| Welcome to my Lake Malawi Mbuna (rock-dwellers) aquarium |
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The aquarium is a Juwel Rio 180 measuring approximately 39.5 inches long x 20 inches high x 15.75 inches deep. The capacity (empty) is 180 litres or 39 imp.galls or 47US galls. The filtration is the large built-in Juwel filter system which provides biological, mechanical and chemical filtration. I also have a Clear Seal internal (you can just make it out, top left in photo's) to provide additional current which is also useful for removing large particles from the water. The rock structure is 20kg of lava rock with a few large flat rocks from the garden. The structure is built on top of an undergravel filter plate (not used for filtration but to distribute the weight of the rocks). Once the base rocks were in place the sand was added, I then built the structure allowing plenty of retreats and dwelling areas for the fish. The whole structure is leaning against the back of the tank. Lava rock is an excellent building medium as the rough surface firmly locks into the adjoining piece of rock, so there is really no need to silicone pieces together as you probably would if flat rock or pebbles were used. The water I use is reverse osmosis (RO) water. I chose to use this for a couple of reasons, firstly because I want to remove the nitrates and all the other stuff which is added to make it 'fit for human consumption' but is not the best thing for our fish tanks, and secondly, because I live in a hard water area I need to lower the hardness to a level more suited to Malawi cichlids. Many people use tap water for Mbuna and are very happy to do so. I chose to use RO water because I can then create the water perameters which are close to the Mbuna's natural habitat. I reconstitute the water using Kent Cichlid Chemistry and other Kent products which are designed to recreate the water chemistry of the African Rift Valley lakes. The water perameters in this tank are: Ammonia - 0; Nitrite - <0.1; Nitrate - 10; pH - 8.4; GH - 12; KH - 10; Temp - 26C Water changes: 25% weekly. The food I use as a staple diet is Nutrafin Max Spirulina Algae Flake Food and Hikari Cichlid Gold, I have found that the fish thrive on this and it brings out the really bright colours (compared to most other freshwater fish) of the Malawi Mbuna. As a 'treat' food once a week they either get one cube of frozen red mosquito larvae or a couple of Wardley's Algae Chips. The Fish are quite a mix. I'm still trying to make an accurate identification but all I can say so far is that there are albino's, yellow's, blue's, some with vertical stripes, some with horizontal stripes and some which have changed colour. It is now April 2002 and I put 28 x c.2 inch fish in the tank in November 2001. I still have 27 of them but they are now ranging from 2.5 to 4 inches. Very shortly they will be 're-homed' in a 300ltr tank as they are fast outgroing their present home. |
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