Who Gives A Fish Forums

I'm setting up a 210l mbuna tank soon and thought I'd start a journal. Got a few community fish in there at the moment that I still need to move - if anyone near Hornsea wants a female krib, 5 bronze corys and 2 Corydoras copei, send me a pm. Once they're all gone, I'll drain the tank and give it a good clean to get rid of all the algae. My dad's getting some perspex to cover the base, then I'll stack my sandstone rocks on top. I'm using 3mm coflake sand to raise the pH, and it's really heavy stuff - I struggle to lift it. I'm adding some heather branches for my BNs, but not too many as I want to keep the water hard.

I'm planning to stock it with a mix of mbunas, including 2 L144, some yellow labs, Cynotilapia afra 'jalo reef', Pseudotropheus ndumbi red top and Pseudotropheus elongatus neon spot. Numbers and exact species are still up in the air, to be honest - I'll see what the breeder's got when I go and might swap a few out. Will post some pics of my planned rock layout later.

Cheers

Sounds good to me too, I'm really excited about my tank. I've heard from a few people that heather branches work well in mbuna tanks, they help to lower the pH a bit and provide some nice hiding places for the fish. I'll definitely put up some pics of them once I've arranged everything, but atm I've just got a few branches lying around the house.

I think your fish choices are spot on, they're all compatible and visually interesting which is key when keeping mbuna to minimize crossbreeding.

As I have personal experience with the same fish, I'd recommend considering socolofi and mpanga as additions to your list - they'd fit in well. You might also think about synodontis petricola or multipunctatus. For a balanced setup, you'll want at least two females to each male, or you could opt for an all-male group. One or two males per mbuna species should work fine, but too many will just lead to aggression.

Overstocking and plenty of filtration are must-haves in this setup - overstocking to reduce aggression and plenty of filtration to handle the overstocking.

Regarding the heather branches for your BNs, they don't actually need them - they're perfectly capable of dealing with algae and food in the tank. Adding wood is purely a personal preference, though it's not typically used in a malawi or mbuna setup.

Cheers for the replies. I'll grab some pics of the heather in a bit. Appreciate the suggestions for other fish, I'll definitely consider them when I'm at the breeder.

I've already got a large external filter on the tank, and as the fish grow I'm planning to add another external to help keep up with the bioload.

I know the BNs don't need the wood, but I've found they really seem to enjoy it, so I thought I'd add a few bits for them. I'm not planning to overdo it with the wood, just a few strategic pieces to give them something to play with. Hopefully it'll blend in okay with the rest of the setup.

Thanks for the advice, I'll go grab those pics now.

Here are the layouts I've come up with so far:


1st Layout


2nd Layout

I'm also planning to have some slices of stone covering the back of the aquarium, similar to what my dad's friend did. I'll fill the gaps between the big stones with smaller slices to create a lake Malawi cliff face effect. Here's the type of stone I'll be using:



And this is the thickness I'm aiming for:



As for the heather for my BNs:



My mum thinks the stones I've chosen are too small and that fewer, bigger stones would look better. What do you think? I might go back and get some thicker rocks to use as bigger pieces without them looking like paving slabs.

Cheers

looking good . i think i like rock layout number 2 best . nice choice of fish too , and lizette's suggestions would fit in nicely as well . the socolofi and mpanga are lovely when in full colour .

Your rocks will work just fine, I've got a similar setup with mostly thin slices of slate and just a few chunkier bits. Try standing a few pieces upright, then lay others across and build from there - you'll be surprised at how many cave areas you can create. I'm not entirely happy with my tank's look, but I'll be stripping it down when we move, so I'll put up with it for now. If you scroll down this thread, I've posted a couple of full tank shots that might give you an idea of how I've placed my rocks.

Cheers for the feedback, I really appreciate it. Your tank does look great, I can see how you've arranged your rocks now. I've managed to find a few slightly bigger rocks, so I've made another layout incorporating those. I've also placed the background rocks against the back of the tank and filled the gaps with smaller pieces of rock. To be honest, it didn't work too well in the pic as they kept falling over, but in the tank they'll be siliconed in place. Do you think that'll work okay?

Here's the pic:



What do you reckon?

I'm curious, what's your plan for under the rocks. If you're using sand, I imagine the caves at the bottom might get lost in it. Looks good though, hope to try something similar one day.

Hi, I've decided to scrap the background idea, as it was probably going to result in stuck fish and dead spots. It also would've been a nightmare to remove if I changed the use of the tank.

I'm going with a different approach now - I'll put a piece of perspex on the bottom of the aquarium to protect the glass, then add the rocks on top, and finally the sand. I won't be using loads of sand, just enough to cover the bottom, and I'll keep it quite shallow around the rocks. This way, not too much of the rockwork should be hidden.

I've had another go at rescaping to make it look more natural, rather than just a neat stack of rocks. Here's what I've come up with.

I've also been told that adding some rocks to the foreground would help break it up a bit, so I'll do that when it goes in the tank.

Here's a shot from above, so you can see how much room is at the front - the gap in the gravel is where the front of the tank would be.

Cheers.