LadfromLondon’s Malawi Build.

[LadfromLondon]

Ah so this little gem turned up 2 weeks ago! It’s a 310L Rimless tank, made from optiwhite glass. You combine this tank with my liquid rock water and my passions for Cichlids & what do ya get? An Mbuna tank!

I guess this is the start of my Mbuna breeding journey. I’m thinking to stick to classics, some Acei/Labs/Socolofi/Rusty’s etc should all be going in. I will be buying young and aiming to keep 1:5/6 M:F. Filtration will be plenty and hardscape will be Ocean Rock. I’m thinking to do sand but I’m torn between natural sand or white. Let me know!

 

[Broggy]

I am so watching this thread. that is a beautiful tank

 

[LadfromLondon]

I am so watching this thread. that is a beautiful tank

Thank you! Absolute pain carrying it though, the thing weighs 80 or so kilos empty!

 

[LadfromLondon]

With a bit of help I managed to go get the tank onto the stand! It’ll need to be painted before anything else happens. I was playing around with hardscape a bit and figured I’d share.

 

[LadfromLondon]

Wow, I completely forgot about this thread. What’s even funnier is the tank still hasn’t had a drop of water in it! We decided to repaint the house and then I decided to repaint the man cave, so with that combined with university keeping me busy, it made sense to hold off on the project for some time.

However, since then, the stand has become a stained cabinet, the tank has been placed in its forever place and has been painted. I purchased a thick yoga mat for it and cut a lid it too. It definitely has had the glow up it deserves. A LED light has been siliconed on the bottom section to do easy maintenance on the sump. It has been scaped with Texas Holey Rock/Ocean Rock and silver sand. Egg crates underneath. The stocking has been decided too.

The sump arrived yesterday, it’s a 250L tank. Also rimless. This will be converted into a sump soon.

Not sure how many of you are still following/interested in this thread, but this thread will be gaining momentum in the coming weeks.
I will be free from university, so my time will be balanced between work and work in the man cave.

This tank will get a DIY overflow built, sump & return pump installed and then the fish. Starting with a juvenile harem of Pseudotropheus Elegans ‘Acei’ (Yellow Tail) which I will grow out and breed. Once grown, the fry from them will become a group of 10 adult Pseudotropheus Elegans ‘Acei’.

Here’s a quick timeline of the builds in pictures, depicting the cabinet build, the man cave repaint, the tank painted the final look. Picture heavy.

To be continued.

 

[LadfromLondon]

Small update. The stocking is confirmed for the tank. Other than the lack of Rusty Cichlids, this combines all of my favourite Mbuna. This will approximately be 560L total volume.

 

[LadfromLondon]

Thought the tank was looking particularly good in this shot. In 3-4 weeks I will be free from university and able to start moving forward with this!