55 gallon overstocked cichlid question.

Hey everybody. Been a few months so I wanted to post an update to my 55 gallon. I have the following setup. The pic is kind of nighttime lighting and during the day it’s much brighter.

Fish:
2 yellow tail ACEI,
2 yellow labs,
2 sulfur head,
1 cobalt blue
1 Red peacock
1 eureka red
1 lemon jake
1 rusty
1 zebra Raphael catfish
2 kuhli loaches.
1 pictus catfish
1 pleco

for the fish like the catfish and pleco I have a deal with my LFS to swap the grown version

Equipment:
Running a 55 gallon and a 75 gallon marine land filters, 1 Fluval plant LED 3.0

Plants:
2 Amazon sword echinodorus
4 various Anubias
Hornwart
2 small grass
1 red plant lookin thing haha

next steps:
Add 2 more cichlids then done with fish.
remove bubble rock and add a large piece mopani wood we are currently removing tannins from, then plant various anubias and mosses on. This will be placed on the left and reaches into the tank and ends about 3/4s the height
Add some rock cave structures to the right and remove fake wood cave.

the only issue I have is algae growth on the plant leaves. Would a UV light take care of that? Or is there something more practical?
Let me know what you all think!

 

Hi

Tank looks good but African cichlids would prefer more rock over plants. They might rip the plants up when adults. I wouldn't add driftwood either, that's for South American setups usually.

 

I agree, the Mbuna will function better with a rock hardscape. Mbuna are primarily vegetarian & might acquire a taste for the plants.
Although the listed Mbuna are generally considered peaceful, that's relative as compared to other Mbuna species. As the Mbuna mature, territorial aggression might adversely affect the Aulonocara Peacocks.
The Kuhli Loaches probably won't do well. YoYo Loaches or some other mid sized Botia Loach would be a better choice.

 

As you get more experience, you'll find it is usually encouraged to overstock an African cichlid tank. Just make sure all the species are compatible. Good luck.

 

Thanks for the input.

we planned on changing the hardscape over to do like a half and half setup. The left side would be the mopani wood the right side we were going to do a decent size rock setup we’re it would blend over to the left.

Any advise on algae?
also since I’m overstocking is my filtration setup adequate?

 

Got my first Anubia flower today…. So pretty!

does anybody have advise on algae or if I have adequate filtration for an overstocked cichlid tank?

 

Many Mbuna species graze on algae. Unfortunately they also eat most varieties of plants.
You might try adult Mystery Snails.
Cichlids in general will eat just about anything that will fit in their mouth. Adult Mystery Snails are good sized & might stand a chance.

 

I have a 55 gallon currently I have a few questions about filtration lighting and stocking here is my current fish stocking.

Fish:
2 yellow tail ACEI,
2 yellow labs,
2 sulfur head,
1 cobalt blue
1 Red peacock
1 eureka red
1 lemon jake
1 rusty
1 zebra Raphael catfish
2 kuhli loaches.
1 pictus catfish
1 pleco

Is this considered overstocking?

I recently setup and programmed a fluvial plant LED and I am still having algae issues. Mainly in the plants. programming below

So my question is how can I control algae specifically on plant leaves with this stocking. Shrimp are out of the question obviously so coming up blank. Will a UV light be practicle?

Also I am running a marine land 55 gallon HOB filter and a marine land 75 gallon HOB it is rated for 350 GPH not sure on the smaller one. Is this enough filtration for an overstocked tank?

Thanks for any advice!

 

It is very heavilly stocked. Can you keep the levels pf nitrate at a suitible level 30 ppm max? Can you keep the cycle from crashing? Are the fish killing each other? Those are the questions you have to ask your self in this situation.

Preventing age and keeping enough lite and enough food for a tank full of food grubs? If you find out, let me know.

Do you have enough filtration? I would say yes. But What you really need is biomaterial in those filters,so that you can clean them out. you could have 6 hang on the back filters and your tank would not be any cleaner if you dont dump the detritus out of the filter.

SoI recomend adding double the amount of filter cartridges and other media like bio bolls,, or bio rings, or craft foam. So that you can rinse some of the stuff, and not touch the other half of the stuff.

