OK so i want some opinions, i am looking to convert my tropical tank to a african cichlid tank...I know what i need to do in regards to tank setup, water quality and filtration and such, i have experiance with Discus and Angles and such, but i am going to go with African Cichlids...it seems everytime i walk into the aquarium store they are always always acitve and looking at me, while my other fish besides my clown and Khuli loaches are kind of boring....I have had standard tropivcal fish for 10 years and i want to be more interactive with my fish but i dont want to go with a salt water yet because I dont have enough room for the tank i want, so I figured going with the african cichlids is one step up from tropical fish and then the next step will be salt water... Does anybody have any additonal adivce be it, rocks, substrate, species? water changes..... anything?

Well i have a cichlid tank so ill see if i can help:-)
Cichlids do best when you try to reproduce there natural habitat.
Rocks work great far as stacking and making caves they love caves.
Limestone works the best but simple river rock will work.
Cichlids need that high P.H i try to keep mine at 8.2.but anywhere from 7.8 to 8.6 is fine as long as it stays pretty much the same level.Do not use any kind of driftwood.That will lower the P.H.
Now i use Eco complete african cichlid substrate,sand and gravel,I use a mix of all three,but you can use just one.The eco complete keeps the P.H highso you never have to mess with it.
Eco-Complete African Cichlid Substrate
As far as species goes all mine are Lake Malawi cichlids
I have.
2 - yellow labs
2 - hybrids
2 - Red Zebra
2 - Blue Jahanni
I am fixen to add
2 - Ice blue Zebra
2 - Blue cobalts
Water changes no big deal just like any other tank.
Hope this helps

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Im not sure,But something on this board smells fishy!

thanks!!!! I like your setup with the rocks, nice an simple exactly what i am looking to do!

you may already no this but,
I say that.when changing the water you should take the fish out and put them in ther own buckets .this will allow you to make any changes to youre tanks ph or any other that you may need cichilds dont play when it comes to little fish so you should get all the fish you want at the same time to give them time to adjust to one another.adding 1by1 will stresses the new fish out a bit by running the new fish down...one more thing if you plan to feed them feeder fish DONT unless to breed youre own.the feeders at the store arent safe they may be carrying some thing you dont want in youre tank.the feeders are farmed raised in over populated tanks so you dont know what youll get feed at youre own risk!

This is just me saying

I have an african cichlid tank
i went with bumblebee cichlids and african kenyi's and a few zebra's
i do alot of what Marty said on his tank
i run my Ph at 8.2 or as close as i can to it
i went and got a bunch of flat river rocks to make caves
i use to use gravel but i switched to sand so just maybe they would quit digging but that doesnt work just so you know, my advice is put the rocks the way you like them and the fish will make it the way they like it from there

if you want to see some picture to get ideas i have some in my albums

let me know what you decide to do, i would like to see your setup once your done

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