Malawi Mansion in the Making Journal

The Journal of a mom who possibly bit off a little more than she wanted to chew initially... now I am munching away!

A brief history: living on a farm and having 2 little kidz (now 8yr old boy and 6yr old girl), having pet-fish was a great idea (besides the reptiles, dogs, parrots and little russ-hamsters) - especially if mom is an animal lover too... 2004 Xmas box was a little 40L tank, some dainty fish and 1 bronze cory (deceased Sept 2011) named Cory. From knowing the general non-fish keepers view of "fish tanks are hard work and a hassle" I soldiered on "wie's bang???" - how much hassle can this little tank be...:wondering: Seeing the constant stream of little happy and amazed faces running to the tank, a price easily paid for little effort;

Somewhere in 2005-6 I became aware of "tank syndrome" and faced my reality - addicted! I often visited the TASA site as a visitor, just browsing and admiring - "Sjoe, mooi was nog nooit lelik nie..."

In 2005 this tank became an 85L tank, a present from my then Boss to my kidz in his garage cleaning exercise. :bigsmile::bigsmile: bigger little tank, more little fish - happy family :dancing2::dancing2::dancing2: malawi and parrot introduction along with a rope fish ("slang") and a plec ("monster"). Phew, was a friend promptly sorted @ dinner table 2 years ago when he suggested the big fish (raised with love and care under mom's supervision) was a "dead tank" - they need to be exchanged for young fish. In no time the little owners explained each fish has a name, a birthday and belongs to someone and when they die we give them a funeral... That sorted uncle Gary in no time, giving his undue opinion on "our tank". :sick::sick: mean while uncle Gary has a custom built tank in his house in Jhb, a complete wall dividing the entertainment area and the dining room, no guesses on that volume - serviced by the pet shop once a week.

With the renovations starting Jan 2012, the adults have been having secret talks about this 85L tank and its future - :huh: so finally I made a brave statement: go big or go home (stay with current)... Just to prove the point, I checked the www for images of a "pipe dream tank 500l", low and behold, on gumtree the exact tank I had in mind. Few emails flew between the hubby and I, off to Cape Town I go, morning of 24 Dec 2011 @ 06:00 to view and inspect the tank. Seen it, own it! :noworry::noworry:

Now lets name and share the tank: arty:
Named: The Mansion:

http://screencast.com/t/zcm9A49NhVBl

Collected the Mansion on 26 Dec 2011 and put it into a temporary storage on the farm - operational, but with lots to be done:

1) Planning: (not hard for ex IT Project Manager)
2) Re-home the 2 25cm Oscars (done 30 Dec 2011, exchanged for yellow malawi + 20 babies of +- 1 cm) : done -tick!
3) move 85L residents into the Mansion to make space for 20 babies : done - tick!
4) a good, really good, clean inside (wash and replace crushed coral); planned completion Jan 2012
5) restore the lights; planned completion Jan 2012
6) re-pipe the internal filtration system; planned completion March 2012
7) landscape the tank (plan and get everything ready); planned completion March 2012
8) move tank into residence end March 2012;
9) source the fish and stock the tank : in progress, planned completion end March 2012
10) test phase with lots of panic;
11) enjoy and maintain;

Current residents:

The Parrot and the Yellow Malawi (3 of these):
http://screencast.com/t/MmEMTvrbkwKe

The 2 jailbirds (my son's nickname for them) - what are they?
http://screencast.com/t/Wvwclkek

The blue malawi (also 2) and again a jailbird
http://screencast.com/t/qeWZdwQf

Please let me know if you can shed some light on the un-ID'd occupants, also input and comments welcome.

A special word of thanks to Nadeem, Altus, Mayhem and Neil for the assistance to date.

Wishing all on this forum a Prosperous and Blessed 2012.

Happy fish keeping
Paulette

 

I'm taking a swing in the wind here so please correct me if I am wrong. The ”jailbirds” looks like it could be Pseudotropheus Crabro (Hornet Cichlid)

Sent from my BlackBerry 9530 using Tapatalk

 

I'm also starting a project with a 1.2 m planted tank
I only have the filter and got my substrate today.
Don't know what fish I'm going to put in as yet.

Enjoy

 

QF photo has a Sciaenochromis fyeri and the pale blue looks to be Metriaclima callainos. Assume the yellow is Labidochromis caeruleus. The jailbird looks to be some form of Aulonocara. I would get rid of the parrot and keep the Malawi tank pure. Remove the pleco as it competes for the same food, algae.

 

@ Double-D & @ Scotty: had a look on the factsheets on http://www.cichlid-forum.com on your suggestions - it could well be that you are right... Worrying me a bit is that some are Mbuna sub-species... Will be leaning on the breeders to help me resolve the "Mbuna situation";

@HeindrichvH: that is the fun part of these projects, pondering, setting up, panic phases in between for me and then finally - enjoyment;

The intention is to eventually have this tank a pure malawi setup, but that is only targetted for March / April 2012 - in the mean time, just having fun with what the project brings day by day.

 

Lights - @Corne: at the moment natural light as the lights broke just before I collected the tank (photo's was just with camera flash - also surprised me with color brilliance). I am taking the lid thru to our Electrician tomorrow -to replace all corroded light fittings and installing some LED lights and hooking the lot up to the external switches on top of the tank lid. Electrician also offered to give me LED Red, Blue and Green on loan to test once all fish are in to see what is best light combo.

