Planning An African Cichlid Tank. Advice From More Experienced

[Kolby Holdren]

So I've had multiple tanks. Not a newby but completely new to African Cichlids.
Tank will be in a 100(if I could have found a 125 I would have just was to good a deal to turn down).
So far the plan is only mbuna. And maybe some pictus or synodontis petricolas.(anyone have issues feeding these without the mbunas getting to much protein?)
Decor of slate(I want to use black silicone to pre-make caves and different unique shapes)
For filtration I'm planning on just one AC 110 with 2 or 3 sponge filters and abiut 1000 gph circulation from the opposite side of the tank from the AC.
For light I've been looking at beamswork LEDs or maybe finnex 24/7(so I can control brightness easily). Is there any simmilar priced(~$100) lights that you can control the intensity of the LEDs?
For substrate don't want it to deep, and gonna put the first 2 layers of slate down before sand to keep the decor more stable. So I was thinking 20lbs of African cichlid substrate to just help a bit with the buffer, then maybe 30-40 pounds of black sand to mix.

What do y'all think? Also what's the best valued 400ish watt heater?

 

[fissh]

In a mbuna tank cats are not necessary and very hard to get enough food to them. The mbuna are also very rough on the cat fish ( the pictus will have no whiskers).Plus you should have a veggi diet and stay away from high protein diets.You need 2 AC 110's, plus your sponge filters. A 100 pounds of assorted sand would be a minimum I'd use. Both bramworks and finnex make good led's, one other to consider is the fluval 2.0 plant led.(it brings out the color of the fish. Make sure you crowd them (around 40 fish) and make sure you have lots of hiding places
Good luck.

 

[Kolby Holdren]

In a mbuna tank cats are not necessary and very hard to get enough food to them. The mbuna are also very rough on the cat fish ( the pictus will have no whiskers).Plus you should have a veggi diet and stay away from high protein diets.You need 2 AC 110's, plus your sponge filters. A 100 pounds of assorted sand would be a minimum I'd use. Both bramworks and finnex make good led's, one other to consider is the fluval 2.0 plant led.(it brings out the color of the fish. Make sure you crowd them (around 40 fish) and make sure you have lots of hiding places
Good luck.

View attachment 440221

Now if I switched it up a tiny bit and did a peacock tank how would that differ. Would I still need to over filter and over crowd as much? I know they're easier to do more of a community tank.

 

[edevingo]

Now if I switched it up a tiny bit and did a peacock tank how would that differ. Would I still need to over filter and over crowd as much? I know they're easier to do more of a community tank.

Filtration is the same yes, stocking no. Peacocks generally do not dig and make caves like Mbuna. Mbuna are professional excavators. That's all mine did was move sand, dig and defend. Peacocks in general or IME are allot different. Unless there's females. Then they definitely up the aggression ect.. There's really no one concrete correct answer, it's all trial and error, learn more as you go. I have Predetor Haps that are constantly around fry and have never even chased one let alone eat one. I've had Peacocks I've had to rehome due to aggression so high that they belonged in an Mbuna tank. So they also have individual personalities too. It never gets boring, that's for sure.