midway's 90g mbuna

[midwaybumblebee]

Hey all! So I've been wanting to get a bigger tank, and I was thinking a 55g. I was looking on CL for a used 55 with a stand, and I happened across a 90g w/ stand(oak), all the equipment he had with it, a pleco, and three green cory's, all for $195!! Just got back from picking it up! :) I'm going to start cleaning it tom morn, it has some algae and salt built up in some areas. Not bad tho. I guess he had it set up as a brackish tank, and was throwing algae pellets in for the pleco. I also took the sponges out of the filters and have them in tank water so hopefully I can seed it. Planning on setting it up for mbunas. Anyways, this will be my first big tank so any advice/recommendations greatly appreciated as always!

Here's what I have so far:
Came with 2 hob 60g filters, I know I need more, but I should be able to get started with these?
Going to buy substrate(black sand) tomorrow. I'm thinking 100 lbs?
Will the bacteria in his media last long enough to seed the tank? And can I even use them since he had salt in the tank?
Will the lighting matter? It won't be planted.
I would like to get the two fish out of my 20g in there ASAP so they don't die.

I'm sure I didn't give near enough info, and I hope journals are for asking advice as well as just sharing your experience.

Side note: my plan for the 1 ppm of ammonia coming out the tap is to do more frequent water changes and add prime to the water before I put it in the tank. If I get a cannister filter to help with the bio load, would that be enough to handle it with the 2 60g hob's?

Thx everyone!

[Fishin Phil]

I think a canister plus the two HOBs would be enough filtration. Good luck with your new tank!

[sheamurai]

Great Deal!

yes you can get started with those. If the cory's and pleco are still in the tank, they will maintain a bit of BB in the tank while you get set up.

No idea how much sand you will need, sorry. Depends how deep of a sandbed you want.

I don't think the salt would matter, but I'd be surprised if he was keeping it as a brackish tank. I don't think plecs or cory's do brackish well...if it was brackish and not just having aquarium salt added, you will have to acclimitise them to salt-free water slowly.

Lighting doesn't matter if you don't have plants, and too much light could make your fish more skittish, so just what you require to view the tank is all you should have.

I'm not sure why you need to move your 20gal fish over to the new tank? Why are they in danger of dying? They won't be compatible with mbuna, so you'd only have to move them out again once you got the mbuna in. This goes as well for the cory's and pleco. The pleco may be ok if the mbuna you add are juvies, but the cory's won't last long once the mbuna mature.

[midwaybumblebee]

Thanks all! The 20g I'm having trouble with because of the ammonia in my tap water, and a lot of people suggested that a bigger tank would help. I was trying to do a fish in cycle with it(mostly cause when I set it up I had no clue what I was doing), but can't get the ammonia low enough doing wc's. So ii am hoping that with the seeded material from the new tank, I can get a cycle going and save the two fish I have. They are mbunas(small, about1.5"). And I kept them because they were my favorite. One is a maingano I think, and one is an albino. I actually have a cpl pics of them in the 20, but I use my smartphone for this and don't know how to upload photos from it.

The pleco and cory's I gave to a friend of a friend because I knew the cory's at least wouldn't go with the cichlids. The pleco I wasn't sure about, but he was 11" and I didn't know if it would eat the smaller cichlids.

Any suggestions for cleaning algae/salt easily. The tank isn't bad, but the glass tops are. I may buy new ones if I can't get these clean.

[sheamurai]

ah, all good.

too bad you can't do a fishless cycle with the 90...with a fish in cycle with mbuna, you won't be able to stock all your mbunas at once, so you'll have to pay attention to how many and what species and in what order you add them to your 90 when you start stocking.

If the glass is etched, you're pretty much SOL. You can try heating the vinegar and letting the glass soak in it. What I've done is cover the bottom of the tub in hot water, poured in some vinegar, then let the glass soak in it. Still doesn't get EVERYthing off tho.

[midwaybumblebee]

ah, all good.

too bad you can't do a fishless cycle with the 90...with a fish in cycle with mbuna, you won't be able to stock all your mbunas at once, so you'll have to pay attention to how many and what species and in what order you add them to your 90 when you start stocking.

If the glass is etched, you're pretty much SOL. You can try heating the vinegar and letting the glass soak in it. What I've done is cover the bottom of the tub in hot water, poured in some vinegar, then let the glass soak in it. Still doesn't get EVERYthing off tho.

It does suck about not being able to do the fishless, but I'm hoping the media I saved will be good to seed it at least, and I wasn't planning on adding anymore fish besides the two for a cpl weeks. Recommendations as to stocking and when would be great!

The tank is clean already, like I said it wasn't bad. The tops aren't etched and I'm going to soak them(Cliff had the same advice), but I may replace them down the line. I'm going to worry about getting a new cannister filter first. I've been looking, and a decent one will cost as much as I paid for th rest lol!

[sheamurai]

yeah, but the canister will outlast the tank, likely. Used tanks will eventually start to leak, but a filter you can keep running so long as you can get parts for it, so getting a good, popular model is a good move.

