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Setting up first African Cichlid tank, got questions

10K views 6 replies 6 participants last post by  Osiris 
#1 ·
Hi, I'm new here and last night decided I want an African Cichlid tank. So I started setting up my 55 gal. I cleaned it out and rinsed off about a 5 gal bucket worth of sand and about a 5 gal bucket worth of crush coral that had been sitting for 3-6 yrs and put that in my tank. I also put some rocks in there, but I'm not liking the look of most of them. So my question is...Can I use reefs and live rocks (no longer living) that have been out of a marine tank for about 6 yrs in it? I'm wanting cichlids from Lake Malawi, not real sure about which group yet. We'll probably go to a store and look at the different types soon and start trying to aim at getting the ph and temps to which I chose. I know I need my tank to be running at least a month before adding fish.

We currently have the following tanks....

10 gal in the kitchen with a few female guppies, platies, ****** loaches, cories, baby kribs, and an African butterflyfish.

125 gal in the living room with kribs, a leporinus, pleco, covicts, oscars, fire mouths, and gorumies (sp?) The covicts, oscars and fire mouths were just added over the weekend.

We will also be setting up a 30 gal reef tank later. And are helping my daughter's kindergarden class set up a 10 gal comunity tank and may look into setting them up a small reef tank for a short while.
 
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#3 ·
Yes you can use dead live rock with cichlids. It would real nice to. And if you want to buy fish online I would recommend checking out Buy African Cichlids at Live Fish Direct: Aquarium Fish Breeder
Thanks for the link. I also have chickens and know people having really bad luck with shipping chicks and eggs, so I no longer trust to have live animals shipped. There's a fish store in Seattle that is suppose to be really good. The first ones I add I'll probably go to a local fish store, that way I test out on some cheap fish that aren't quite up to par like the higher priced ones.
 
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