# 125 Gallon Mixed African Tank - a whole lot of fish added!



## monkE (Aug 4, 2010)

All right sports fans, game on!

My attempt to sell the tank have failed so instead of staring at this huge tank empty, i'm going to house my friends cichlids for a while. He's looking to switch his tank over to salt water and he's so far been unable to sell all his livestock so we've both decided that my big tank would make a good home for the fish. He's also going to provide me with filters (twin eheim 2028's) and a 200w heater.

Tonight I picked up some epsom salt, and baking soda as well as some rock that Ryan had lying around so i could fill the tank and get the water chem right. The first bunch of fish move in tomorrow. I will use one currently running filter as well as a second clean one that will allow me to instantly have a fish ready tank.

It's been a while since i've kept africans so i have to re-learn all my water parameters, but Ryan gave me a pretty simple formula using epsom, baking soda, and marine salt. He had those things breeding like rabbits in his tank so i'm pretty confident that I'll have the same. But I have a lot of reading to do the next couple of nights.

Here's the first tank shot... more rocks and driftwood to come soon....


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## JTang (Apr 21, 2010)

Hey Africans.... Sweet! Tank looks just like mine! Lol

Who is shutting down his tank?


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## monkE (Aug 4, 2010)

JTang said:


> Hey Africans.... Sweet! Tank looks just like mine! Lol
> 
> Who is shutting down his tank?


ya it really is going to be similar to yours, but i think i'm going to go a little heavier on the rock. Not sure though yet, because I don't know what rock i will have to play with.

Neoh is the the one shutting his tank down. He's got a bunch of juvinile tanganyikans that will be going in today.


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## JTang (Apr 21, 2010)

Nice! Can't wait to see it stocked!


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## Vancitycam (Oct 23, 2012)

Yeah more African keepers!! but cool tank looks to be a nice setup


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## Diztrbd1 (Apr 21, 2010)

lol didn't see this coming...but kinda did


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## MOLOTO (Jun 8, 2010)

Sorry JTANG,

Didn't mean to make an African cichlid lover out of you. It's an addiction.


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## Vman (Jan 20, 2011)

Well if you need more Tangs then I've got a bunch for sale.Trophs,Calvus,comps and A whole lot of Petricolas.


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## monkE (Aug 4, 2010)

yay fish!


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## JTang (Apr 21, 2010)

Great Pics! Nice fishy! . They really look different from mine.

How many have u added?


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## monkE (Aug 4, 2010)

JTang said:


> Great Pics! Nice fishy! . They really look different from mine.
> 
> How many have u added?


these are all tanganyikans, so they will look different from your malawis. I am planning on having a total mix of all africans, from all the research i've done it looks like the water parameters are close enough that for tank bred fish i think i'll get away with mixing the malawis and the tanganyikans. it's going to be a matter of getting my GH somewhere in the middle where both groups of fish will be happy. There are about 15 in there now with the same filter that came off their old tank. I also have a second filter ready to go but i need to get a gasket and an impeller for it.


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## JTang (Apr 21, 2010)

monkE said:


> these are all tanganyikans, so they will look different from your malawis. I am planning on having a total mix of all africans, from all the research i've done it looks like the water parameters are close enough that for tank bred fish i think i'll get away with mixing the malawis and the tanganyikans. it's going to be a matter of getting my GH somewhere in the middle where both groups of fish will be happy. There are about 15 in there now with the same filter that came off their old tank. I also have a second filter ready to go but i need to get a gasket and an impeller for it.


Sweet! I have seen them mixed many times but I will try n stick w Malawi (for now), except for the clean-up crews! Lol. I just picked up some Clownloaches today. They look n school nice. Will u be adding any "janitors"?


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## monkE (Aug 4, 2010)

ya i haven't figured out what yet.. but probably some petricolas just like yours and some plecos for sure


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## JTang (Apr 21, 2010)

MOLOTO said:


> Sorry JTANG,
> 
> Didn't mean to make an African cichlid lover out of you. It's an addiction.


Yeah thanks to u guys! Now that im paying so much attention on the Africans, my Salty friends are getting jealous! Lol Hopefully I can make a good balance between the two...

Vman has some petricolas for you. He lives 5 mins from me. You can swing by n check out my tanks while you are here.


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## gklaw (May 31, 2010)

JTang said:


> Yeah thanks to u guys! Now that im paying so much attention on the Africans, my Salty friends are getting jealous! Lol Hopefully I can make a good balance between the two...


Wait tillyour wife get jealous


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## Vman (Jan 20, 2011)

I see you bought Neoh's Jullies.I love them.


