240g Hap/Peacock setup...800 watts of Metal Halide light, DIY wetdry...PICS

[tcarswell]

FISH!!!!!!!

I currently have all of those fish in my 90 Malawi . My yellow labs were never very yellow nor my blue ali (just Like yours in the first pic) But I started feeding
NLS and I know its cliche but the difference it made in their behavior and coloring was amazing. I highly recommend that . Also I would not be too concerned yet
about the fish flicking off the gravel unless you see ick or flukes.A lot of malawi cichlids do this as a territorial thing. Best of luck and since I own and have nursed all of those fish
back to health (I did not used to quarantine. Now its a 35 day thing for me) feel free to shoot me any questions.

 

[NOLAGT]

I have a jar of 1mm NLS that they are all chowing on so time will tell. The flicking they are doing isnt around other fish...random...side scraping on the sand or like hitting there nose. Seems sickly to me but I dont want to use meds with the safestart. I tested the water again tonight 12hrs later...nothing.

I did get some more pics...ill post tomorrow...

 

[tcarswell]

Right on man. Well if they are sick I would put them all in a 55 (Or whatever is laying around above 20 gallons. And keep it pretty bare to treat them in. Meanwhile I would do a fishless cycle in the big tank and that would give the parasites/ ick time to die in the main tank with no host it would also allow you to turn the heat up on the main tank to help beneficial bacteria and speed up the life cycle of ick if that is what it happens to be. And the fish time to get healed up etc

 

[DaveB]

I missed this one before. Beautiful work... that's how you do it! I am going to be building mine to match my kitchen and bar cabinets too.

Question about your house: Are LA houses right on slab or do you have a basement/crawl space? Did you have to reinforce your floor to hold that or is that not a concern down there?

My 400 will be on slab but I want to have one tank (planted perhaps) as an upstairs display tank too. Wondered if that was the case with this one since it's in the kitchen.

Based on my experience with yellow labs, they'll color up soon. They really look great in there over the dark colors. Makes me wish I hadn't chosen to go with lighter substrate.

 

[NOLAGT]

Its def NOT ick if its anything I think its like gill flukes. I see nothing on the fish...just acting a lil funny scraping on the sand and whatnot. I dont really have another tank to treat in. I would have to set something up at work and transport them there. I will just let this batch roll in the main tank and see how it goes. I have a 36w UV but the safestart says to turn off all UV's. So for now i'll wait and see. If it is flukes or something like that...would a good clean tank and food allow them to just kick it on there own or will they NEED meds.

Here in LA if you had a basement you would have a underground pool lol. Really tho...new orleans where im from if you dont drive super long wood polls into the ground to support the slab...the slab and ground will settle over time and split in half. My last house had the pilings and the ground around it settled and if I didnt add dirt to the yard you would be able to see under the slab. My new house and area im in is above sea level by 30 feet so I didnt need pilings but its just a slab on the ground.

Just tested the water...everything is 0 still.

 

[NOLAGT]

Ok I turned the lights on this morning for about an hour. 3 of the 4 yellow labs are sitting on the sand huddled up to the rocks and not swimming. One is swimming around mostly...everyone else was out and about.

Here are some more pics...still working on my photo taking skilz. I just got this camera not too long ago and I use the auto setting pretty much so far lol. I will have the ablity to take some pics with an overhead flash. I have a Nikon D90 with the SB800 flash.

 

[NOLAGT]

So I raised the temp to 80 and I was thinking about adding some salt. If so how much per gal should I add? Box says 1 tsp per 5 gal of water.

Do yall think that is a good idea...to help with any bugs they might have. They are def scraping on the rocks and acting like somethings up...I have seen just about all of the fish do it...yellows more and are hiding and some of the acei are hiding and scraping.

Ohh and I ordered 6 acei's and just realized today I got 7.

 

[AfroCichlidKeeper]

Beautiful tank!

 

[ozpkchris]

man when i herd you were putting africans in that tank i thought it was a waste \, im more of a saca guy,
but
they really look great in your tank,
good call with the sand, i have some black sand but yours is by far nicer

as far as the salt i always added a tsp per 5 gallons so i think so should be set with that
very cool setup

 

[greenearthlawns]

IMO they are just exploring the new tank... african cichlids love the sandy substate and are probably just loving on it... mine did that alot when I switched them from gravel to substrate they will also sift through it all day and usually the side scraping will slow down after about a month. I wouldn't medicate unless you see something on them what is the temp? you could add a bit of extra salt and raise temp slowly up to 80-84 and see if that helps...