Considering switching my 135g to a cichlid tank

[exv152]

I'm in the same boat...

...and apparently, and I only heard this, starfire scratches easier than regular

[fischkopp]

I can assure you that Starphire glass scratches easier, from own experience and from talking to a guy from Deep Blue. But no matter how careful you are, at some point it will scratch.

Don't forget to take pictures of the process and start a new topic in the freshwater tank build board.

[Stussi613]

Well, when Murphy has a chance to strike he rarely passes up the opportunity 

I've been working on the tank all weekend and had made good progress. Tank is clean, found a great solution to cap off three of the four bulkheads, cleaned up the area under the tank and cut my egg crate to go under my rock piles.  I was doing a final inspection and some algae along the silicone on the front corners was bugging me so I tried wiping it down again when some of the silicone lifted. This tank has minuscule amounts of silicone on the front panels...I assume because its starphire and the builder (Miracle) didn't want it to impede on the viewing area. At some point in its life the silicone got lifted by a scraper and algae was growing in the gap. I've never really been happy with the lack of silicone there anyway, so I went and picked some up, carefully cut out the affected areas and scraped the glass, then cleaned with vinegar.  I checked the seal between the panels and its not affected, thankfully.  I'm going to tape the area off and reseal it tomorrow so hard scape and re-fill will have to wait until Monday.

On a slightly related note I finally found a good use for the Sham-wow's I bought on tv a few years ago. Perfect for soaking up the last of the water that the python didn't pick up!

[Stussi613]

Well, it's been a while since I updated this post so here's a quick one.

As you may have read my post about bulkheads I refilled the tank and it was leaking.  I ended up going to the PVC Store and getting some new plugs and 3mm Teflon tape and fixing the issues last week.  I'm going to Cuba on Saturday so I've decided to hold off on refilling until I get back.

Here's a teaser of the scape, not quite what it will look like in the final version, but pretty close.



I also did a little Boxing Day shopping...

[ajm1961]

Looking' good!
Like the layout - good job... looking forward to seeing the tank full of cichlids!

BTW: Are those live plants? Will they be okay without being immersed?

[Stussi613]

Looking' good!
Like the layout - good job... looking forward to seeing the tank full of cichlids!

BTW: Are those live plants? Will they be okay without being immersed?

They are annubias. I put them in to test the layout, then took them back out and stuck them in my 15g tank under the cabinet that has my filter media and Plecos in it. There's a clip on lamp from Ikea down there that gives them enough light to stay alive...but annubias grows so slow that it will do fine for months that way. 

[Stussi613]

Well, its been 3 months in the making...but it's finally full of water (somewhat cloudy) and not leaking!

[1macuser]

Step looks great!!! Can't wait to see pics with the fish in it

[az]

I think you could add some of this rock, pure calcium base will keep ph high, you want to overload with africans and more rock would help;
http://www.aquavalley.ca/eshop/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=2_7&products_id=2531

[Stussi613]

I think you could add some of this rock, pure calcium base will keep ph high, you want to overload with africans and more rock would help;
http://www.aquavalley.ca/eshop/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=2_7&products_id=2531

Thanks Az.  I'm really only going to have 1 type of Mbuna (yellow labs) that will use the rocks though, so I've deliberately left lots of open space for the male haps and peacocks I'll be adding.  The substrate is aragonite, so I'll monitor for about a month and see if I need to add some of that tonga rock to it.

[exv152]

Nice setup Stu, looking forward to the end result. What's your pH at now?

[Stussi613]

Nice setup Stu, looking forward to the end result. What's your pH at now?

No idea

I just filled it up last night and I'm running an XP4 full of filter floss to try to clear up the water before I even start testing anything.

[sas]

Ohhhhhhhhhhhhhhh nice, can't wait to see it loaded with fish.