New 75 Gallon Mbuna tank

[jm1212]

your tank looks great. definitley add more rockwork. with african cichlids, the more rockwork, the better. it will lead to less aggresstion

 

[Rbishop]

I also wouldn't glue them together, especially for cleaning or the need to break up line of sight or territories.

I would add more to get a more vertical affect on both ends, or in the center.

 

[ozgood]

So, I didn't work on my tank the week after I first posted. Last Sunday I spent about 6 hours putting in egg crate I got from Home Depot, then put down my styrofoam, rocks, substrate (80# of eco-complete cichlid), and about 60 or so gallons of water. Put together the Ehiem filter. Finally, I cut a piece of the blue filter material from my Eclipse 12 gallon filter. It's a very small amount. I didn't know where to put it so I put it in the tank itself. It's not much and probably isn't doing anything. You can see the little piece of blue hiding in the rocks in the back of the tank.

Monday I stoped by Ace Hardware and put in one cap full of Ammonia. Here are my numbers for the week:

8/7: pH 7.8; Ammonia between 8 and 4; Nitrites 0
8/8: pH 8; Ammonia 4; Nitrites between .25 and .5
8/9: pH 8; Ammonia 4; Nitrites .25; Nitrates between 0 and 5
8/10: pH 7.8; Ammonia 4; Nitrites .5; Nitrates 5

So, you can see by the numbers that things are happening. I know that I'm not done yet. I also don't know why the pH went down today but it's definitely not 8 like yesterday.

Anyway, I hope to get a few plants soon before the fish. Can't wait to get this thing cycled so that I can go fish shopping.

 

[tarheels910]

Looks good, but if I could make a suggestion. I think a black background would set your tank off.

 

[ozgood]

Yep. I agree with the black background. I've been wondering how I'd do it. I was going to paint some styrafoam until the styrafoam melted with spray paint. I'm still thinking of maybe putting some black cloth around the foam. My basement will be in the low 60's in the winter so I'd like to have all the sides in foam during the winter months. I still have time for some more rock as well. I have 3 times what I have in there already cleaned and chipped. It's definitely been a slow process. I guess this is the "hobby" part of the fish hobby. Again, can't wait until the hours of watching part starts.

 

[tarheels910]

Make it easy on yourself. Go to walmart and buy a background but use the black side. Just tape it to the back of your aquarium under the wires.

 

[Rbishop]

Very nice!

 

[H3D]

Looking good.

 

[jamthoyoung]

Looks like it's gonna be a great tank. Can't wait to see more pics!