Finally decided on what kind of cichlids

So my 75 is set up and fully cycled. I'm running a marineland hang-on filter rated for 70 gallons (filters up to 350 gallons per hour) and a fluval 306 canister filter (another 300 gallons per hour). Just have to figure out how to bypass the water softener as we have really hard water in my city and tangs like really hard water.

It took me a long time to decide what to stock with. At first I wanted jewels. But then some of you crushed those dreams. Then I decided to go with peacocks. Then I realized that only males are pretty and I couldn't find a variety of species locally. Then I wanted a mbuna tank with yellow labs and acei, but then they suddenly didn't seem all that cool. Then it hit me that I haven't considered Lake Tanganyika. Long story short, a local breeder will be attending a fish swap here in town and he's reserved a breeding trio of white calvus and 3-4 juveniles for me. all for 65$. They are gorgeous!! I get them on the 29th and I'm so excited. At the moment, the calvus will be the only fishes in there. I might add some julis later on but right now I think I've found what I really truly want.

Will do. So excited and scared I'll accidentally kill then.


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I tested water from the outside faucet and the inside. They both show soft water, which is weird, as I know that water that goes outside is usually expelled before it reaches the softener. This is probably because softened water is bad for plants and grass. I'm hoping whoever installed the softener had the foresight to install a bypass switch for maintenance purposes. Knowing my luck, there won't be one. I need to go down to the basement and check.

Alright, I've found the bypass valve. It's actually ON the softener, not on the pipes leading from it. This means I won't have to use the African Mineral Salts and potentially kill my fish because of the unstable levels. Everything seems to be going well.

A coworker of mine used to have a large reef setup and has a lot of dead live rock that she'll give me. I did some sleuthing and this seems to be ok, as long as I rinse it out.

I ordered an eheim jager heater today. Heaters scare me because I'm always afraid they're going to get stuck in the on position and kill all my fish. This seems to be one of the more reliable brands.

PS-I've already spent 600$ on this tank, and I don't want to mess up and kill everything.

In case you were wondering, or not (I'm going to tell you anyway), I got the calvus(es?)! 3 adults and 4 near adults. (F1 from what I was told, though maybe not). I shut off the softener and now my tank water is very hard. When I got them on Saturday, I was afraid they would die during acclimation (I've been worried because I keep reading about how Calvus are very sensitive fish, especially juveniles.

To my relief, they survived the hour of drip acclimation. Then I netted them out and put them in the aquarium, and predictably they sank to the bottom and pretty much stayed there without moving. It's only been a couple days but they're moving a lot more now, but they're still very shy. To be honest I thought that most of the subadults would have died by now. I'm glad to say that they are definitely doing better.

Here's a picture of one of the juvies on the first day:



I've been feeding blood worms and New Life Spectrum granules (what the previous owner was feeding). I went out and bought a circulation pump and it's way too strong so I'm going to get some more rocks from a coworker and hopefully provide more blockage and hiding spots. Until then I've turned it off. The eheim jager 250 watt heater is keeping everything a nice and cozy 77 degrees (measured with an independent digital thermometer for accuracy).

I know that I'm not out of the woods yet and that it's only been a couple of days. A lot can happen in the coming weeks. I guess I'm seeing their increased activity as a sign that things are going to get better. My concern now is one of the juvies, who seems to be missing some scales on his belly area. I'm not sure though. I'll just try and keep an eye on him and see how it goes.

I promise I'll have more pics for you tomorrow! Trust me! I'm go crazy with a camera.

PS-People say that even a 20% water change with calvus can freak them out, but the guy I got them from says he's been doing 50% every other week with no problems at all. Strange.