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180g African Cichlid Tank

18K views 93 replies 19 participants last post by  Sidius 
#1 · (Edited)
Some of you may know that a little over a year ago I purchased my dream tank from Rogers Aquatics. After a year in storage and toying with the idea of selling it due to having no space for it (long story), we finally bought our first townhouse and it had an awesome spot for the 180 in the living room!

The plan is to house my current African cichlids plus a bunch more and attempt to grow low light plants like anubias + java fern and possibly some vals, hygro and an amazon sword. I won't be using co2 and I'm trying to avoid heavy dosing of ferts for them. We'll see how they do and adjust accordingly.

Here are the first pics of it with my new lighting, dry with sand (Don't mind the grainy pics, I'll take better photos with my DSLR soon). I'm heading out this weekend to buy some new rocks and I still have a nice piece of manzanita wood to add that I ordered in from Tom Barr back when I first got the tank. Once I've picked up the rocks, I'll be filling it with water and going to pick up the Africans in my 90g from it's temp home @ the mother-in-law-to-be's house.







Equipment list:

Tank:
Aqueon tank 72x24x24 180 gallon tank and stand

Lighting:
Current USA 36" (x2) Freshwater+ LED's
Current USA LED Lunar moonlights (not shown in pic)
Current USA Dual ramp timer/controller
Hagen GLO T5HO fixture with 2 x 54W Giesemann bulbs (Aquaflora + Pure Actinic)

Filtration/Circulation:
Eheim 2080 Canister
Eheim 2075 Canister
2 x AC110 HOB filters
2 x Hydor 1500 gph powerheads
TMC Vecton 6 25watt UV (not installed yet)

Heaters:
2 x Eheim 300watt

Current stock list:
Nimbochromis venustus
Nimbochromis fuscotaeniatus
Cyrtocara moorii
Cyphotilapia Frontosa Burundi
Dimidiochromis compressiceps
Copadichromis borleyi
Protomelas fenestratus
Protomelas sp. "Steveni Taiwan" (Taiwan Reef)
Placidochromis sp. "Phenochilus Tanzania"
Placidochromis electra
Aulonocara jacobfreibergi "Eureka"
Aulonocara jacobfreibergi (Undu Reef)
Aulonocara maulana "Bi-color 500"
Aulonocara stuartgranti (Usisya)
Aulonocara sp. "Stuartgranti Maleri"
Aulonocara sp. "Lwanda"
Dragon's blood peacock
Metriaclima sp. "Dolphin Manda"
Cynotilapia sp. "hara" - this could also be Cynotilapia zebroides (Jalo Reef)
Pseudotropheus socolofi (Albino)
Pseudotropheus sp. "Acei" (White tail) x 4
Pseudotropheus sp. "Acei" (Yellow tail)
Labidochromis caeruleus x 4
Synodontis petricola x 8
Pictus Catfish x 3
Bristlenose pleco x2
L200a High Fin Green Phantom
L204 Flash panaque
L191 Dull eyed panaque
 
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#4 ·
Looking good buddy. I have a bunch of plants to start you off with out my tank. I have lots of Jungle Vals. That hygro you gave me as well. We also got in a bunch of XL Java ferns at work I could grab a few for you.

I cant wait to see the tank come together. You better not think yours will be nicer than mine LOL :)

Lights look good to me. You can always try a par meter and see how much light those are giving off. Than Ill check mine and see what my lights give off. Id love to make the switch to the lights you bought. What a great idea to buy the US Current fixtures ;)
 
#5 ·
Looking good buddy. I have a bunch of plants to start you off with out my tank. I have lots of Jungle Vals. That hygro you gave me as well. We also got in a bunch of XL Java ferns at work I could grab a few for you.

I cant wait to see the tank come together. You better not think yours will be nicer than mine LOL :)

Lights look good to me. You can always try a par meter and see how much light those are giving off. Than Ill check mine and see what my lights give off. Id love to make the switch to the lights you bought. What a great idea to buy the US Current fixtures ;)
LOL I wonder who gave me the idea of the Current USA fixtures... It's a 6ft tank so I win by default :cool:
 
#6 ·
Nice set up.What Africans are you keeping?Perfect tank for tropheus.
 
