Requesting more suggestions on 55g cichlid tank

orang3julius

orang3julius

AC Members
Feb 19, 2006
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Sacramento County
Well, i still have plenty of questions about what i can do about my 55g mbuna cichlid tank. I have my 2.5" golden mbuna and a common pleco. I have basically decided to buy play sand from home depot which took me some time to thoroughly rinse the sand and i've been looking for affordable stones and rocks i can use to create caves and hiding places, but i can't find any place that i can hand pick the stones i want. when i went ot home depot they only had rocks sold in 50lb bags, which is unnecessary, and when i go to the lfs their rocks are so over-priced. I've been planning to visit the local river and probably obtain some stones there, but i'm pretty hesitant at the possibilities of outside bacteria and microorganisms that may enter my tank. I've seen a couple nice layouts and am really interested in having a simple rock and sand layout. Besides that, i'm still looking into adding some other mbunas that could stand the aggresiveness of the golden mbuna, and by the way i wanted to know how to sex these cichlids, they all look alike to me... =/ .. i just wanted to say thanks ahead now, for anyone willing to reply.

p.s. my tank has a pretty good ph of 8.2, the hardness is in the good range, and my lighting is fair. I have been running my tank for over a few months now and i've always been waiting for a perfect time to make my aquarium a showcase tank just like the rest of yours, and i think now is the time i should get started.
 
If you can go to your local river and pick up rocks, you absolutely should NOT buy them from anywhere. Just boil them if you are very concerned about getting weird stuff in your aquarium.

I have found all of my rocks and driftwood and all of it is much nicer than anything I have ever seen for sale.
 
If your too scared about collecting in the outdoors, which you shouldn't be if you boil or bake them. Then try your local rockery (rock yard) look in yellow pages and if you can't find anything, call a local mason and ask where he gets his stone. The rockeries will most likely give you what you want for free and you can hand pic everything. Even if they don't give it to you for free, most of the rock is only like $.20 a pound.
Check out the link in my signature to see some pics of my 85 gallon tank. All I paid for was the play sand and the rockery gave me all the rock you see there.
 
I'd do as suggested above. Landscape supply yards will have several types of limestone based rock for a fraction of LFS price. I would bake my rocks (NO NOT BAKE SANDSTONE), or soak in bleachwater rather than boiling. Boiling just doesn't really do as good a job at killing spores and bacteria as the other two methods. Although in all actuality, neither method is probably needed. Pathogenic bateria cannot survive long outside of a host, but better safe than sorry.
when i went ot home depot they only had rocks sold in 50lb bags, which is unnecessary
Click to expand...

IMO 50lbs of rock for a 55g African Cichlid tank is by no means excessive.
 
I too get all my rockwork from local rivers, I like it nice and natural.

Oh, and I'm still gonna give you the SAME REPLY as I did before... you will have nothing but trouble if you try and stock auratus in a 55 gallon tank, or if you try and stock other aggressive mbuna with them. The tank will just end up being too small for them and you'll loose a lot to aggression. And if you did attempt it, IMO you will need AT LEAST 50lbs of rock for that tank, if not more.

If you really wanted to keep your "golden mbuna" (please call it by its real name) then you should read everything you can on them. Only then will you know that they are one of the easiest mbuna to sex, the males go blue/black when they mature.

;)
-Diana
 
this method of soaking in bleachwater sounds interesting. do you literally meaning using bleach with water? and for how long if i were to soak or bake a rock should i do that? thank you guys :thm:
 
I'm curious about 'baking ' rocks.
what temperature?

In my neck of the woods you have to be caustious about subjecting rocks you pick up from rivers to heats which are hot enough to produce steam..
apparently some of the rocks around here trap enough water in them that if you get them hot enough to produce steam..they explode..literally.
 
Yep rocks do occationally explode, often when you use the wrong type in a campfire- watch out! I usually boil my rocks but you have to be careful of them exploding, same with baking them in the oven.

Thats why bleaching them is a good method. That way you can just let em soak. Again you have to be kind of careful with which rocks you use, because really porous rocks (and wood for that matter) will absorb the bleach and you need to rinse really really well to get it all out, and let the rocks sit to dry for a while as well.

;)
-Diana
 
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