70 gallon malawi tank help

[steff88]

I'm looking for help to start this setup; it's my first cichild tank and even though i read a lot about this subject i still think some advices from experienced aquarists will do me good.
So here i go:
Tank 110/45/58,5 290 liters, 70 gallons
Filtration done by an Eheim 2226
I used white sand, and Texas Holey rocks and a 3d background, picture below:

First and foremost i will definitely need to add more rock to the setup i had no idea i need so much of it.. it's pretty expensive also for a simple rock.. here in bucharest i pay like 4 $ per kg and it's just a simple dead rock.. anyway! i'm gonna go buy more, i hope tomorrow they'll be open. i was also thinking of adding some wood in the tank. If there is a a section where i can see some of your tanks for ideas?
Second of all i'm thinking what fish could go into this tank.. i was thinking of 4 families of fish composed out of 1 male and 3 females. So far i like Melacromis Maingano, Labidochromis caeruleus and Pseudotropheus elongatus and i would also like another fish red or orange fish family with peacefull behaviour. Anyway if you have any suggestions i'm thankful!

Thx 4 the help!

[Lab_Rat]

So far it looks good, make sure the rocks are stable and the fish can't dig under them and destabilize them. Mbuna are diggers. Your stocking sounds good, you may want to consider adding some Metriclima estherae for an orange/red fish.

[steff88]

on the bottom of the tank i added under the rocks i added 2 polystirine sheets which only have like 0.5 cm thickness, over them i arranged the rocks and only after that i put the sand in the tank.. i heard they dig big hole and i imagined it would be a disaster if a rock would go loose inside. The fish looks good!

i'll keep u posted. thx.

[steff88]

updates..





eventually i added like 30 kg of rock and i still don't feel like it is enough but for this tank i'll stop adding here.. i think

and also a video..

[flydustydawg]

Wow looks really good! What kind of background did you use?

[Lab_Rat]

Looks good!

[steff88]

hey! i used a 3d background with hollow background. in the background i put some 3 kg of crushed shells and some very porous sponges. the ph is sitting at around 7.6 - 8 and it was around 7.2-7.6 before de crushed shells.. to be hones i wasn't expecting such an increase but i'm glad it was this way.


p.s. i really need help in setting up my camera for picture taking and also for video taking because i really am a newbie at that.. anybody uses a Samsung WB500 ?

[steff88]

and here some pictures of the inhabitants:

male Melanochromis Auratus (12cm and also the biggest fish in aquarium. the other are between 5 and 7 cm)


Maylandia Esterae - i can't tell the gender (help?)


This one should also be an Elongatus but i tend to belive it's Kingsizei


Caeruleus


if anyone could help me determine if the fish in picture nr 3 is elongatus or kingsizei i'd be very gratefull.

[flydustydawg]

I agree with you it looks more like an kingsizei than elongatus.

Here is a link to the species profile on Cichlid-forum
http://www.cichlid-forum.com/profile...ies.php?id=894

I would be ready to say, yea that is a kingsizei, but I have never seen one with egg spots on the dorsal fin. Except for this one.

http://www.ems-vechte-aquaristik.de/...aingano_2.html

I know that site is not in english so it probably is not very helpful lol. Maybe it just depends on what part of the lake th fish is from. There are so many variations of the same fish it is hard to tell.

[steff88]

this is getting trickier and trickier.. I understand deutsch a bit.. but now i'm even more confused.. it's definetlly not elongatus but kingsizei or m. pulpican.. i'm gonna dig a little bit deeper. thx for the help!