this tank (no way I could have a tank without a little bit of green).

Today I started playing around with the hardscape. The foam squares are the footprint of the tank. However the tank is actually an inch wider than the foam and the red line marks the back of the tank. I'm completely open to suggestions for improvement.....this may be stack 1 of who knows how many. I actually changed this one 6 or 7 times before taking the photo. The big stack on the left will be about 6 inches from the surface of the water and has quite a number of caves. The plan is to stack these on egg crate before adding sand so the bottom inch of so will probably be buried.

Here's what I came up with for now.

[Mike L]

I like the arrangement so far. I say go for it into the tank now. It will likely change a bit when you move them. what are the plants and where will they be going.
Mike

[Jeff1192]

Plants are just Anubis and Java fern so I'll put them amonst the rocks probably as they don't get buried in the  substrate.

[Jeff1192]

Alright I took a bunch of photos as I dismantled my structure layer by layer. Then cut the egg crate, filled the holes in the eggcrate with sand and rebuilt the rock work. I seems to have worked very well as I'm pretty sure I recreated what I had on the floor. It's very very solid so I have no concerns about rocks shifting or falling. I took quite a while playing with the placement of each rock to make sure it was stable layer by layer. So next step is to rinse my sand out and get it in the tank and see what I've got!

[Mike L]

Looks good. Just a note that with aragonite you will never get the water to run clear when rinsing it will always run milky. Do rinse and then put it in the tank. I will take a few days but your tank water will clear up.
Mike

[Jeff1192]

Thanks Mike. I'm hoping to have time to rinse the sand today, get it in the tank and fill the tank with water. Can't wait to finally have this up and running.

On a side note, the rock pile on the right was bothering me. I didn't quite like it. Someone on the cichlid forum suggested it was because of the unnatural "bridge" that I had formed to make a cave. So I redid the pile on the right and I am happier with it now.

[charlie]

Really admire the research & effort Jeff, looking forward to the end product.
Where is all the cichlid guys in this club?

[Mike L]

 Glad you changed it. I was reluctant to say anything but noted that too. You will likely change the arrangement again. In all my tanks that is what happened. Setting up rocks is difficult to make look natural.
Did you completely remove the bridge. Send more pics when it is done.

  And Charlie I have been wondering that for a long time too. Whenever someone shows an interest in cichlids I feel like a kid in a candy store.

[Jeff1192]

Today I got all the sand rinsed off, the tank filled and both my canisters up and running. It took a while with my Marineland cause I had accidentally hooked the houses back up backwards (the intake house on out-take port). After some serious cursing at the folks at Marineland (for which I apologized) I realized that it was my error.....oooops.

I did a fishless cycle in a rubbermaid with just the Marineland prior to setup. So I dosed some ammonia and I'll see what my readings are over the next couple of days. I don't want to rush things at this point and want to make sure that I won't go through a mini-cycle after moving things around.

The tank isn't as cloudy as I thought it would be and I'm sure it will clear up in the next day or 2.It's looking pretty much exactly as I had wanted it to when I was planning it so I'm pretty happy about that. I may add a few more rocks to the right side down the road and I want to hide the heater on the right better (it got pulled out of place when I was connecting other things).

I have some more java fern that I might add but I don't want to overdo it.


Jeff

[Mike L]

 The tank looks really good Jeff. What are the dimensions of the tank.
Mike

[Jeff1192]

It's the typical 90 gallon footprint.....48" x 18" x 24" (high).

[Mike L]

The pic makes it look square rather then long. That's why I asked

[Jeff1192]

Looks like my fishless cycles is just about complete. The filter seems to be eating through ammonia and nitrites within 24hrs after a slight hiccup when I moved everything around. I dosed the tank with a rift lake buffer recipe I found on-line and I'm sitting at ph of 8, kH of about 60 and gH of about 180ppm. I dosed ammonia again this morning to about 1.5ppm and I'll see what the numbers look like tomorrow morning. Think I'm just about ready for fish! Can't wait.

I have a few leads from a couple of local guys for some fish and a day trip to Montreal might be in order!

[sanny]

No need for a home made Rift lake recipe. Just use crushed coral or lime stone.

[Jeff1192]

The tank has aragonite sand but it wasn't bringing the kh up enough to ensure a stable ph. Plus a rift lake buffer adds lots of other trace minerals and elements that are in their natural environment.

[sas]

Looking great Jeff. Can't wait to see your tank stocked, it'll look
stunning!

[Jeff1192]

So after a quick trip to Montreal I got my first fish for the tank yesterday.

I picked up 5 pseudotropheus sp acei itunji and 5 pseudotropheus sp elongatus chewere. Amongst the chewere were 2 nice young males and 3 females. The itunji can't be sexed.

