Am I keeping my African Cichlid Aquarium all Wrong?

An alternate method of keeping African Cichlids instead of a pile of rocks and overcrowding. A successful example of an alternate way to keep and enjoy African Cichlid.
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[@nicksamples4535]

Ha, you had me for a minute. I kept thinking, "what is he talking about, that tank looks awesome." My favorite part of being a fish keeper is building and maturing ecosystems. Great job!!

[@AquariumDomain.]

Thanks Nick! Me too, mature, balanced ecosystems is 100% my thing as well. Trying to demonstrate in my videos that even though it takes upfront work and patience, that once they get established they are really resilient and actually become very easy to maintain....do a lot of the work themselves. :-)

[@cajanir]

I only found your channel a few days ago and have been binge-watching your videos. I've never been a fan of larger fish in aquariums because just about every other KZbinr I watch keeps them in an empty glass box. So seeing your larger cichlids etc in legitimate ecosystems is amazing. I also love the use of vegetable filters.

[@AquariumDomain.]

Welcome aboard! Yeah as you can tell I agree 100%, I never liked tanks that look like jail cells :-( I am building an addition onto the basement right now and in it are going to be some really cool big ecosystem tanks. Also I will be creating wetland filters in them, so should be a fun spring / summer with videos on the progress! :-)

[@andrewzuckerman]

I really love that african tank. More people should try to keep plants with their african cichlids. In fact, I think you have inspired me to try it myself. Also that flagtail in the 3000 looks amazing, he's huge! Can't wait for the re-scape in there.

[@AquariumDomain.]

Thanks Drew! For me the African Cichlid colors with the natural wood/rock/plant back drop is amazing...I watch that tank all the time. That Flagtail is huge! I need to get his measurements, because in person he is gigantic...not sure if it comes through fully on video.

[@eues803]

I know that yr right, because I had a 160 gallon tank in the past where I did the same as you and even a letter more, mixing the African with other fishes like louchrs and others with no lost's Yr thank is looking very beautiful witn all the natural life and not being that tank full of rocks with no colouration, well done my freind😊😊

[@AquariumDomain.]

Hey my friend! Absolutely, like your 160 and my 125, I want to make sure there are some examples out on KZbin to show successful alternate methods of keeping African Cichlid that aren't just piles of rocks. :-)

[@eues803]

@@AquariumDomain. I have to agree with you 100%👍

[@cali-girlfishkeeping2657]

African tank is looking great! I am super excited for the new series on the 3000 gallon, can't wait!

[@AquariumDomain.]

Thanks Cali-Girl! The 3000 gallon revamp is going to be crazy...upgrading all aspects of the tank! :-)

[@philcarlino6942]

Long time no see. I missed your updates. The Cichlid tank is looking amazing! Can't wait for all the future updates.Take care.

[@AquariumDomain.]

Hey Phil! I missed putting out the updates! Life got real busy the past couple of weeks, but hopefully settled down now and I get back on track in the aquarium basement. :-)

[@chubzaquatics257]

Looking great as always my brother I know I've been MIA for a long time but I love what you're been doing keep up the great work

[@AquariumDomain.]

Chubz! Great to hear from you, its been a while! Hopefully things are going good for you. Any chance you will bring back your live stream in the future?

[@chubzaquatics257]

@@AquariumDomain. everything is going okish I will say and I do plan on bringing back the live stream and video content too but at the moment it is not possible for me to do so but hopefully very soon my friend keep up your great work

[@AquariumDomain.]

@@chubzaquatics257 Hopefully okish turns to good soon. Whenever you are ready to stream and release videos the fish fam will be there to support you!

[@JasonSouthSoundSound]

I’m excited for the 3000 gallon updates, thanks for sharing.

[@AquariumDomain.]

Going to be a lot of work, but will be so sweet when it's done! :-)

[@nathanhoveyaquatics]

I had some Mbuna in with a Jack Dempsey, and not trying to spell it lol giraffe hap and convicts plus I had the tank planted with beginner stems ( Cabomba, Ludwiga ect) and had it running right over a year b4 selling them all and going to community fish.. It was fun but I did have to always be doing something in the tank to keep everyone happy..

[@AquariumDomain.]

