55G FW Cichlid Tank

OK, so I was fortunate enough to be able to buy my tank from Matt. Now starts the fun, I've done the washing of glass etc. Been and bought some egg crate, and I need to find sand, or fine gravel.
This is where I turn to the experienced ones here.
Anyone know where I can find white sand, without paying through the nose to Petland (may they be infested by the fleas of a thousand camels, especially after suggesting driftwood, and then having the gall to say it would only leech colour into the water slightly, at that moment I thought they have the principles of a Baghdad market trader), or Pets-World/Co/Mart/Corporate/Insertnamehere.
I have my day off on Wednesday, and I'm thinking of hitting the Garden Centres to see if they have anything fine, and light in colour.

Rocks, Holey Rock prices.. Holy S***. I looked in Lowes and found natural rock paving, rough cut, but about 18" square for about $8, looks good for the shelves, but that then means finding rock of a similar colour for the blocks with which to build a wall. Again I'm thinking a Garden Centre place maybe a solution. Any ideas?

Also, this is the largest tank I have ever had and I'm concerned about the load bearing of the glass. The tank has a base frame with one strut, front to back in the centre. Taking to account that the bottom will have egg crate on the glass, do I need to be concerned?

OK that's it so far, you have no idea of how many questions the "Cichlid Boys" will be getting when I come to the part of stocking, get your thinking heads on guys, a fresh tank with maybe a couple of the bigger boys from my current tank (1 Blue and 1 Yellow Lab), I'm leaning towards Peacocks, but as the tank is empty, any other suggestions would be welcome, after all often the restrictions are more to do with availability and price.

OK I found this...
Short Mountain Silica 50 Lbs. Premium Play Sand

From lowes, 50lb bag for $4. I've read a bunch of forums, all say it's suitable as long as I wash it to remove the smaller particulates.
Anyone experience or opinions on this?

ahh lowes play sand. ive used it. it blows around easily if you have any current or powerheads in the tank. and its sharp and abrasive so it may irritate any catfish or sensitive bottom dwelling scaleless species you may have like loaches or whatever. also silica is a carcinogen. "I" wouldnt do it (again). id use the pool filter sand, also very cheap. and no silica in it, and its not "sharp"

heres a few pics of my tank i had used lowes playsand in (briefly)





its okay i guess if you like flyweight brown sand with micropebbles scattereda bout in it. and when i washed mine i lost over half of it... there is a TON of dust in it (even tho mine was supposed to be prewashed)

Thanks Win, I had a feeling someone here may have tried it already.

np!

When I set up my nursery I tried out crushed coral for the first time, I used water from my community tank and let it cycle but haven't changed the water during this time. I recently did a pH check and it's currently at 8.0. It may be pricey in the frontend, but will difinitely pay off with respect to maintaining regular buffer levels...
What I will say are the lessons learned for cleaning the damn stuff out of the bag... First lesson learned, don't dump it it a bucket and try to rinse it that way... I'd recommend using a pasta strainer and doing it in batches once the water runs clear I'd dump it in a bucket of tank water and start the next batch repeating the process... the bucket may be cloudy but that's alright and should be expected, though the less cloudy the better I guess...

Sorry if this is stating the obvious but I'm on the verge of doing this with the community tank, though I may simply remove some of the black gravel and have a mix of the preexisting substrate and the crushed coral...

Yesterday I was fortunate to be chatting to a guy from a Garden Maintenance company, and naturally asked if they sold rock.
They didn't and recommended a place on Hwy 31, but asked what I wanted it for in such a small quantity. "A Cichlid fish tank".
"Oh, well we have some river rock taken from gardens we have done, you're welcome to come and have a root through that."
It seemed I had met the owner!
So today I was up there, rooting away quite merrily, and came away with this, now washed.



All for free!

So I then set to, playing Lego for fishkeepers.


Having gone through several builds, I finally settled upon this. It's very bold for me, using the majority of big stones, but I thought it's a bigger tank, and the fish will be a decent size (some day) and there are smaller gaps if I am fortunate enough to get some breeding.
The remaining smaller stuff I may try in the 20G tank, if not, then I will have rock available.



Now it's time to get some sand/gravel and get the tank up and running ..... then it's decision time...What to put in it!!

