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!