paradigm04
02-18-2009, 01:32 AM
Now this may seem obvious to some, and you all who have interests in Mbuna have probably read this at one time or another but I just wanted to relate my personal experiences in order to reiterate the importance of this in Malawi tanks.
I currently have a 26 gallon bow with artificial plants and rocks as my main tank. Gravel substrate, with an aqueon 30 gallon power filter. The tank has 3 yellow labs (2 dirty females, 1 pure male) an auratus a demasoni and a red zebra. Nothing too much, they get along fine now. However even with the 30 gallon filtrtion and twice weekly 30% water changes, they weren't quite as active as I had hoped.
I had been planning on it for awhile but today decided to add more filtration to my tank; in my case financially it made more sense to just add another filter instead of going larger-I went with a topfin 20 gallon and within minutes noticed an obvious improvement in my already pretty clear water. 45 minutes later my fish were out and about, enjoying the slight increase in water flow and bugging each other again. With a simple 20 dollar filtration change. (Note: I am not running carbon, I have switched to filter floss in the filter inserts)
Now at 78.5 degrees with heavy filtration, the Mbuna are back to being the turds they naturally are. So again-if in question, spend 30 bucks or so and ADD MORE FILTRATION. It can't really hurt (unless heavy flow is an issue)
I currently have a 26 gallon bow with artificial plants and rocks as my main tank. Gravel substrate, with an aqueon 30 gallon power filter. The tank has 3 yellow labs (2 dirty females, 1 pure male) an auratus a demasoni and a red zebra. Nothing too much, they get along fine now. However even with the 30 gallon filtrtion and twice weekly 30% water changes, they weren't quite as active as I had hoped.
I had been planning on it for awhile but today decided to add more filtration to my tank; in my case financially it made more sense to just add another filter instead of going larger-I went with a topfin 20 gallon and within minutes noticed an obvious improvement in my already pretty clear water. 45 minutes later my fish were out and about, enjoying the slight increase in water flow and bugging each other again. With a simple 20 dollar filtration change. (Note: I am not running carbon, I have switched to filter floss in the filter inserts)
Now at 78.5 degrees with heavy filtration, the Mbuna are back to being the turds they naturally are. So again-if in question, spend 30 bucks or so and ADD MORE FILTRATION. It can't really hurt (unless heavy flow is an issue)