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## MOLOTO (Jun 8, 2010)

Hey Mike,

Lukasz (VMAN) has a 135 gal tanganyikan setup. He's got a classified for them. Like John said, swing by his house and check out the some additions to your new tank setup.

Cheers


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## monkE (Aug 4, 2010)

So the main idea for this tank began when I found a user selling a 90 gallon tank fully stocked for a real good price. Last night me and Ryan went to pick up the tank, he took the tank, I took the fish, and well.... see for yourself!

The plan for the time being is to do a large water change daily until my filters can catch up with the new bioload. There have been a ton of fish added very quickly.

Time for pics! - these pics were taken about 10 minutes after the fish were added to the tank... I'm amazed that the colours brightened up so quickly!

5 buckets of fish - and my drip acclimation station


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## monkE (Aug 4, 2010)

Not totally sold on this rock scape yet... but we didn't have a ton of time last night so we just sort of threw these in... I'll probably re-work this a couple times in the next little while.


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## JTang (Apr 21, 2010)

Hey what are those Malawians doing in your Tanganyikan tank? They should be moved to my tank! I want that big one, the blue one, and..... Lol

They look great in your tank! Those yellows really stand out with the blue background!


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## MOLOTO (Jun 8, 2010)

John, the blue cichlids is a mbuna. They don't mix we'll with Haps. We've tried all combinations with Africans when we first started. Best keep the mbunas together. The mislabeled Taiwan reef you bought at IPU will look like the Hap that Mike picked up with the group of mbunas.

Mike, that's a nice mixed group of mbunas you picked up. You should have no problems with aggression in your tank. There might be some x-breeding between the yellow labs and the zebras.


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## jobber (May 14, 2010)

Way to keep the MTS going.


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## monkE (Aug 4, 2010)

JTang said:


> Hey what are those Malawians doing in your Tanganyikan tank? They should be moved to my tank! I want that big one, the blue one, and..... Lol
> 
> They look great in your tank! Those yellows really stand out with the blue background!


lol thanks man... see that's why I called it a "Mixed tank" so I could keep my options open! Actually it's been in the works to get this large group for a couple days and I just wanted to make sure I had a suitable environment for them.



MOLOTO said:


> John, the blue cichlids is a mbuna. They don't mix we'll with Haps. We've tried all combinations with Africans when we first started. Best keep the mbunas together. The mislabeled Taiwan reef you bought at IPU will look like the Hap that Mike picked up with the group of mbunas.
> 
> Mike, that's a nice mixed group of mbunas you picked up. You should have no problems with aggression in your tank. There might be some x-breeding between the yellow labs and the zebras.


Thanks man, I am super happy with the group so far, even the tangs dont seem to bothered by all the new neighbors. when do you think i'll start to see some better coloring from the zebras??



jobber said:


> Way to keep the MTS going.


It was only a matter of time I suppose!


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## Diztrbd1 (Apr 21, 2010)

Dude you dont mess around when it comes to starting up a tank eh lol Looking good bro!


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## monkE (Aug 4, 2010)

Diztrbd1 said:


> Dude you dont mess around when it comes to starting up a tank eh lol Looking good bro!


go big or go home my friend... if it wasn't for such a sweet deal this tank would still be up for sale! huge thanks to Ryan (neoh) who is 100% responsible for this tank getting set up!


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## MOLOTO (Jun 8, 2010)

Once you get started, 1 tank is just not enough....


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## neoh (Apr 22, 2010)

pretty sure this thread needs more pictures.


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## Vancitycam (Oct 23, 2012)

yes any updates??


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## monkE (Aug 4, 2010)

so far all the fish look great! they eat a ton! oh man i can't belive how quick they can chow down... so fun to watch


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## monkE (Aug 4, 2010)




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## JTang (Apr 21, 2010)

Tank looks awesome! Those river rocks are way more colorful than my lace rock. The little shell dwellers are so cute! Will they survive in my tank or will they become another expensive meal? Lol


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## monkE (Aug 4, 2010)

so far I have quite a few small bite sized juvy's and they all seem to be holding their own... tough to say how much food their getting but i regularly see them picking up from the scraps


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## AKAmikeross (Nov 5, 2012)

Nice setup... Is that large blue hap a red empress? Any idea what type of mbuna that is with the orange/red dorsal fin, he looks pretty cool.


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## Sidius (Mar 25, 2012)

Nice setup for sure.. Great looking Yellow Labs. I'm thinking of adding 1m/3f yellow labs to my 180g once it's all set up in the new house, sourcing out some good quality labs can be hard though. Most have barring on them.


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