#7 ·
Haps/Peacocks and a few Mbuna

Here's my current stocklist from my 90g:
Nimbochromis venustus, Nimbochromis fuscotaeniatus, Cyrtocara moorii, Copadichromis borleyi, Placidochromis electra, Aulonocara maulana (Bi-color 500), Aulonocara sp. "Lwanda", Aulonocara sp. "Stuartgranti Maleri", Dragon's blood peacock, Frontosa, Metriaclima sp. "Dolphin Manda", Synodontis petricola x 8, Pictus Catfish x 3, Bristlenose pleco x2

I plan on adding a bunch more down the road as well...
 
#10 ·
Haha thanks! The first thing we said about this place was that it had the perfect wall for this tank. When we painted after moving in, we decided to make that a feature wall with the dark brown colour.

It's actually pool filter sand from Langley By-Water. Cheap sand and it looks great.
 
#13 ·
Thanks guys!

I filled it with water last night so I could adjust the heaters to the right temp and establish the PH/GH/KH a couple days prior to grabbing my fish from their temp home (my old 90g at the mother-in-law-to-be's house). I'm having troubles accessing photobucket today from work or I would post a couple pics of it being filled.
 
#15 ·
Tanks coming along nicely... looking forward to updates and fish pics.

I thought you planned to sell this setup? Bet your stoked its coming together and finally setting it up.

How are you liking the lighting? I want to sell my dual 36" double brights for either a single 48"current usa + or dual 36". I assume you got a controller and additional moon lights to create a sun rise/set? Whats you plan on the lighting cycle? Where did you buy the gear from... online?
 
#18 · (Edited)
Yes I did almost sell this tank. Well I put it up for sale at least. I never did get any offers even close to what it was worth so I decided to keep it.

I like the lighting so far. It's not quite as bright as I had hoped but I think I might add my 48" GLO T5HO fixture to it as well. My only real complaint is that the controller that Current USA sells can have issues with this fixture. I've followed their instructions but it blinks off/on randomly and it does it quite a bit. I've put in a ticket with them to try and figure out where I might have gone wrong with the settings. Oh and yes I'm using their dual ramp timer for sunrise/sunset and I still have to install some of their lunar LED's to run on the second channel for moonlights. I bought it all online from Ken's fish in the US.

What is your goal km/gh? Are you planning to mix your own or are you using seachem products?
I use seachem products pretty much exclusively. There are sources to get it for fairly cheap online and it is reliable. Because I'm planning on keeping plants in this tank, I'm not positive on what kh/gh I'm going to aim for but I think in the end I'll aim for a PH of around 7.8-8.0.
 
#17 · (Edited)
It's finally up and running with fish!

jbyoung0008 and I did a tour through some LFS and picked up some rocks from Northwest landscape this weekend. Here is my first tankscape attempt with this tank so let me know your thoughts!

I picked up the following fish (all in the 1.5-2" range)

White tail acei x 4
Albino socolofi x 4
Yellow lab x 4

I'm aiming for 1m/2-3f in each group of Mbuna and if they cause problems down the road, I'll get rid of them



 
#19 ·
Looks awesome Jamie. Very natural looking. I might be a little bias LOL. I cant wait to see it once you add all your other fish.
 
#20 ·
Thanks Justin! I still have some more rocks that we picked out to use, if I want to build up my rock pile a bit more.

If all goes as planned, I should be adding my other fish tonight. I've sent Charles a PM about picking up a high fin green phantom pleco as well.
 
#25 ·
So just a note to anyone that's reading my journal and curious about the lighting... They have been randomly blinking quite frequently since I bought them and hooked them up to the dual ramp timer/controller. I put in a ticket today and found out that because I'm running 2 x 36" fixtures, the power adapter that they sent (the controller didn't come with an adapter at all) with the fixtures does not have the amperage/wattage to power both fixtures and the controller. They also don't make one (seriously they don't make a power adapter to run more than one fixture plugged into a dual channel controller). I have to find an after market adapter that is 12v and 50+ watts with a 5.5mm diameter jack in order to use these fixtures with their controller. If anyone can suggest one, please let me know. Otherwise.... I'll be digging through the web to find one...
 
