therealpatricksnyder
- #1
I had mentioned in another thread about how I was setting up a 38 gallon and was going to have a community of stuff in there but I abandoned the community idea after some further research and a trip to my LFS. After some parameter tweaking and the addition of an extra canister I decided it was time to dive into cichlids. Just picked up my first 6 fish today!
**Disclaimer**: Let's get this out of the way since I have a feeling there will be varying opinions on cichlid species blending, overstocking, and tank size. Unlike some of my other community tanks that get stocked from whatever Petco, Petsmart, *insert big box pet store*, that I drive past, this setup is being carefully planned out, researched, discussed, and stocked solely from one veteran fish store in my area. The current staff has over 100 years of combined aquatic species experience and the store itself has been around since 1954. On top of only sourcing from a single store, I'm also only stocking from a few specific tanks out of their 4,500 gallons storewide. So most of the selection I will end up with has already been "acquainted" for months before I put them together. Let's keep this civil and just enjoy the good cichlid conversation together. Agreed? If not then go elsewhere, I'm sure there is someone on here trying to put an Oscar in a 20 gallon or something, go bother them instead.
So now that that's out of the way, here's the goods:
The Setup:
Oh and here are a few shots of the tank as I was setting it up and just before I added the fish. Lights are off for the first 24 hours while they get used to things, once they come out of their hiding spots I'll get some shots of the stock so far.
**Disclaimer**: Let's get this out of the way since I have a feeling there will be varying opinions on cichlid species blending, overstocking, and tank size. Unlike some of my other community tanks that get stocked from whatever Petco, Petsmart, *insert big box pet store*, that I drive past, this setup is being carefully planned out, researched, discussed, and stocked solely from one veteran fish store in my area. The current staff has over 100 years of combined aquatic species experience and the store itself has been around since 1954. On top of only sourcing from a single store, I'm also only stocking from a few specific tanks out of their 4,500 gallons storewide. So most of the selection I will end up with has already been "acquainted" for months before I put them together. Let's keep this civil and just enjoy the good cichlid conversation together. Agreed? If not then go elsewhere, I'm sure there is someone on here trying to put an Oscar in a 20 gallon or something, go bother them instead.
So now that that's out of the way, here's the goods:
The Setup:
- 38 gallon...long-ish? (36x20x12)
- Black sand substrate
- Black and white faux plants (a dozen or so)
- Underwater Galleries Cichlid Stone Kit
- Nicrew 36" 24/7 LED light
- Fluval 307 (mostly biomedia)
- Fluval 206 (mostly sponges for debris and polishing)
- Hydor 200W in-line heater
- Inkbird Temperature Controller
- Bonus: Just hooked up a water change system consisting of plumbed drain siphons and a 200GPD dual membrane RO/DI water system with post remineralization canister run direct to the tanks with float valves, highly over-engineered but a lot of fun to set up.
- Temperature: 75F
- Ammonia/Nitrite/Nitrate: 0ppm (tank has been pure ammonia cycled with dosing of Seachem Stability for 1 month)
- PH: 7.5
- Carbonate Hardness: 120 (Seachem Equilibrium dosed during setup, as needed in the future)
- General Hardness: 180 (Seachem Alkaline Buffer dosed during setup, as needed in the future)
- Omega One Super Color Small Floating Cichlid Pellets
- Omega One Super Color Small Sinking Cichlid Pellets
- Omega One Cichlid Flakes
- Omega One Frozen Blood Worms
- Omega One Frozen Cichlid Formula
- Timberline Live Fish Bugs
- Firemouth
- Texas Blue
- Jack Dempsey
- Yellow Lab
- Red Zebra
- Demasoni
- Mixed cichlid colony
- Starting size 1-3 inches
- Overstock to reduce aggression (20-25 total)
- 6 new cichlids each month with a 3-4 week QT
- After 1-2 years of grow out, start transplanting the "keepers" to a new 75 gallon, any problem cichlids will be bought back by the LFS for store credit.
Oh and here are a few shots of the tank as I was setting it up and just before I added the fish. Lights are off for the first 24 hours while they get used to things, once they come out of their hiding spots I'll get some shots of the stock so far.
