Advice on setting up an African cichlid tank

rrcoolj

But it will be worth it in the end seeing all those stunning peacocks in that tank. Your setup sounds pretty good. I am guessing the trickle is a sump filter? Fill that thing with tons of bio filtration. Pot scrubbies are great and cheap. i would ditch the sponge filter because it isn't great at mechanical filtration. Depending how your sump is set up you can put the mechanical media in there. Can we maybe get pictures of your filtration? I would probably put 12-15 fish in your tank if you can. You may even be able to add more.

DrivingMissFishy

No it's not a sump it's one of those that sit ontop of the tank built into the hood. Its a long tray with media compartments and a spray bar that sprays water in, so that the media isn't always underwater, it's under a constant spray of new water. I think it's also called a wet/dry filter? I will try and upload pics. I've put in double the recommended amount of bio media (I'm using seachem matrix) plus some purigen. Can possibly put some filter wool/pads ontop of the media so that can do a bit of mechanical. Luckily for me I have a friend who can get me pretty cheap fish at about $7-$10 each for about 5cm which are usually starting to colour already. What kind of fish do u think I should use to cycle the tank? Do u recommend the use of products like cycle to speed it up?
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rrcoolj

I always let tanks cycle naturally in time. I have never used any of the "jump start" cycle methods so IDK. If you are going to use fish use fish like zebra danios which are very hardy. Your filtration sounds pretty good although I am not too experienced with trickle filters.

DrivingMissFishy

Yeah me either I've never had one before! Will the danios survive the water parameters though?
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DrivingMissFishy

Also, is there a way to get it to cycle naturally without fish? I mean, using pure ammonia added to the tank sounds like a good quick option but how do the bacteria get introduced? I always thought the fish did that. Although I do have another tank I could seed from

rrcoolj

Then I would do that your tank will cycle quickly. Use some media or substrate from your established tank in like a bag and put it in the filter or aquarium and that should really jump start the cycling process because you are essentially introducing beneficial bacteria to the aquarium.

DrivingMissFishy

Oh my gosh, can I just say that the sand I used has so much dust in it!!! I've put the sand in the tank (after rinsing it ALOT) and filled the tank about a quarter. It looks like milk! Can't see more than 1cm. I got some filter pads and put those in, and used some accu clear. Amazingly the tank was crystal clear after about 3 hours. My question now is, Will this 'dust' stay forever? For example if I stir up the sand a little cloudiness returns. I'm just imagining the fish digging around causing the milk to return!!!
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rrcoolj

What kind of sand are you using? Most people would suggest pool filter sand because it's cheap and not super dusty. But to answer your question the cloudiness should go away in time. The particles in the sand just have to be filtered out. How long it will take I son't know. Could take 2 days could take a week.

DrivingMissFishy

Bugger! Oh well. I'm using a 50/50 (25kg each) of filter sand and aragonite. The filter sand ws great it was super clean. The aragonite however, filthy! It's super fine too so stirs up easily. I'm just being impatient, I want everything fixed and ready so I can get my fish!!
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rrcoolj

Lol yea I know how you feel. Best thing to do is just be patient. I am sure the water will clear eventually.