Hey everyone,

starting to change things up a bit and getting back into cichlids now. I started out with them back in 91' and then quickly moved to salt. I am a professional tank builder by trade and plan on building myself a new tank. Haven't decided but, would like a 1000gallon tank. Have to do some more reading here on what water quality and parameters african cichlids like. Also, what foods are to be used and type of rock structure I want to do. So I have a lot to look into before I take the plunge but wanted to introduce myself.

Jeff

Hey NAGA, welcome to ACF!!

A 1,000 gallon tank filled with African cichlids would make a very impressive display. Keep us updated on the build and maybe even start a thread in the DIY section documenting your progress.

Are there any particular Africans that you are considering?

1000 gallon custom tank OMG you can do ALOT with that tank. Malawi cichlids require a ph around 8.2 and tanganyika up to 9 this can easily be achieved from using baking soda during water changes or keep alot of crushed coral in the tank or sump, oh man I can only imagine the sump. Hard alkaline water is the most important thing.

Your options are close to limitless with that size of a tank especially if you supply enough rocks OMG ALL of your fish will breed like rabbits.

its more gonna come down to what colors you like and types of fish. if I were you though i'd do nice colonies of each type of fish maybe 12-15 of each. You can fit hundreds and hundreds of full grown africans in there, I mean if you supply enough bio filtration i could assume you can have up to 400 fish in there maybe more

Well I like the Tropheus the most and would like to do a colony of them I just have to pick the one I like. I have a RO water filter that I used when I had my reef and is that of any use for African Cichlids? I was thinking of using some rock that I had leftover from my reef tank. It was live rock at one point and now is just dry........will that work cuz I have about 1200lbs of it?

What do most people use for water and what do they do to condition the water? Lastly what is a good book to get?

thanks in advance

Tropheus are awesome, you could do a nice moori colony and a nice duboisi colony. RO is great however the big difference between your reef tank and the cichlid tank is that cichlids like clean fresh water where as in your reef tank the water was precious as you had lots of vitamins minerals and everything in it was used by something else creating a natural filter.

The old live rock would work great for two purposes. It'll give em a lot of places to hide, lots of rocks are very important to these fish, and its porous surface aid tremendously in bacteria colonization. You want a ton of biological nutrients in there ie pourous rock or bio balls for it to colonize unlike the reef where bio balls can be a problem to reefs. These fish create tons of waste so it must be quickly converted through the use of biological bacteria.

For me I use prime to condition the water, which you wouldn't need with the RO. I use baking soda to up the ph and african cichlid salt by seachem.

Welcome aboard Jeff!

I don't add anything to my water in any of my Tropheus tanks.
They are easy, the key is to keep things consistent. No sudden changes to diet, water, or environment.