I brought them home and drip acclimated them for 2hrs before adding them to the tank. They were pretty pale as to be expected but seemed fine. I went out for a couple of hours as my sons had karate. When we got back 2hrs later we went straight downstairs to check out the fish. I can't believe how quickly these guys coloured back up. The one male chewere was even more colourful than he had been in the store. He had also already claimed the small rock pile on the right as his and was chasing everyone away.

I fed them and they also lived up to their reputation as huge pigs as anything I dropped in the tank was devoured in about 3 seconds...haha.

The photos aren't great, I just quickly snapped a few with my phone.

I"m supposed to be meeting someone today who is shutting down his cichlid tank to get some pseudotropheus saulosi.

[sas]

Very Nice! Makes me want to restock my tanks. Must resist.........lol

[lucius]

Nice looking fish. 

[Jeff1192]

I picked up 18 pseudotropheus saulosi today from someone who was changing up his tank stock and looking to unload them. They're really nice quality as well and varying sizes from full grown to about an inch and a half.

I decided to play with my camera a bit...still learning the whole DSLR thing and of course tank photography adds a whole new twist of difficulty .  

I'll get a better tank shot one evening. There is too much light in the room during the day causing the reflection you can see.

I am thrilled with how this project turned out. A huge thanks to Mike L for all the advice and suggestions and a thank you to the other members of OVAS who provided assistance. This is a truly great community.

[Mike L]

 your welcome Jeff. Would love to see them in person one day.  The pic look great.  Is the person you got them from an OVAS member.Stuart suggested once that if you shoot some video of the fish you can then do a motion capture I think he called it. Stuart can you confirm.  Great job. Really like the scaping

[Jeff1192]

No i don't think so. I found him on kijiji a while back and had stayed in touch with him. Defintely have to have you over to see it sometime when you're in Orleans.

[Mike L]

  Hey Jeff
I'm curious what your impressions of cichlids are so far. I'm sure you have noticed that your food budget will be going up. What are you feeding them.  I have attached an article that you might not have read from cichlids .com. What is said in the article is gospel when feeding cichlids in my opinion.
Regards Mike

http://www.cichlid-forum.com/articles/feeding_african_cichlids.php

[Jeff1192]

They are absolutely amazing, beautiful and entertaining fish to watch. I have kept every smaller freshwater fish under the rainbow at this point in time I think and these are by far the most interesting to watch. I have no idea why they arent more popular.

As for the food, I'm feeding them a vegetable cichlids pellet that was recommended by Quebec-cichlides.com made my a Canadian company, North fin and vegetarian cichlid flake. And they are absolute pigs.  It's like chumming  the water for sharks when I put food in there. I have been feeding 2-3 times a day with as much as they can eat in about 30 seconds. And man can they eat a lot in that time. It's a veritable feeding frenzy. I had read that article as well. That site is a great reference. I have been working my way through their library in my spare time, even reading the non-milawi articles.

On a side not I picked up some cyno zebroides jalo reef today so I'm pretty much done stocking he tank. I've been checking ammonia and nitrites daily to make sure the filter is up to the added load and all is good.

I also noticed a fish that I realized definitely wasn't a saulosi in there and was not one of the ones I brought back from Montreal. I spoke with the guy I got the saulosi from and it's a juvie electric blue hap that he gave me by accident. But he's getting rid of his cichlids so he didn't care. From what I've read it's hit and miss keeping haps with mbunas but I'll see how it goes. So far hes right in there with everyone else at feeding time so I'll just keep my eyes on him.

[Mike L]

 Glad to see your enjoying. They are indeed a joy to watch. 

Got Fish sells 2 kinds of cichlid food by New Era that I have been feeding now for about 8 months and I'm very impressed with the results. I have also heard good things about the North fin products too.

I'm told that cichlids where once very popular in Ottawa and there where many keepers on this site as well. By the posts that I see it appears it is now only a handful. Everything old will eventually be new again.
Mike

[Jeff1192]

I have always liked supplementing my fish's diets with veggies or other appropriate natural foods. So in my reading I came across the fact that cichlids enjoy eating peas. So I thawed some frozen peas and shelled them. If was yet another feeding frenzy.  They loved them and devoured them.

[charlie]

I had the chance to see this tank up close, it`s a beauty, good work Jeff.
The pictures does not do it justice, especially the rock work.
Congrats

[Jeff1192]

Thanks for the compliment. I'm having tons of fun with this one. The fish are incredibly entertaining to watch and are always up to something. The female saulosi that I noticed holding a couple weeks ago is still holding. A younger female was also holding but only for a couple of days. I still can't get over how voraciously these guys eat.  Feeding is always an adventure and my 6yr old thinks it's hilarious when he gets splashed while feeding them.

