The Tribe

First hello & sorry for the long story but thought a bit of back round would help.

I think Ive finaly found the correct people to advise me..... its been a long road!!! But maybe now I can get myself on the way to creating a beautiful under water world

My partner purchased a 190ltr JUWEL Aquarium, filter, pump & heater inc.

The shop that sold him it was very helpful and they filled me & him with confidence.

We started shopping around for deco etc... And now we are been told differnt things everywhere we go, however the chap that sold us the tank has turned very arogant and told me to listen to him and only him or he will not deal us in so many words.

We wants to keep Malawi fish, this is what my partner has been advised would be the best starter fish. As they are hardy, we can keep all Malawi fish and yet still get the effect with different colours etc...

We do know they can be agressive and need plenty of hide aways etc... We again have been advised by one shop to keep 15-20 fish (this I am comfortable with) another told us 40!!!!!!! That shocked me!

It was filled on Thursday 18th Nov 08

The tank: has a sand bottom, with 3 large coral rocks in the middle, creating great hidding places to eitherside, the back & a tunnell through the rocks. Also got some plastic plants.

1st We have been told to add the water & conditioner, leave it and take a sample into the shop in 2 weeks.

They have told me I have no need for a test kit of my own just yet? Is this true?

2nd somone else said I should be doing weekly water changes upto 25%, should I be doing this?

3rd what is the best way and do I need to oxygnate the water? Silly question I know, but when I have asked in the shop they keep saying I have everything I need.

Somehow It hink not, as I dont have most the things on your starter list!

You are asking why I didnt find this out before right?

It was my partners new adventure and hopefully a life time hobbie. He had spoken to a few people before hand and when I came home with a list the size of my arm detailing what we needed he told me I was been over the top!


So I left him to it and now he's looking to me to put it right.....men haha

I'm looking for you good people to give me some solid advice and get me on my way to some great little fish

I think and please tell me if i'm wrong my plan of attack should be:

Get a test kit, new bucket, hose etc....

Hows best to clean the sand?

I keep reading it is important to clean your gravel and now I
I'm thinking we have done the wrong thing with sand?

What chemicles will I require? If any?

Do I need to add fish food?

I don't mind waiting and I'm not out to rush anything and get it wrong, I want happy healthy fish

Thanks in advance for any help

Kelly x x ';/

sirdarksol

Some good basic information can be foundhere.

In no particular order:
The only chemical you need is a good dechlorinator. Prime, Ultimate, or AmQuel+ are among the best dechlorinators out there.

You should get your own test kit. Fish stores have a tendency to give misinformation, some on purpose, some on accident, but either way, it's best if you can confirm your own aquarium info. Plus, they usually use the test strips, which are less accurate than the liquid tests.

Aeration generally isn't necessary if you have a HOB (hang-on-back) filter. The water pouring into the tank will aerate the water enough.

190liters would only be able to support 40 fish if they were really tiny. However, I'm not a cichlid specialist, so I'll leave the stocking question to a more capable person.

Water Changes: You say you know about the nitrogen cycle. This is good. Until the cycle is complete, I would suggest doing daily 25% water changes, as it looks like you've already got fish in the tank (if you don't, ignore this). The ammonia being produced is extremely harmful to fish, and the water changes help lower it.
Once you have zero ammonia and zero nitrites, then you can scale things back, doing weekly (twice-a-week) water changes to keep the nitrates under 20ppm (preferably under 10ppm).

I'm sure someone has already ninja'd me on this, and I'm sure I've missed a few questions, too. Good luck with everything. Keep the questions coming.
And...
Welcome to Fishlore!

Lucy

Welcome to the Forum

SDS's got ya covered and he wasn't ninja'd lol

We're glad you're here, the members are friendly, have a wide range of knowlege and are always happy to help

Good luck!

Dozey

Well lets see if we can help out.

You absolutely should have a test kit, most advised would be the API Master liquid test kit. It’s with this kit that you will know how much water to change when you need to. At this, if I’m correct you have no fish so water changes are not necessary.

To cycle your tank you will need a source of ammonia. This can be either fish food, dead shrimp or ammonia itself. Here is a great link that explains the whole process. http://www.fishlore.com/NitrogenCycle.htm Another reason you are going to need that test kit.

In your 190L (50 gallon) tank I would not recommend more then 5 or 6 Malawis as they will grow to be about 20cm (8”) in size. And they will not get along with many other fish.

You can vacuum your sand so I don’t see that being any problem. You will need an aquarium vacuum.

You will need a water conditioner for water changes and top ups. Highly recommend here is a product called “Prime”. I also keep another product called “Stress Coat” by API that I use only when something has stressed out my fish.

From my own personal experience I will NEVER purchase anything from a LFS based on a suggestion by a sales staff. They are sales people, they want to sell you fish and lots of them.

Hope some of this help, welcome to FishLore and the very best of luck to you. You are certainly on the right steps of a healthy tank. Researching and then going ahead.

SDS