outlaw

Cool. I didn't plan on returning the fish unless there was a good reason. Do you have any pictures of your fish?

Gozer_1

African Cichlids are beautiul fish and have a personality all their own. While it puts a huge stopper on most other fish you could have, they're also really fun to watch. I think you'll be pleased with them. They have so many color varieties that you don't really need other fish anyway. Watching them interact with each other and seeing their social order in action is very interesting. My vote would go to keeping them. You can always get different fish when you get another tank. You know you already want another. lol

GreenMan13

I posted pictures on this topic:

What type of cichlids are these?

I will try to get more up this week of them and the whole tank as it is now and also my other tank and start a members tank topic for them.

outlaw

Gozer: I still have the 20Gal, now with water in it.

Green: Thanks for the link. I like the colors. Hopefully when I get the pics, they will be just as colorful. Nice Fish!

Yes, that is a shirt I was using for a filter! lol

Picture from about 4ft away. Yes there is water in it.

Close up. The little "whitish" spot is where the "goo" from the filter has settled. lol

COBettaCouple

Hmm.. what pet shop did you buy your shirt-filter at?

outlaw

Well it didn't last very long. As you can see the shirt soaked up a bunch of water and started running down the side of the tank, so I give it a 1 out of 10 (1 being the worst). And I got it at "Shirts-in-Closets". lol Now i'm back to a filterless filter, lol. Just cycling the water if you can call it that. Is it possible to cycle the water without anything in the water?

COBettaCouple

I think I'd take it back and complain.

You can cycle without fish, but need to add either pure ammonia or food to the tank. http://www.fishlore.com/NitrogenCycle.htm

You mean you have a filter running, but it's empty? If you need filter media, you can find what we buy:
http://www.drsfostersmith.com/Produc...&N=2004+113808
either online or I've seen it at petsmart and a LFS here.

GreenMan13

what about getting a simple dish sponge from like Walmart or a Dollar Tree? Would that work as a cheap filter material?

outlaw

55Gal? bow front. They posted pictures for me. My wife has agreed that we can buy it. The fish look fairly large already from the pics.

As for the filter. I don't like this HOB unless I find away to level it on the back of the tank. When the filter started to get plugged, it would overflow the back side. I guess I could stick the other tank behind it, but I don't think it would fit on the dresser. Hopefully this guy/girl will give me a date I can pick it up.

Thanks guys for all the help. Should I keep my posts here if/when I get the new tank or start a new one?

Gozer_1

That tank looks great! Good deal. Gonna be lots of fun packing that up to move lol. Real fun putting it back together.

I have a thread for each of my tanks so I think you should too lol.

outlaw

I'll do that then. Don't remind me. It's at least 70mi one way. Hope the fish make it.

Do you think a plastic tote will work for transport?

GreenMan13

I have used a 5 gallon bucket from home depot with a lid for transport. I would just make sure to ask how big they are to make sure they can fit in the tote comfortably.

outlaw

From the picture, the acutally look pretty big. I'll ask them. Thanks for the reminder.