My 240L Malawi Journal

I have decided to commit myself to my idea and new years fishy resolution. That being the design and completion of my Malawi tank. Seeing as I have all the hardware available I popped into our local nursery for the other goodies I needed (Soft sand and nice big stones). So yesterday we stuck into it and washed out 40kg of white play sand (PITA) and scrubbed the stones down good and proper with salt water. Did the hardscape and filled the tank up, got the heater in and the filter up and running. Using a TetraTec EX1200 throttled back to about 1000L/h for the Nitrogen cycle. Will throttle it down to about 800L/h when I put the fish in close to end of Feb. Heater is a standard old R100 Aqualife 300W heater. Still need to sort out the lights but I will do that tomorrow. Will Post pics as well tomorrow

 

Well done Double-D, will be great to keep track of your progress...

Some pics please

 

Will post the pics tomorrow night when I get the camera back and snapped some fodies of the tank with the lights sorted

 

pls put them up here!!!

 

Ok so here are the fodies of the tank so far... Going to do the lights tomorrow then I'll update with snaps again

1. Everything in place before adding the water


2. From the front


3. From the top (right side)


4. From the top (left side)


5. Just finished with the water... Round about an hour after bed time :flowers:



Watch this space for more updates as time goes by. Will post the lighted tank tomorrow

 

nice - like it...

 

So here is the tank with the light sorted out... Still hazy but that will settle down soon enough

 

Looks good. Glad to see that you're patient before adding your fishies. Are you going to follow the fishless cycle?

 

@wsteene I would like to do the full cycle fishless but I have a 35cm Pleco that needs to recover after he sustained serious tail damage. So I'm going to move him over in a weeks time and see if I can't get him better with Fungi medicine. The downside is that he sustained flesh damage and not fin damage. I really hope to pull him through

 

looking sweet dude!

shame man, how did the pleco get hurt?

 

@Vez he got hurt during my last water change. He got a bit over anxious and turned around in a narrow space behind the big piece of driftwood in my community tank. I suspect he ripped of the armour scales there.

 

Following, the progress...

 

@Double-D, see that you are situated in Secunda, would you mind to PM me on where in Secunda do you stay, would like to come by and check out your setup if it is ok.

 

@wsteene do you know people in Secunda? I'll drop you a pm with my details

 

@Double-D, used to live there for 27 years, grew up in Secunda, still have some family and friends there. Will appreciate if you can pm me your details. Do make a turn in Secunda from time to time.

 

Ok so here is an updated photo of the malawi tank that I took 20min ago



Livestock list:
5X Labidochromis Caeruleus - Looks like the Kakusa strain, Juvenile
5X Nimbochromis Venustus - Juvenile and I know it's a "hap" species
6X Metriaclima Barlowi - Or so I think... They were sold as "super red"
2X Melanochromis Auratus - Young male and female
4X Metriaclima Hajomaylandi - Young males
5X Pseudotropheus Lombardoi - Juvenile females
5X Neolamprologus Brichardi - I know it's a Tanganyika species...
5X Labidochromis sp "Hongi" - Juvenile

Will take photos when I can get my paws on a decent camera