BellaOnline Forums Home and Garden Fish New Cichlid Tank

On Saturday my parents (in cohorts with my boyfriend) threw me a surprise 21st birthday party! I was VERY surprised. I was planning on setting up a 30 gallon cichlid tank at the end of this month. My boyfriends mom asked me to come upstairs with her, and when we went in my room, there, sitting on my bed, was sitting a brand new 30 gallon long tank!!!! YAY!!!!!!!!! I was so excited! That was from my boyfriends parents. My wonderful boyfriend gave me stress coat, stress zyme, cichlid salt, food, a penguin 330 filter, crushed coral, a net, melafin (I think) as well as many other things! I was SO ecstatic!

All I still need is a power head, a surge protector with a timer for the light, more food (I like to have a variety! LOL), and rocks. For rocks I am going to use lava rock.

Sunday we went and got my stand and light. I also got a heater, a thermometer, aquarium salt, and more food. Then we went to another fish store and I picked out 4 fish that are now on hold for me. (They sold the chipoke, which is okay because they said they are REALLY aggressive)I do not remember all of them, but one was this amazing looking Rusty cichlid. (I got all african cichlids). The others are gorgeous as well. And my boyfriends best friend is giving me three fish out of his tank. He says they are the jerks of the tank, but I know it is just cause they are too small and are being picked on by his larger fish (he has a 75). One of them is a red top zebra. I am going to find out all of the fish that I am putting in my tank tonight and I will post what they are. I can't wait until next sunday to put them in my tank. The water is already amazingly clear.

One concern I do have is that the tank is leaning forward, stand and all. It is leaning about a 1/4 inch. We have determind it is not from the carpet, but from the house itself. We are going to put shims under it today. Did anyone else have this problem with their tank? How did you solve it?

Good luck trying to get those shims under the stand with a full 30 gallons of water sitting on it !! <img src="/images/graemlins/shocked.gif" alt="" />

You just might want to empty out the water and make sure that you level that stand without the tank on it. If the tank isn't sitting level it will eventually leak somewhere because of the stress of all that water focusing on one area of the tank. Taking the time to set it up right can save you alot of headaches later on.

Also, another thing to consider is if you want a background on the tank...a very good time to do that is before you put it up against the wall and fill it with water...lol...found that out with my 29 ! <img src="/images/graemlins/smirk.gif" alt="" />

The shims worked like magic, even with the water in it! There was only about 20 gallons of water in it at the time. Now there is 30 gallons of water, 6 rocks, 8 cichlids, and 1 pleco. I am going to get another pleco and then I am done. My tank looks REALLY nice! I will post pics ASAP. My fish are VERY skitish though. When I fed them this morning some of them wouldn't come out and eat because I was standing there. When I walked away they came out. Three of them are from a friends tank. One of the ones from his tank bit me! I reached in the bag to put him in the tank and he nipped at me! I suppose I would have to if I was him! I forgave him though because he was REALLY stressing. For a while I thought he might die on me or something he was so stressed. But he calmed down. I am surprised at how skitish he is though, considering he came from a 75 gallon with fish double to three times the size of him! Oh well, they will adjust! I will keep you updated on how they are doing, and I will post exactly what type of fish they are.

Have you cycled the tank yet? If not, keep an eye on your ammonia levels and you might need to do a lot of water changes initially. Your tank sounds so cool though <img src="/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" /> I wish I had room for something that big! Make sure to take some pictures!

Yeah, do keep a close eye on water parameters...you will get an ammonia spike, then nitrites....then possibly nitrates...

Then ammonia and the nitrite spike could seriously effect your fish and will require lots of water changes till it all settle s down.

Congrats on your new tank by the way !

I cycled the tank for one week. It was clear within a day and all levels for everything were completely normal. My "children" as I call them are doing well. They are real pigs though! When I fed them this morning they nearly jumped out of the tank they were attacking the food! They all are getting along wonderfully, there have been no scuffles that I have seen thus far. They love the rocks that are in there and seem very very happy. I as well am very happy. I am so psyched about it!

well, in order to know for sure if the tank is cycled properly, you need to test the ammonia and the nitrites at least every other day...so that you can be sure the ammonia spikes....and then goes to zero...then after that the nitrite spikes and then goes to zero.

If you have tested and you know these two things have happened, then you can be sure that the bacteria you need to keep this tank healthy, is alive and well in your tank. In order for this cycle to even begin, there has to be a source of ammonia in the tank..either from fish pee..(ewe)..or something dead and decaying in the tank.

Most cycles take at least 6 weeks to complete and the nitrite spike takes longer to happen than the ammonia spike does. You can speed it up a bit if you use a 'cycling' aid to get it started up, but I don't know much if anything about any of those, since I have never used them.

Keep an eye on your fish BG and get an ammonia and nitrite test kit if you don't have one. If you start to see ammonia or nitrites increase then you need to do water changes.

All the best on your new tank BG !! Can't wait for pics !

Congratulations on your new tank BG, it sounds awesome! It helps to have a fish advice cumumn at your fingertips, doesn't it? lol <img src="/images/graemlins/cool.gif" alt="" />

I wrote a reply a long time ago, but apparently it never went through. Last Thursday I noticed that two of my fish, the Rusty and the red-top zebra both had what looked like ick. I started treatment last Sunday, and so far they are doing well. They both are looking better, and it has not spread to any other fish thus far (crosses fingers). They are eating well and acting like their normal selves. I am going to do a 50% water change tomorrow afternoon and treat for another week with another 50% water change next tuesday. If they are not completely cured, I am going to do a third round. The med bottle says that they only need 7 days worth of treatment, but the guy at the fish store says to do two rounds. As he puts it "does your doctor only prescribe 7 days of meds or 14 days?" I have to say I agree with him. The medicine (quICK Cure) is wonderful, but it dyed all of the cylicone blue! I don't really care, it doesn't bother me, I am just glad it did not dye my rocks! I don't understand why they got it, the water stays the same temperature, and the pH levels were perfect. I am wondering about the amonia levels, and the red-top and two others came from a tank that had ick before (they themselves didn't have it, but they are carriers from being exposed) so I am wondering if the stress they were under from switching tanks and all brought it out in the one and it went to the Rusty. However, I can't be 100% positive that the Rusty has ick, it isn't round white spots but rather white fungus-looking things growing out of him. I have also been adding PimaFix and aquarium salt just in case.

Well, it most likely did come from the fish you added from the other tank. Make sure you have taken the carbon out of your filter...but, I bet you knew that already... <img src="/images/graemlins/wink.gif" alt="" />

Keep doing what your doing and keep an eye on Rusty. Fish are prone to secondary infections after using treatments for ich and the like. The treatment is a bit harsh on the fish and can weaken them so they sometimes fall ill with other things after you cure them from the first issue.

Good luck, hope all goes well !