[midwaybumblebee]

Hey all!! It's been awhile since I've updated my journal(life has been hectic lately), but I want to let everyone know how my tank is doing. So I'm not doing mbunas anymore, after my last post I found a new lfs that gave me credit for the two I had. I bought 2 bala sharks, 3 pearl gouramis, and against the lfs advice, a small blue crawdad. Waited a few weeks for the tank to cycle, even tho the most ammonia it ever climbed to was .25 ppm for the first few days. The seeded material I kept when I bought the tank worked very well. One of the used filters burnt out the first week, so I bought a new 90g hob to throw on for now. So the tank has a 60g hob and 90g hob now. They seem to be doing just fine. 3 weeks ago I bought 3 clown loaches and a snow white crawdad. Now I know that a lot of people seem to have problems with crawdads eating all their fish, but so far I haven't lost any fish.(knock on wood). They seem happy with the shrimp pellets and algae wafers I throw in for them. The only aggression I've seen out of them is towards each other, but only when they are face to face. Then they both start waving their claws till one shoots backwards lol. Their little crab dances crack me up! Oh, and for those that remember the problems I had with ammonia in my tap water, I had the well company come out, turns out there are two bypass valves on the well system, and one has been open since they installed the new well a year ago! I was shocked! But now that the well system isn't being bypassed, no more ammonia! Also, the old glass tops that I couldn't get clean I replaced with some plexiglass I had at work. It was the same thickness as the glass, so I just had to cut them to size and now I have crystal clear tops! (Gotta save money where I can). So the tank looks great now, and I thank everyone here for all the great advice! Wish I could post a pic, but for some reason I can't upload from my phone :( maybe I will actually turn my pc on lol.
Oh BTW, is activated carbon the only way to improve water clarity? Even tho the water is going thru the well system now, it still is slightly discolored from all the iron in my well. The carbon works, but I have to change out the carbon every wc. Also, if anyone has suggestions for some more fish to add, I would love to hear them. I would really like a green phantom, but I'm worried that I will have problems with it and the crawdads. As always, thx everyone!

[PhillipOrigami]

Hey all!! It's been awhile since I've updated my journal(life has been hectic lately), but I want to let everyone know how my tank is doing. So I'm not doing mbunas anymore, after my last post I found a new lfs that gave me credit for the two I had. I bought 2 bala sharks, 3 pearl gouramis, and against the lfs advice, a small blue crawdad. Waited a few weeks for the tank to cycle, even tho the most ammonia it ever climbed to was .25 ppm for the first few days. The seeded material I kept when I bought the tank worked very well. One of the used filters burnt out the first week, so I bought a new 90g hob to throw on for now. So the tank has a 60g hob and 90g hob now. They seem to be doing just fine. 3 weeks ago I bought 3 clown loaches and a snow white crawdad. Now I know that a lot of people seem to have problems with crawdads eating all their fish, but so far I haven't lost any fish.(knock on wood). They seem happy with the shrimp pellets and algae wafers I throw in for them. The only aggression I've seen out of them is towards each other, but only when they are face to face. Then they both start waving their claws till one shoots backwards lol. Their little crab dances crack me up! Oh, and for those that remember the problems I had with ammonia in my tap water, I had the well company come out, turns out there are two bypass valves on the well system, and one has been open since they installed the new well a year ago! I was shocked! But now that the well system isn't being bypassed, no more ammonia! Also, the old glass tops that I couldn't get clean I replaced with some plexiglass I had at work. It was the same thickness as the glass, so I just had to cut them to size and now I have crystal clear tops! (Gotta save money where I can). So the tank looks great now, and I thank everyone here for all the great advice! Wish I could post a pic, but for some reason I can't upload from my phone :( maybe I will actually turn my pc on lol.
Oh BTW, is activated carbon the only way to improve water clarity? Even tho the water is going thru the well system now, it still is slightly discolored from all the iron in my well. The carbon works, but I have to change out the carbon every wc. Also, if anyone has suggestions for some more fish to add, I would love to hear them. I would really like a green phantom, but I'm worried that I will have problems with it and the crawdads. As always, thx everyone!

Oh no oh no oh no.....
You bought 2 bala sharks. Get them back to the store immediately, they need at least a 220g tank with 10 of them. 3 Pearl Gouramis? That will make them aggress a lot!!!! Get them back too. A crawdad??? You should have listened there... A crawdad probably means bad things in the long run. You got three clown loaches? They need 8 of them and they grow to 16". 150 gallon minimum. Another crawdad.. crap.....
You need to research. Take everything out of the tank and give them back to the shop. I would not go to that store if they recommended 3 gouramis and bala sharks. You need to research, as these fish mean very bad trouble in the long run. No green phantom.
You need to research a lot more if you are going to be successful. Get rid of all and start anew.
And activated carbon I would take out. It isn't really useful for anything but removing medication. You increase water clarity by water changes.

Sorry, but you really need to research. I nearly died when I heard "2 bala sharks" and "3 clown loaches" "3 pearl gouramis" .
I am sorry if I was hard on you. I would get all the stuff back to the LFS and find a different one.

[kaybee]

...is activated carbon the only way to improve water clarity? Even tho the water is going thru the well system now, it still is slightly discolored from all the iron in my well. The carbon works, but I have to change out the carbon every wc....

If the clarity of the source water is somewhat sub-par, water changes probably won't improve clarity.

I'd look at increasing the quantity of carbon used and/or using high grade carbon in conjuction with some sort of micro-filtration mechanic media, such as 100-micron or 50-micron filter pads. You may want to try the latter first before improving your carbon posture, the micro-filtration mechanical media may do the job itself, rendering carbon use unnecessary.

Mechanical micro-filtration is probably most effectively used in a canister filter.