If I see something nice at a LFS or Petsmart, I'll grab it, but usually I see Mbuna there and I no longer keep Mbuna. I did get that Electric Blue at a Petsmart and he's turned out to be a great fish.
To much substraight makes my tank stink and made to much nitrates too. I removed 50 percent and things got a whole lot better. Im going to change to sand and see what happens. It looks nice in my other tank.
There are two schools of thought on this. One group thinks that a deep substrate will promote beneficial bacteria. But I'm like you. I've reduced the depth of my substrate and I've had good results. Sand is great. It keeps detritus from getting too deep. Just be sure to rake it every now and then and vacuum without pushing the siphon into the sand.
Hello Ben this tank is very beautiful and I am inspired by it. I planning to build my new 90 gallon which should look similar, but I have few questions 1) what are the tank dimensions? 2) what canisters are you using? 3) how many fishes you have in this 60 gallon?
Hello Ranjan and thank you. A lot has changed since this video was recorded. This 60 gallon is now a grow-out tank for my younger, smaller fish. It is 4' across, 13" front to back and 24" tall. It was running two SunSun 302B's back then and since then I have added an Emperor Marineland dual bio-wheel hang-on-back filter for more circulation, filtration and oxygenation.
Great video! Tank looks good, but the fish...wow, gorgeous. New to the cichlid game, but I'm setting up a 60 gallon to start with. Now I just will have to research before I get my fish. Keep up the good work
Michael Gross If you want some on going advice, come over to the Facebook group page, "Ben O'Cichlid." There are lots of friendly fish keepers there willing to help.
Hey Ben, I have been interested in getting into African ciclids, there are so many different types of peacock ciclids, what was the name of the electric blue peacock in your tank along with the one with the red fin.
Ben Ochart lol i thought so... Im looking for plents for my tank, i have Anubias but want different color, all anubias are green, they are butyfull but want a bit color change..
Eliav Edri Do you have Cichlids? They are very hard on plants. I currently have anubias and java fern in my 60 with juvies. The bigger fish just tear them up. Check with Corey at the Aquarium Co-op. He would know.
Love your videos Ben, great advice, im learning loads. If im stocking a (newly cycled) 63gallon tank how many fish would you recommend adding at a time until I have approx 25 in the tank? And over what kind of time frame? Im just wary of affecting the bio load too much but also aware I need to over stock a cichlid tank to counter aggresion.
Steve Sinclair I'd throw six in there initially. Let them get comfortable, then a few more batches of four to six at a time. Just how I would do it. I've heard you can even add just one if you do it late and leave the lights off.
Hi Ben, What kind of plants are you using inside, because lot of people say you cannot keep this plants along with these cichlids since they end up destroying it completely, please enlighten me,, i would really like to have some plants inside my cichlid freshwater 45 gallon tank, fyi i also do have a couple of oscars
Praveen Kumar Radhakrishnan In this video the plants are plastic. I have tried live anubias (covered in other videos) and they worked with smaller Cichlids but the bigger Cichlids chewed them up.
John M I suggest you pile it high with rocks creating a lot of caves and hiding spots then put 5 - 10 Mbuna in there. Yellow Labs, Yellow Tails, Chewere, the less violent ones. Buy them young so they're small, and as you grow them out, be saving money for the 50% off black Friday sale on 125 gallon tanks at Petco. Good luck!
Believe me Ben if I could get my wife to get rid of the piano that nobody plays since all 3 boys graduated college and moved out I would have gotten at least a 125 gallon. You don't want a piano do you?
Go with smaller peacocks, or consider other lakes or even SA cichlids since a 36 gal will eventually be too small. A good size hang-on-back would give you plenty filtration and water movement for a tank that size.
Thank you! I’m not really gonna overstock it. I’m waiting for my big tank to be set up, and am just gonna use this as a breeder or a quarantine tank but in the mean time I miss having fish. Would 5 be too many even if they’re smaller (1.5-2in)?
Melissa Schultz I'm using egg crate sponges and they work fine. They do provide more surface area. If you're going to service your canisters every month, it will not make much difference. If you're going longer between cleanings, I'd suggest the egg crate. Just my opinion.
Melissa Schultz Oh, someone told me they are called diffusers. No, if If I was starting over I'd go with sand (if tap pH is good, crushed coral or aragonite if it's not).
