Small Mbuna Tank

[Jakaris]

I just set it up 2 days ago, so it's still not exactly as clear as I want it to be, but most of the cloudiness is from one thing: dead cichlids >.< My aunt is in town, and she thought it would be a nice gift to get me the cichlids I wanted. I wish she had just given me the cash, because she added them to my aquarium the DAY I set it up. So most of that cloudiness is leftover rotting fish >.<

Oh well, anyways, any criticism at all will be appreciated, I AM getting a background, its just my old plant one wouldnt look quite right on that >.>

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[Chrona]

Sorry to hear that :/

Read up about fishless cycling in the sticky here. As you now no longer have an ammonia source, you need to add it in order to continue cycling your tank.

[Jakaris]

Yeah, I already have shrimp peels in mesh sitting in there. I'm good at getting things to cycle quickly, its just that the FIRST day I usually lose the fish >.>

Any recommendations aesthetically? (looks) Never done a cichlid tank before. Thats all natural slate in there btw, with some polished pebbles thrown in. Theres some bricks holding up the first tier of slate, but I tried to hide them with more slate. The only thing I'm having trouble with is that big ipen space on the right, under the first tier of slate. Its a bit big under there >.>

Anyways, thanks for the info. More opinions welcome :D

[Chrona]

I think most people here know my opinion on blue gravel, lol. "Clown puke" as I call it. I think sand would ne a nice addition, instead of that unnatural looking color. Also, I would try to make the stack less symmetrical, and have only horizontal slate pieces. The sideways thing looks kinda wierd imo. And try for pebbles of roughly the same color. The idea is to have the decorations natural looking and somewhat bland so they accent the colors of the mbuna

[Jakaris]

Ah, yeah, I don't like the blue gravel either, I'm just on a small budget atm so I didn't pick up any more. Since I'm technically broke, I'm getting my aunt to fund me, after that little disaster shes pretty much ready to buy me a good bit, sicne I was the one who had to get the dead fish out >.>

[Chrona]

Play sand from Home Depot (make sure it's 1-3mm in diameter - this is important - don't get superfine play sand) is pretty cheap.

[Drumachine09]

Play sand from Home Depot (make sure it's 1-3mm in diameter - this is important - don't get superfine play sand) is pretty cheap.


Do you not have to worry about the anaerobic bacteria with the bigger play sand?

[Chrona]

Do you not have to worry about the anaerobic bacteria with the bigger play sand?

It's still an issue if your bed is too deep (more than 2-3 inches) but much less so than if your sand was super fine.

Plus, it's easier to clean. Fine sand will get sucked up just as easily as debris.

[kimmers318]

Just a side note, I have found that the sand bought at aquatic stores does not really pack down much at all, especially the black tahitian moon, but the playsand in my daughters sandbox turns to fricking brick between camping weekends! When I first started changing to sand I took some playsand in a bucket to the hose to rinse it. Not only did it seem to turn in to mud, it packed down quite solidly in between rinses. I know it is a lot cheaper, but I will stick to the aquarium sold sand, it just seems easier in my opinion.

[kimmers318]

Also, any sand substrate will benefit from MTS snails, they will do a great job of moving it around for you.

[Fishguy2727]

What are the dimensions on that tank? What filtration is on there? Unless it is a big tank you can afford to go with the better aquarium sand.

[Jakaris]

Well, I'm heading off to pick up some substrate tonight, been too busy to do it any other time. So heres what I'm looking foir, rate these in terms of best to worst:
White Sand
Black Sand
White Gravel (small)
Black Gravel (also small)
Black and White gravel (medium sized)
Other (specify) >.>

Thanks for any replies!

BTW, heres what it looks like with clean, cycled water:
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[bettaboy691]

go for either white sand, or natural sand, its not really white, but like the sand at the beach. i would also move the decoration in the tank to make it less semerticral.shame about your first deaths. how many gallons is it?

[Jakaris]

26 gallons, so I'm not about to go grab an oscar (though if that tank suddenly just expanded I would >.>). But its all I really have room for at the moment, plus the whole pretty much broke thing really limits my options. And I've been pretty unhappy with the decorations like that myself, tonight ill be rearanging it again, so well see what happens then. Thanks for your opinion, that was what I was going for anyways :D

[Jakaris]

I settled for small black gravel, the store was out of sand and white gravel. Now I need to put a background on, im probably going to get a piece of cardboard and paint it blue, tape it to the back. It'll look good with the black rock and colorful fish that are yet to come.