Hello everyone! first post here and id like to say hello and welcome myself to the hobby and everyone on this site. I will be setting up a 55 gal cichlid tank soon and like everyones opinion and tips on what I want to do. I just purchased a 55 gal marineland fish tank and stand. I havent set anything up but just ordered a aquaclear powerfilter 70, an aquaclear powerhead 50, and a aqueon 200 watt heater. Im going to buy gravel, a thermometer, prime tomorrow as well. So am I on the right track? I'd love anyones opinion! thanks!!!!

Decide if you want to have a biotype tank (high ph, high hardness) or a Big Box tank (low hardness, ph 6.5-7.5). Most Big Box stores keep African Cichlids st these last conditions.

Gl on your aquarium

I suggest getting sand instead of gravel, cichlids love to dig, and sand is a lot easier to clean to boot! Might want to get some rocks or fake plants to aquascape with so that aggression won't be a big issue.

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Frontosa Fanatic

Id suggest some rock, i know mine like to hang around big rocks and make litte caves or dens in them. I also suggest sand, its eaiser to clean and they like to dig and they keep it dug up and move it around enought to not have to clean it as much. But with the sand you will need to make sure any rock or orniments are secure and wont fall if they dig out around it.

Definetly with a 55g go with africans, that's kinda small for most SA cichlids, also use sand, preferably an aragonite based sand to help keep your ph up where they like it and +1 on the rocks, africans are mid level-bottem level swimmers and will set up all their territories in the rock work

Also it would be best to look into fishless cycling when you do set up your tank as its best to add most if not all fish at the same time to help with the aggression levels, fishless cycling will help you build a better bactieria bed to stock it alittle heavier than usuall at first, good luck

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10g- 3 variatus, 4 guppies, 1 blue mystery snail
40g Breeder- 6 danios, 5 swordtails, 1 Opaline Gourami
"I was born with nothin and I still got most of it left."- Seasick Steve.

adding all the fish at the same time can cause ammonia spikes.

id do a fish in cycle, least you dont have to mess about with trying to chemically make a tank! just do it all natural and you wont have a problem....have a read of all the guys on here in the new to fishkeeping section who have messed up the fish less cycle and have reverted to a fish in cycle.

+1 on the rocks my Africans love using the rocks. I use a crushed coral, so far no digging. possible because of the weight of it? good luck with your aquarium

I do agree partly about this but I've heard a ton of stories where people run into some pretty bad aggro issues with adding 1-2 africans at a time, but do whatever you fell more comfortable with and when you add new africans its best to rearrange the aquascape in order to make every fish, not just the new comers, re-establish territory

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10g- 3 variatus, 4 guppies, 1 blue mystery snail
40g Breeder- 6 danios, 5 swordtails, 1 Opaline Gourami
"I was born with nothin and I still got most of it left."- Seasick Steve.

I currently have a 150 gallon cichlid tank up and running for 4 years now and have tried a couple things in my tanks. i agree sand is great as well as lots of rocks. and the best way to keep the aggresion down is to over populate the tank. many people will disagree with me, however like i said ive had mine running for 4 years. I currently have 48 fish in my 150 gallon ranging anywhere for 2 inches up to 7 inches. but keep in mind that if you do this you will want to get your self a good canister filter ( i dont recommend fluval) big name ****ty filters, unless you dont mind buying replacement parts.

I have a 60 gal. Marineland aquarium and used about 10# of crushed coral on an undergravel filter, then covered it with brown gravel to keep the PH up. I also added powerheads to the up tubes from the undergravel filter. I also added a Marineland 350 outside filter. I've had the aquarium up and running about 6-7 months. I added rocks I bought from a landscaping company and made caves all over the tank. I currently have Auratus that are breeding out of control along with several other species of African Cichlids. I bought the river rock from a local gravel plant, $2.00 per 5 gallon bucket full, just used a colander to wash the rock. Alot cheaper than buying pre-washed gravel from Petsmart. Hope that helps setting up your new aquarium.

If you go with East African Lake cichlids, read up on the lakes. I assume neonshark is joking with the big box tank, so don't do that!

Crowded and overcrowded are different issues with these fish. You are best to take the stocking as close to the limits of your filtration and water changing as you can, as these fish need crowding to emulate their natural conditions. Their behavior is based on living in crowded territories, unlike most other fish.

Lake Malawi is a deep alkaline lake with high mineral content and a high pH. The popular aquarium species live on 'underwater islands' - jumbles of rock, reefs etc surrounded by broad exanses of predator rich open sand. They don't venture far from their rockpiles, and this is what has made them so much fun to study for evolutionary biologists. The island effect has made for an explosion of species inthe lake - really interesting stuff.

It's not academic either, as it absolutely colours how we keep these fish. They feed on algae and the inhabitants of algae in rocky, cave filled, crowded underwater islands. So you make a hardwater, high pH rock jumble, and you watch the show unfold.