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Stocking 5x2x2 African Cichlid Tank


Dandaman80

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Hi folks... ive recently established a 550 litre aquarium thats been running for about 4 months... initially it only had a 406 fluval canister filter and an internal 1800 Litre per hour powerhead filter... about 6 weeks ago i added a new aquaone nautalis 2700 UV canister filter to the mix...

A week ago I got another aquaone nautalis 2700 canister filter to replace the small fluval... i took all media out of the old fluval inc sponge filters and seeded the new aquaone...

So my question is now that I'm running 2 x aquaone nautalis 2700 canister filters + internal 1800 litre per hour powerhead filter what would you suggest the maximum number of cichlids this system can sustain? Cutrently i have 21 fish mostly juvenile haplochromis and peacocks, all display males41404719f6b5a755d48fe0048c676e3e.jpgcec021ac9dd79d67ecc4e5edfa2c3817.jpgfce363b6fd010ebeee736edbd50d6357.jpg

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Heres a list of current fish...

-sulpher crest Lithobates yellow

-sulpher crest lithobate orange

-sulpher crest lithobate Red

-peacock cobue blue

-peacock eureka red

-peacock rubin red

-peacock sunshine

-peacock sunshine

-peacock yellow / blue mixed

-peacock jacobfreigi

-peacock jacobfreigi maulana bicolor 500

-peacock golden sapphire stuartgranti maleri

-peacock flame tail

-Protomelas sp. 'steveni taiwan' taiwan reef

-Protomelas taeniolatus red empress

-haplochromis sp44

-haplochromis hippo point red

-haplochromis xystichromis phytophagus Christmas fulu

-auloncara walteri

-auloncara white blaze

-red cap lethrinops

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Nice stock best iv heard is half your gallons so for you 150 gallons equalls 75 fish but count mbunas as 1 peacocks as 1 d half and big haps as 2. This is to heavily stock of course I personally don't like to go crazy with my stock some do I like some room so I can still follow individual fish if there's too many you can't keep an eye on any guys being bullied as well just ky experience and opinion of course everyone has there own way.

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Nice stock best iv heard is half your gallons so for you 150 gallons equalls 75 fish but count mbunas as 1 peacocks as 1 d half and big haps as 2. This is to heavily stock of course I personally don't like to go crazy with my stock some do I like some room so I can still follow individual fish if there's too many you can't keep an eye on any guys being bullied as well just ky experience and opinion of course everyone has there own way.

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Thanks for your input... yes aggression is definately an important factor... ive got another 10 or 15 fish on my list that id like to ad taking my total to around 35 fish or so... hoping the current system should be adequate to manage bio load and keep em nice and healthy

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I'd imagine with 2 monster canisters like that and also large weekly water changes that tank would be able to handle a pretty big bio load. My experience keeping Malawis is very limited though. What are the tank dimensions? 

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I'd imagine with 2 monster canisters like that and also large weekly water changes that tank would be able to handle a pretty big bio load. My experience keeping Malawis is very limited though. What are the tank dimensions? 

Hi Benno yes i was thinking same ive been doing 30% to 40% water changes weekly... tank is 1500mm long x 600mm high x 600mm wide (5 foot x 2 foot x 2 foot)

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I'd imagine in a tank that size with awesome filtration like you've got you'd be more than fine adding quite a few more fish. I've seen smaller tanks stocked a lot more heavily. Only thing if prob do different is up the water change amount( that's just my opinion tho based on keeping American cichlids) Do you have a water storage barrel for ageing and heating? 

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I'd imagine in a tank that size with awesome filtration like you've got you'd be more than fine adding quite a few more fish. I've seen smaller tanks stocked a lot more heavily. Only thing if prob do different is up the water change amount( that's just my opinion tho based on keeping American cichlids) Do you have a water storage barrel for ageing and heating? 

Ok cool that's good then... no i dont currently have any water storage... water change straight from the tap and ad seachem prime... how much water do you change out?

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I've always done either 2x40% or 1x 70% changes per week on my American cichlids depending how lazy I'm feeling during the week lol. Probably wouldn't do such big changes if I was doing straight out of the tap tho. I got a couple 200 litre food grade drums rigged up with heaters and air pumps for preparing new water so I don't worry about harming my bio with large changes. 

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I've always done either 2x40% or 1x 70% changes per week on my American cichlids depending how lazy I'm feeling during the week lol. Probably wouldn't do such big changes if I was doing straight out of the tap tho. I got a couple 200 litre food grade drums rigged up with heaters and air pumps for preparing new water so I don't worry about harming my bio with large changes. 

Is that right? Great idea man... ill have to look into that for sure... general consensus seems to be that a majority of people do atleast 50% weekly... im thinking to do same and see how goes... tanks been stable for quite some time now with nitrite and ammonia nil readings but nitrate consistently around 10ppm

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Yea it enables the ph to settle once aerating has removed co2 from the tap water eliminating sudden changes, as well as ensuring chlorine and chloramines are bound by the prime so beneficial bacteria is not affected. I don't bother with the heater in summer but in winter here it gets pretty cold and the drums are outside so I at least like to get the water into the low 20s before pumping it back into the tank. Pumping cold water back into the tank seems to stress and make my green terrors a tad lethargic for a few hours. 

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Nice stock. I have similar size tank but mine has sump. I would probably get yelled at here for saying this. I have around 130 in the tank consisting of mbunas and peacocks and few haps. Got most of them from the cichlid auctions as juvelines in March. Most turned into young and colourful juveniles and some has started breeding already. I do weekly 50% water change. Must be doing something right as they are breeding.  

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Nice stock. I have similar size tank but mine has sump. I would probably get yelled at here for saying this. I have around 130 in the tank consisting of mbunas and peacocks and few haps. Got most of them from the cichlid auctions as juvelines in March. Most turned into young and colourful juveniles and some has started breeding already. I do weekly 50% water change. Must be doing something right as they are breeding.  

Sensational... yes sounds like that set up is working great for you... do the mbunas dominate the haps and peacocks?

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Not really. I have never seen the mbunas chasing the peacocks. Usually my sunshine peacocks chases the mbunas around. The only aggression I see are between the males of the same species. Then again I have lots of rocks so the weaker one can bolt in between the rocks.  Overall the aggression level is low as I only have moderately aggressive mbunas. I might get rid of two manigano i have currently in the tank if they turn out to be aggressive.

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Not really. I have never seen the mbunas chasing the peacocks. Usually my sunshine peacocks chases the mbunas around. The only aggression I see are between the males of the same species. Then again I have lots of rocks so the weaker one can bolt in between the rocks.  Overall the aggression level is low as I only have moderately aggressive mbunas. I might get rid of two manigano i have currently in the tank if they turn out to be aggressive.

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That's good to know... awesome tank... thanks for the pictures :)

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No worries, if you wanted to keep lake Malawi cichlids. Maybe get rid of the drift wood? I was told by few breeders that it lowers the pH of water. but not sure whether it is true or not. 

Yes ive read same with drift wood but have found that while it may have some impact on softness/hardness of water (cant tell for sure cause i havent measured it) that it has had no bearing on my PH which consistently sits 8 to 8.2

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If it been it water for a while all the tannis will have seeped out and it should change the ph anymore it only usually leaks tannis and color for a few weeks if that after a few water changes it will be fine

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