[Jeff1192]

I'm way overdue for an update on this tank. This is by far the most enjoyable fish-keeping experience I've had. These guys are a blast to watch. I recently swapped out my Marineland canister for an Eheim Pro 3 2075 that I found on kijiji. This this is a beast and moves a ton of water really quietly. I've noticed an improvement in the cleanliness of the tank.

My only disappointment is that in my current house I'm not in the basement a lot so I don't get to watch the tank as much as I'd like. I'm moving in May though and in the new place I think I'll be down in the basement more often. I'm not looking forward to mvoving these guys. However I have lots of time for my move and plan on booking the better part of a day to move things. I'll try to keep a few large buckets worth of water to try and keep things as stable as possible when I move them.  But it's gonna be a lot of sand and rock to remove before moving the tank. Should be an interesting adventure.

[sas]

Thanks for the update.
Eheims are great  nice find.
I had to laugh @ your comment, about your move you're going to be down in the basement more often.............
I'm confident that your move will go smoothly what with all your knowledge of a aquaria.
Just remember to try and keep everything moist and  @ approximately the same temp..Filters included. You'll do fine.

[ajm1961]

Thanks for the updates - it's nice to know we have cichlid fans in the club. I've never kept Pseudo salousis - the different colours (dimorphic) between male-females are certainly interesting. Hope you and other fans can make it to Larry's talk next Monday.

BTW: love the Acei itungi - used to keep some, hard to find around here.

Keep us posted on the tank!

[Dxpert]

Time for a few more pictures now that you have that large Eheim cleaning the water. Great updates on the tank. Keep em coming.

[Jeff1192]

So last week was moving day to the new house. Luckily I still have my old place for another week. So today was fish moving day. The 90 was quite a bit of work to get everyone moved, tank torn down and then set back up again in the new house. I have the fish in 3 different lidded containers. Everything went very smoothly however, when I checked on the fish, one of the buckets the fish were pretty sluggish and not looking great. I transferred everyone and all survived but my dominant male Saulosi. Pretty disappointed to lose him. However, on a positive note, one of my holding females (there are always 2 or 3) spit her fry from the stress I'm assuming. I managed to save 8 or 9 of the little wigglers and have them in a breeding net within the main tank. I'm not sure what they are yet as I had 2 saulosi females holding and 1 pseudo acei intunji that was holding. Time will tell I guess.

It has been a few hours now and everyone seems quite active and behaving normally. The tank is still pretty cloudy. I kept pretty close to the same rock setup. Once things clear up I'll try to get a photo of the new setup.

I found it pretty stressful moving this setup as it was running so well. Hopefully the one loss is the end of it.

[charlie]

sounds like the tank move was more stressful than the household items
Hope you don`t have any more losses.

[Mike L]

Jus a thought. How full were the buckets and how long was the lid on. Were all the fish sluggish or just one bucket. My thinking is oxygen depletion.

[Jeff1192]

Ya Mike that's what I  was thinking too. But the lid was not on tight and the 5 gallon pail was about half full of water. Same amount of water and roughly same number of fish as the other pail. They were in it for about 2hrs. Luckily everyone is looking fine now and just ate like a bunch of pigs.

And yes Charlie tank move was more stressful than the rest of the house....haha

[Mike L]

Just one of those things. Goes to show how stress can affect fish. I always sucks to  see one of our charges die. Glad to hear the rest are well. Will they be on the same water.

[Jeff1192]

Yes was disappointing because he was my dominant really colourful saulosi. But no idea how old he was.

They are on the same water as before and I was careful to bring a bunch of old water in buckets (there were a lot of buckets...haha) and to add the same mix of baking soda, aquarium salt and Epsom salt to the new water. This morning all were super active and eating like the pigs they are!

The water is crystal clear now so if I get some time later I'll snap some shots. The rock work is pretty much the same as before but with that big saulosi gone there will be a serious redistribution of territories I think.

[Brine]

It is possible that the dominant male felt crowded in the bucket and suffered extra stress.

[Jeff1192]

So everyone seems to have settled in nicely after the move. No more deaths so that's a relief. And as a bonus it looks like 4-5 of the fry I found have survived. Quite I few of the adults have some war wounds as there has been a lot of fighting in the tank. I figure that with the dominant male gone (freeing up the left 1/4 of the tank that he had declared his) and with the changed rock work everyone is working out new territories. No one seems to have stepped up and taken over completely so I think there is still a lot of jockeying for position. I still haven't had time to post more photos but I also want to add some more rock so I might wait until I do that.