One thing I dont play with is "diy electrical job" if it goes wrong it makes more than your hair curl and being that close to water - no go zone for me.

Filter update: Penn Plax Cascade Canister Filters Models 1200 & 1500 - not sure which exactly, so for now will assume 1200.
Found a manual of the 2 filters - but it is ruined by water damage. Tried to contact prev owner - will keep trying. Also have emailed the Penn Plax Customer Care to see if I can source a manual from them.

 

Lights Update: 4 4watt tubes, 2 white & 2 blue - should be all ready by Friday this coming week;

Filters Update:
2 pumps (Penn Plax 1200's), per pump circulated 1250L/hr, , great circulation going.
PennPlax kindly sent me a .pdf manual for the pumps

 

following progress.... more pics

 

Update time:
yesterday the prev owners tank dirt just got to me, so today I set aside to clean the tank. A few surprises there:

after draining +490L, removing all gravel&ornaments and throwing old towels into the tank to drain the last bit of water and muck, as I lift the last towel: Movement!!! :idea: 2 Labidochromis caeruleus babies swimming at the base of the tank, rescued those to from the cleaning operation very quickly, now they find themselves amongst the other fry now, safe and secure;

freshwater snails - horrified! the water I am using at the moment in the tank is from the irrigation dam for the orchards, only can start using "house" water in April - have asked @scotty how to get rid of these;

threw out the shipwreck, added coffee stone and some other rock (looks like "vuurklip") our truck driver found for me, this is just an initial test to see if it will affect the Ph - then will add some more as the fish just goes for the natural rock vs the fake rock corner; The combination of the rocks have great color & texture variation;

Monday mid-day school run will take the parrot and plec to the LFS, the owner there will re-home them to his display tank;

Lid and Lights: am hoping for this week as the electrician has been swamped with "harvest time priorities" and I still need him to do me a trick or two in my new extension here at home, so whether I like it or not, I have to keep the pressure off and allow the man to do his thing for the big money first - eish...

At least observing the clean tank filling and waiting to do the pH test, watching the malawi exploring and going crazy in the new space was a good reward. Very satisfying :smile:

Will take pics tomorrow as camera was not even on the maintenance item list to be carted down to storage today - just thought about it...

 

@Polla

Do I interpret your previous post as you did a 100% water change, cleaned the gravel and cleaned the filters??

 

Ashley,

I did not clean out the filters and I retained 50% of the water in big containers while cleaning out the rest.

Gravel I gave a good rinse and added back to tank along with the water that was retained.

When I say "muck" I am serious, it was poorly maintained tank - even with my little experience I can see that.

At the moment I have 10 Malawi swimming around in it. I am reluctant to add more fish until I have relocated the tank into its placement in my house - where we are making some extensions. The tank is now running in a secondary dwelling which is not occupied, so I cannot pay due attention to it - which is slightly frustrating at the moment.

 

Update:

Have decided to make own Styrofoam backdrop, will place sandstone rocks on base of tank with river sand.

Once complete will post more detail on setup, progress and materials used - non-toxic in every way;

 

He,he... Glad I could give you a new perspective on that backdrop.... have fun with doing it @Polla. Remeber to take some pics during the construction of it...

 

Update:

Finally - tank moved in to residence last weekend... Will be posting some pics later this week... In the excitement of having the tank finally setup here, I made the mistake of adding water to the tank from the new pipes - DOSH! toxic water... Drained and rewashed the gravel, refill with water from existing house... Is stunning now, after June holidays I will be adding about 40-50 Haps into the tank, till then I am going to run the tank as is with the few mbunas that survived the water-mess-up... the Mbunas will then relocate to my builder's house.

pics coming later tonight or tomorrow
P

 

Musnt wash the gravel that much. Losing alot of bacteria needed for the tank.

 

Apologies for the poor quality of the pics - the tank is in the house, but we are still awaiting the installation of the blinds/curtains -so pics by day is not an option with too much light flooding into the room and bouncing reflection off the tank, in evening camera not top of range, so pics iffy...

Will try again for better pics... Fish love the caves I made in the backdrop, I thought they were quite shallow, but fish seems to think they are incredibly deep (3cm max)... Pity they have been in "storage" for 5 months, the lot is very wild and panics easily when people around.

Backdrop:
styrofoam
marine cilicon
dlala acrylic paints (dark chocolate, white, sienna, ocre, vine green and grey)
1 kitchen torch (originally for making things like creme brule's! LOL, it makes wicket caves tho:nuts

Sand - filter sand

Rocks - sandstone from mountains around us

Will get my friends really expensive camera to come take more once I have curtains up.

Eventually will put Haps in - after July holidays... Lovely...

 

@Polla - loving the 3D backgound! Job well done! There's no Full tank shot (FTS) - but I would still add some more rocks to the main floor area of the tank as well - maybe aim for two big piles forming some more caves and crannies....

Also dont worry about the fish's skittishness....give them a week or so and they will be begging for food at front glass every time someone walks by...he,he

 

:huh::huh:More rocks? what about weight? there is already 2x40kg sand at the bottom of the tank...

 

Hi Polla, You don't have much rock weight. Remember the sand is spread over the entire tank floor. The volume of water makes for greater pressure on the bottom.
You need as much as possible for fish to hide in if there is any aggression shown.

 

Thnkx Scotty - as soon as weather permits, we will be off into the mountain again, hunting for more small sandstone pieces...