My 55 gallon African Cichlid Tank Before And After

[sweetlowride]

Thought I would post a few before and after pics of my 55 gallon African Cichlid Tank. Went on a little rock hunt this weekend up behind my house, Gotta love free rock!! Let them soak then scrubbed the heck out of them and placed them into the tank today. Im not really sure about the pirate ship as it looks out of place but my girlfriend really likes it, So you know how that goes LOL.

I know its not as cool as most the tanks here bit im really happy how it turned out and so are my fish Couldnt get many good pics of the fish.
Tank Inhabitants:
-Two Aulonocara Jacobfreibergi (Eureka Red Peacocks)
-Two Aulonocara Sp. (Strawberry Peacocks)
-Two Labidochromis Caeruleus (Electric Yellow Labs)
-Two Sciaenochromis fryeri (electric blue cichlid)
And More to come!!

 

[jm1212]

i like the rockwork

 

[CWO4GUNNER]

I like it also. The only recommendation I would suggest is moving the stack to the background and making your stack more gradual on each side, perhaps wider and shorter to give it a more gradual, sloping and natural line.

 

[sweetlowride]

Thanks! The stack is almost all the way back, Wasnt sure if its ok to have it directly against the glass, Is It???. I started with a shorter wider design but I couldnt fit the driftwood pieces so I decided to build between the two pieces. Im looking fo a 100+ gallon tank for the near future.

 

[Rbishop]

Nice rocks!

 

[CWO4GUNNER]

Thanks! The stack is almost all the way back, Wasnt sure if its ok to have it directly against the glass, Is It???. I started with a shorter wider design but I couldnt fit the driftwood pieces so I decided to build between the two pieces. Im looking fo a 100+ gallon tank for the near future.

Im kind of new at the whole rock stacking thing myself but what I found out so far is that you obviously have to be extremely careful setting he racks inside and having digging Cichlids that I had to go back and install pads under the rocks becasue the sand I was hoping would keep the rocks off the glass bottom was eroded by my digging cichlids to the point that even the rocks started to shift and threatened to fall off their stack.

Some use eggcrate, I just used what I had on hand by cutting pieces of dense foam matting for each bottom stone. Now when they excavate all the sand out the stone is still on top the foam stable and cushioned.

I set my stones close to the back glass but not up against. Someone told me that even if you have tempered bottom glass a hard stone point up against the glass during an earthquake tremor can act like a impact hammer bouncing the stone against the glass and cracking it. So now Im in the process of padding the stones in my 244 tanks which has 1/2" thick tempered glass.

 

[sweetlowride]

Thanks Rbishop!! And great advice CWO4GUNNER, Im also new to the rock aquascaping and wasnt sure what kind of pressure the glass could withstand so I played it safe and kept the rocks off the glass, But I didnt use anything under my substrate, I think ill get some and put in in sometime soon. Thanks for the comments!!!

 

[efors]

The tank is looking great right now!

 

[Pittbull]

Yeah if the women in the house likes it trust me keep it that way LOL my wife is the same.. Looks good.. Welcome to AC..

 

[excuzzzeme]

Nice flat rock! Good looking tank too!