 

It is very heavilly stocked. Can you keep the levels pf nitrate at a suitible level 30 ppm max? Can you keep the cycle from crashing? Are the fish killing each other? Those are the questions you have to ask your self in this situation.

Preventing age and keeping enough lite and enough food for a tank full of food grubs? If you find out, let me know.

Do you have enough filtration? I would say yes. But What you really need is biomaterial in those filters,so that you can clean them out. you could have 6 hang on the back filters and your tank would not be any cleaner if you dont dump the detritus out of the filter.

SoI recomend adding double the amount of filter cartridges and other media like bio bolls,, or bio rings, or craft foam. So that you can rinse some of the stuff, and not touch the other half of the stuff.

Nitrate gets to 30 after 1 week so I do a water change every 5 days currently. Fully grown I will do one every 3.

as for crashing I have 4 filter media pads and I only swap one at a time if needed. Clean the rest.

so far there is 0 aggression after the pecking order was established. I am rescaping very soon to add a ton of caves so they can claim some space.

i assume you ment preventing algae, which is one of my current issues. It doesn’t get out of hand but would like to lower it.

I plan on removing the OOTB filter media and loading some filter floss carbon water polisher and purigen so that I can have better control of that, does that sound about right?
Forgot the add my lighting schedule here it is

 

Im sorry, I lost you at ootb filter.

 

The out of the box filter pads. Remove those and put in layered bags of carbon, filter floss, water polisher, then purigen at the top. Does that make more sense?

 

There isnt anything wrong with the normal filter cartridges. "other than the price" I have two Marineland filters and 4 cartridges in each, plus some kid's craft foam and the bio wheels the filter came with of coarse. I tried prefilters and I didn't like it so I took them off.

In my opinion, You don't need to be buying all those products.

I never used puragin, it sounds unnecessary, but maybe others will add their experience.

Water polisher sounds like another way suck up customers' money, IDK

Carbon is useless, once you add it, it loses its functionality in 2 weeks. If your tank smells from ammonia or something then you NEED to find out why and fix it, don't hide it with carbon. If you need to remove medicine after treating, yes, carbon is important for that. You can buy some carbon for that purpose and add it without replacing the filter cartridge when you need to remove the medicine from the water.

 

No smell, I honestly thought using my own bagged items was better than using the filter pads. You mentioned having enough biomaterial. Will the 4 filter pads in each be enough? I dont have any issues with hazy water or anything. Just making sure I’m setup correctly to handle the bio load when these fish grow bigger.

I will be placing some “treated” mopani wood in, it still has tannins and the purigen is recommended to make sure to remove the tannins.

 

Tannins are harmless and natural, Don't spend money on chemicals to complicate the water with man maid chemicals. if you don't want tannins, put the wood in a bucket and pour boiling water over it, let it sit for 2 days, repeat as necessary.

 

I dont want the brown water and we have been soaking it in boiled water every day 2x a day for a week and the water is still tanning. Purigen will purge the tannins and it’s reusable. Highly recommended by somebody who has been in the hobby for 10+ years so gonna give it a try.

 

Ok, good luck, never used it. I got lucky to have one piece of wood that did not release a lot of tannins, The second piece I tried did release tannins and I didn't like it either. Heads up, it may still take several days for the puragin to clear the water.

 

Yep. So tonight I rescaped the entire tank. Added some rock for caves and the wood. First attempt at rescaping so I’ll post pics after the dust settles

 

I would love to see the pictures!

 

Here's one suggestion on your lighting program. Reduce your blue light level to a maximum of 35% .Blue light will encourage algae if your nitrates are high especially if your dosing any fertilisers.I run a fluval aquasky in my 55 gallon its moderate/heavily planted my nitrates peak at 20ppm. I use to get algae especially on my anubias but once I reduced the blue light % it disappeared within weeks.

 

Ok here it is. Again This is my first time with any type of aqua scape so be gentle lol it’s still a bit hazy but not bad

 

Moved a few things tonight to make it a bit more “open” on the left