laurie.os

Hi everyone,

Myself and my boyfriend bought our first freshwater aquarium on Friday (3 days ago). We hope to keep Malawi Cichlids. We have decorated the tank with plenty of rock-work and gravel (no plants).

We have recieved conflicting advice from both a local pet store and the store where we purchased the tank as to when we should introduce livestock. The tank (we think) is going through 'New tank Syndrome' as the water is slightly cloudy. When I asked the guy in the pet shop if the water would clear he did not give me a straight answer, he just said that it was more than likely 'new tank syndrome'. We purchased a water test kit and the results are as follows:

pH = 8.2
ammonia = 0 PPM
nitrite = 0ppm
nitrate = 25 ppm

Should we expect an ammonia or nitrite spike in the next few days?

Also could somebody who has experience with Malawi Cichlids give me some advice as to when to indroduce fish into the tank (190L).

We also purchased an additional pump and air-stones. However, the pump is so loud that we had to disconnect it as it was just so annoying. Is this normal? The pump is an Elite model.

I would really appreciate some advice,

Thanks!!!

jdhef

How did you cycle your tank? If it is cycled, then you should be able to start adding fish (unless there is something different about adding Malawi Cichlids, which I have no experiance on). The cloudiness is generally caused by a bacteria bloom and should clear up.

laurie.os

Thanks for your reply. We added 'Neutrafin Cycle'. The guy we bought the tank off said that we could add fish after 3-4 days, however, the guy in LPS (sorry just getting used to all these abbreviations!!) said 2-3 weeks!!!! I'm not too sure which one I should listen to!!

jdhef

I would recommend against using Cycle. It contains the wrong type of bateria for cycling a tank, and from what I understand must be added on a continuous basis for the life of the tank, since that bacteria is not self sustaining.

Most people around here would recommend a fishless cycle, but you could use BioSpira or Tetra Safe Start to cycle your tank immediatly. You can find a lot of info about cycling on this site. I would supply links for you, but I don't have "tabbed browsing" on my computer at work. Hopefully someone else will supply links for you.

I would assume that the cloudiness in your tank is being cause by the bacteria in the Cycle and should clear up.

One last thing. It's a sad reality, but for the most part the info you get at a LFS is wrong(especially the chain stores). I guess they realize most people are anxious to get started, and don't want to discourage spending money in the store by slowing them down and telling them it could take up to 6 weeks before they can start adding fish.

Good luck and BTW Welcome to Fishlore! Feel free to ask all the questions you need to.

laurie.os

Thanks for your advice.... just one more thing..... (pardon my ignorance), is tetra safe start a once-off treatment?

Slug

Not sure what you mean by once-off? If it works, i don't know, some people have had sucess some would rather not use it.

As for the cichlids themselves, wait until the tank is cycled. Honestly i'd wait a few more days and see if anything else pops up on the water tests, just to make sure.

platy ben

I have a 38 Gallon malawi, mbuna, aquarium and i stocked mine within a week of it being set up and they are fine! .

Heres a link to a thread of mine with some pictures of my malawi tank

My new Malawi Aquarium....

Allie

Do an ammonia test, if there is no ammonia. Then you can add fish.
Lake Malawi cichlid are tough fish. We just had to disinfect all of our tanks from a parasite out break. We had no choice but to add the fish too soon, our are doing great.

jdhef

I've never used Safe Start, but I did use BioSpira. Safe Start is a newer version of BioSpira (made by the same people). The advantage to Safe Start is that it does not need to be kept refridgerated until used, like BioSpira does.

With BioSpira you set up your tank, use a special water conditioner (one that doesn't lock up ammonia), add the BioSpira then immeadiatly add your fish. I would assume Safe Start has the same procedure.

And to answer your question, yes you only add it at initial start up.

laurie.os

Thanks so much to everybody for the advice. Is it ok to add fish even if the water is slightly cloudy? How long will that take to clear?

Cheers guys....

laurie.os

Ben, I saw your tank earlier whilst looking around the site... it's FAB!!!!! We have a 190L Trigon, hopefully I'll post some pictures soon.
I see you have a synodontis catfish ....am I right.... ? We wanted to put a pleco in with the cichlids (when we finally get them) but were advised against doing so and the guy recommened a synodontis catfish. Is there much of a difference between the species?

Allie

It take a bit for the water to clear up with a Malawi tank. I'd put another filter on it. That is if you don't already have 2 going. Extra filtration on LM tank is must. They are dirty fish b/c you should feed them 3-4 times a day.
Why you may ask? I have noticed that it keeps the aggression down, especially when you have too many males in the tank.
A hungry fish is a cranky fish. lol

laurie.os

Update: the water looks a bit clearer today, so hopefully it's on the mend We only have one pump in the tank at the moment. Maybe a second one is a good idea. Is it ok to fit a second pump after we've added the fish?

Allie

It's fine

platy ben

Yup thats a synodontis angelicus catfish, commonly known as an angel catfish, he keeps the rubbish levels down and stops the cichlids from being territorial against one another .

the only disadvantage with the angel catfish is that it can grow to 7"-8" long, ive got a 65G he can go in if mine gets to big, plecos will do a better job of cleaning algae off rocks and the glass but they probably wouldnt hold their own against cichlids, where-as the angel catfish can look after himself easily.

Sorry about long post, hope this helps

laurie.os

Thats great thanks a mill Platy.....

We currently have a smooth white gravel as a substrate but upon reading more literature I'm thinking of mixing in some sand.... whatta ya think

platy ben

Well cichlids as you probably know like having a fine substrate, the white gravel would be fine if it can fit into a cichlids mouth because cichlids like taking sand into their mouth and then taking out small parasites and spitting the sand back out, i would recommend adding sand

laurie.os

Thanks Ben, I was thinking that myself. The gravel we have is probably too big to fit into their mouths so it's back to the pet shop.........AGAIN

platy ben

Well hope you find somthing suitable for your cichlids, hope it all goes smoothly