#27 ·
So just an update, I moved all the old residents of my 90g into this tank last night. The fish seem to be loving all the extra space. It's nice to finally see them in a home that actually fits them. With all the additions of my old cycled filters as well, the tank was pretty cloudy last night. I'll take some photos tonight and post them in here.
 
#28 ·
Looking forward to the pics.

Sounds like you moved your fish/cycled gear from your in-laws to your current place. How long did the move take?

I also use PFS from langley by-water...Its pretty dusty stuff but looks awesome. I saw this youtube technique that allows you to add PFS right out of the bag without any cloudiness, and still clean the sand very well. It took me less then 10 min to clean 100lbs of sand. Within an hour the tank was very clear. I was skeptical at first but this method really works,

Any updated on a fairdeals group buy?

I am certain I am going to do my first online purchase this year. I am currently looking at these breeders, they all ship to canada. Shipping fish into canada and going to the airport to pick them up is something I have no experience doing.

Fish
Quinn's Fins - Live African Cichlids to you
Boesters Cichlids - Malawi Price List
Cichlaholic.com - Fish Lists
Captain Cichlids
 
#29 · (Edited)
All in all it took about 3 hours including driving time to move them all over to their new home...

No updates from Harold yet.. I've sent him about 5 emails, none of them have been answered and I haven't heard from him in almost a month now. No idea what his problem is but his customer service never used to be like this.

It's pretty easy to deal with online purchases. Mind you I've only ever done it from Fairdeals (Harold). You show up to the airport, usually wait an hour or two because there is some kind of delay, then they bring out the fish. In some cases you might need to actually go to the airport to sign for the package but I never had to with Harold. If you're buying from a good source, the quality of fish will be light years better than any LFS you could buy from. Let me know if you're thinking of organizing an order and I'll probably join in.

FYI - Wet Spot won't deliver to Canada, at least not in my experience.
 
#30 ·
From those posted by mike I have only dealt with spencer jack, so I can't speak for American suppliers but spencer jack was very quick explained everything all cost included and p/u was no wait for me from yvr. Quality was superior to any lfs and if they do order these guys it's twice the price. I haven't dealt with Harold but got his fish off other members they are very nice as well for this reason id stay with a Canadian source for shipping ease and cost, if they have what you want.
 
#36 ·
Ya I'd probably order from Spencer Jack. His latest list didn't have that many I was interested in and I'm also not into a massive order of fish right now. I already picked up 3 groups of mbuna and I just want the fish I have to get used to their new home. If Harold does get back to me, I will still start the group order and if someone else is starting one for somewhere else, I'd likely order a few fish though.
 
#31 ·
Yeah still doing my research on who I want to go with. I really would like to get my hands on a confirmed male insignus, rhodesi, nototaenia, maybe a christyi and champsochromis. Looks like quinns fish is leading the pack for what i'm looking for. He's prices are cheap for medium fish which are confirmed sex and he has shipped to canada so should be able to help out with the process. Shipping to BC is 100 but unsure how many fish fit in one box.

Any idea how many fish per box, based on your group order experience
 
#32 ·
I've done an America to Canada order which involves having to pass the fish through customs. It's a fairly straightforward process as long as you don't bring in any CITES species or anything illegal and what not. I also do not believe wetspot ships to Canada which is unfortaunte because they're supposedly one of the best.
 
#33 ·
I was thinking of visiting a friend in portland, its about a 5 hour drive one way. I also have a mailbox in Bellingham which will hold any package for me.

Did you contact lee's electronics. I would just go there and explain your lighting issue and he should be able to have what you need in stock ore tell you where to get it if they dont stock it. He's got pretty decent prices for everything too.
 
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