Malawi tank

[Rookie]

Hi all, what is the ideal temp of the water for a malawi tank?

[Verndog]

I would say between 24 and 28 degrees celsius should do the trick! Why not throw us with some picks of your tank?

[Rookie]

Thanks - will post some pics once I have rocks and malawi's. Should be in the next two weeks. Have an idea of the rocks that I want but they can either not be found or cost a lot more than I am prepared to pay.
Cheers

[Verndog]

If you in the pretoria area check out animal kingdom! They got nice looking rocks. most between R20.00-R50.00 per Kg. (Dont tell anyone, but I usually steal my neighbours rocks for my malawi tank, he is into land scaping: ) Hope he is not a member here, I see he has a tank : 0

[Rookie]

Another question. What plants can I put in the tank that are okay for malawi's?

[wito-zn]

What are the specs of the tank you want to put the malawis in?

---------- Post added at 20:10 ---------- Previous post was at 20:10 ----------

I have many different kinds of plants in my malawi tank and they dont do any thing to them.

[Rookie]

Unfortuntely I am in CT. I did speak to them and the ones I want would end up costing approx R700, which I think is a lot.. Also the rocks are very big - personally I think too big for my tank. I have a 3 foot which is on a stand in an arch way. This means that both sides can be viewed which means that I would want to create a rock formation in the middle, at least 20/25 cm high and about 50/60 cm wide.
You are lucky you have land scaping dude as a neighbour ... and I won't tell he he

[wito-zn]

Is it a standard 3foot or custom? If it is a standard 3foot then i think it is to small for malawis.

[Rookie]

cool wito-zn. It is a 3 foot which is 50cm high. Just want to start small... Do you have pics of your tank?

---------- Post added at 20:10 ---------- Previous post was at 20:10 ----------

I thought they like to eat the plants?

[wito-zn]

Ok just be careful with the filtration. Reason i am saying that is that when it comes to malawis you have to almost over stock your tank to curb aggression and it gets hard to control the peramiters of the water. So over filtration is needed. Also when you buy malawis dont just buy the ones you think are nice make sure they are from the same family i keep mbuna malawis. I dont want to come across as being mean just dont want you to have the same problems i had when starting my tank. I have only old pics of the tank on my profile.

[Verndog]

Another question. What plants can I put in the tank that are okay for malawi's? Malawis and plants generally dont mix. Mine either ripped them apart or carried them around the tank. Malawi's are very distructive.

[Rookie]

You are not being mean... :) but a while ago i did do some homework and do want the mbunas only. I am running a Cascade 1000 external canister filter. I believe that it should be more than enough. Hey?

[Verndog]

Cascade 1000 external canister filter

Yes, that is more than enough.

[wito-zn]

Ya that's plenty. Remember Malawis live in a lake, so the water flow shouldn't be too harsh or strong. Good luck.

[Rookie]

Thanks guys - really appreciate all the advice I can get...

[Chris M]

No pics yet Rookie?

[Rookie]

Hi, Will take pics soon. Now seem to have some yellow/light brown algae that has formed. Think it was due to overfeeding. Any ideas of how to get rid of it?

[Chris M]

Ok cool, I'll watch the thread for some pics :) There's a great forum for algae - http://www.tropicalaquarium.co.za/forumdisplay.php?78-Algae - I'm not expert on algae unfortunately, but the guys inside there seem to know a huge amount, good luck!