Very cool! You can't beat free, and it looks very nice. Thanks for the pics. Keep them coming! :-)

I love your Green Spotted Puffer! I have a baby Mbu Puffer thats just a little bit bigger than yours! They're probably one of the coolest fish to watch!

my puffers are about 3.5 inches long now

OK So the tanks up and running.
I visited Eatexer and got sand, and a couple of pieces of Holey Rock. In addition to that I have added a piece of limestone I found in France many years ago (I guess being a rock junkie has it's advantages as I must have owned this holey piece for 20 years).
I went to Micheals after scouting Petsripoff, the fake bamboo at "Pets" was $17, similar piece at Micheals on sale was about $5. So I've added some fake greenery to give further refuge if required and to break up the harshness of the "great wall of Tyler". I was slightly worried about the wall being over bearing, but now with a good bed of sand in there it's all looking more natural.
PH is at 7.8 and Temp at 80F.

Whilst I was over at Eatexers (trying not to drool over his marine) I was looking at the Peacocks he's been breeding and was thinking about the following.

Sunshine Peacocks (Gold & Blue)
Jacobs Butterfly (blue)
Cobue (Blue stripe / Yellow Head)
German Red (Ermm red?)

From my readings the Red Tops maybe a little aggressive for that mix so may give them a miss.

If I was to go with 1 male and 2 females of each what would the more experienced of you think of that as a cichlid society? Aesthetically I think I have a decent mix of colour.

12 fish in a 55G tank? Happy state, or needing a few more to keep the territorial aggression at bay?

I'll jump in and also say that if he's running both of the filters he got from me he is highly filtering this system, and it could handle being over stocked. I'm not a cichlid guy at all though!

More pictures!!! :-)

Yes running both filters. I'm not sure I want it so crammed, at the same time I'm aware that a lower number can lead to aggression and the tank being ruled by one.
In the end I'm wondering if this is one of those try it and see scenarios.

More pics soon, just need to get a clear down pipe for the 2nd filter, not the McGivered white PVC tube I have attached.

Oh that's right! I totally forgot to mention that I actually used the tube on the end of that in my plumbing. I also forgot to give you the freshwater master test kit.

Be careful coming by now though... I'll have $300 in new corals in my tank and you'll never be able to resist saltwater!!! lol

OK I'm ignoring Matt's comments about his tank, and making sure I never go to Longview again.

Now a question for the Cichlid Guys.
Steatocranus irvinei is a drab grey bottom dweller. BUT. There is something I find appealing about it, maybe it's the fact that the first fish I ever caught (for you young 'uns, that is before man had stepped foot on the moon, yes I remember watching that live on TV, B&W of course) in the River Eden on the border of England & Scotland where I grew up, was an Eel, and it reminds me of it, but it looks very "natural".
Does anyone have any experience of keeping these? I saw DRAF has them, but would buy them locally preferably.

Also I found PS Williamsi !! Dam what a lovely fish. Anyone breeding those? Anyone know where they are available, or is it buy over the "net"?

OK so the next stage is complete.

A slight change to the tank (pics to follow soon), the grey mountain has gone to be replaced by "holey rock", the tank has a couple of the "tinies" from my other tank, a yellow lab hybrid and a blue hybrid, I know Mbuna don't normally mix well with Peacocks, but I thought I would test it out as they are so small, still.
If they start anything, they go back with the bad boys.

So I saw Etexer and brought home 1 M & 2 F of the following; 3 Butterfly Blue Peacocks (2' to 1.5"), 3 Capodichromis Verginalis (1"), 3 German Reds 1.5".
All have settled peacefully into the tank (thanks James) and all are healthy, even if the one Butterfly is growing at a phenomenal rate, and one German Red (I really don't refer to him as Adolf) seems to be staking his territory at the rock wall end of the tank, all 3/4 inch of him. I'm now looking for a bald fat cichlid to call Churchill, any offers?)

I'm still wondering about adding one more group of 3, which I think the tank would take comfortably.
Living in Tyler the LFS selection is .... miserable, so if anyone has any "young-uns" they have bred they are selling, which would be suitable please let me know, looking for 1M & 2F again I guess.

Also what about a Catfish/Plec? Shank I know that Green Goblin really will clash with your colour scheme, I mean how can a real Texan have a fish called "Lemon Drop" in his tank? I'll look after it for you...j/k.
Seriously though guys, I would really appreciate your experienced suggestions on a fairly readily available "bottom grubber" that would fit in, and how many I should consider.

what kinda bottom feeder do you have in mind? as far as non pleco catfish go, i really really enjoy featherfin synodontis catfishs' they are cool fish for sure and easily had for cheap too

i have a featherfin cat in my tank now and its one of my favorite fish to watch. he has a great personality and i would recommend getting one for your tank.

heres an old pic of mine about a year ago

Thanks guys. I'd been doing my research and was leaning towards the Featherfin but one or two reports had said about it being overly territorial (In a cichlid tank Wow!), so I wanted to ask, just in case.