"Always doing something to keep everyone happy" is a pretty good was to describe Cichlid keeping in general 😊 (I may need to borrow that 😊)

[@nathanhoveyaquatics]

@@AquariumDomain. Absolutely use it any time you need lol.. I'm a hands on aquarist so half the enjoyment is being in the tanks cleaning,rearranging things, cleaning filters ect so cichlid care is just another Tuesday for me.. Thanks for sharing all these epic builds with us.

[@murphdawg33]

Tank looks awesome!

[@AquariumDomain.]

Thanks!

[@MW-ut3dk]

Think fish keepers need to see African cichlids as saltwater fish-highly territorial, aggressive, strong algae feeders-like a powder blue tang… freshwater aholes in other words. No one would setup a tank with a group of powder blues and no reef structure. Know your fish and their requirements so you don’t setup a bloodbath, which you’ve obviously done. Beautiful tank!

[@AquariumDomain.]

That is a perfect way to describe it, M W!

[@jeffkane4391]

Thanks for sharing 😊 looking forward to the expansion 😁

[@AquariumDomain.]

Thanks Jeff! Me too! :-)

[@edgarrivera4488]

Awesome setup. Love the ecosystem.

[@AquariumDomain.]

Thanks Edgar!

[@toddratson7526]

Haha you had me up in arms for a minute! I have a lovely 30 gal krib and jewel planted tank that is the darling of my family room. How are your maybe threadfin acara doing?

[@AquariumDomain.]

I am a better actor than I thought huh lol :-) I think those maybe Threadfin Acara are definitely Albino Redhead Tapajos Geophagus, lol :-P

[@josephgmann3878]

I was thinking, Damn a tragedy??Id hate to see what he thinks of my aquarium. Because that’s one of the nicest African planted tanks I’ve ever seen! You really had me thinking that maybe you just had unrealistic expectations! 😅

[@AquariumDomain.]

Hehe :-) No, I enjoy this tank a lot, it definitely meets my expectations lol :-)

[@aquaticlifeandmore]

Awesome tank. Do you think it would be possible to do something similar in a 52 gallon (200litre) tank? I would like to keep Chindongo saulosi + Hemichromis exsul.

[@AquariumDomain.]

Yeah, I think that combination would work in a tank setup similar to my 125 in the video.

[@robertjohnston25]

I have a fluval 3.0 on my tank with rainbows and clown loaches. Though I have no plants in the tank, I grow pothos in my sump and I have an extra bar light over it so it can grow. I’d like to growth my pothos in the back of the tank like this but I don’t want to use a bar light to do it. Do you have any suggestions? I know your kessil lights are mega pricey.

[@AquariumDomain.]

To just grow the pothos and not light up the whole tank you could use a Kessil A80 TUNA SUN, $140 bucks...if you want really nice looking aesthetics. There are ton of small pendant lights and flood lights that may not look quite as nice but would easily do the job. In fact on my 315 step-by-step diy build the finished product will have a lot of emersed grown plants and I am using little 30 watt flood lights from Amazon to do it...and they only run $20 bucks each and don't look too bad.

[@usmc72409]

Earned the sub for sure

[@AquariumDomain.]

Thank you sir, Welcome aboard! :-)

[@caferacergaming5104]

May i ask how you keep your ph up with all the wood in the tank?

[@AquariumDomain.]

I don't do any direct buffering of the pH in this tank.

[@LushSaltyAquariums]

I kept waiting for the disaster - lol!

[@AquariumDomain.]

Lol :-P

[@Ceretrea]

This has always put me off african cichlids even tho our water is perfect for them. Your design is so much better and has really given me inspiration 😊

[@AquariumDomain.]

Thanks! I was the same way, never really enjoyed the look of African tanks with just rocks. I have 8 species of Anubias and Java Fern in this tank for over 3 years now and the African Cichlid don't bother them at all, plus all the vine like root growth from the pothos growing up top really makes this feel like a jungle to me...with really colorful fish! 😊

[@Ceretrea]

@@AquariumDomain. It's truly impressive honestly. I haven't seen anything close to this good on youtube, and I've been hunting! We have very hard water here (16dgh) so I'm now planning our first African continent cichlid tank. Love the bog filter too, I'll be stealing that idea as well lol

[@AquariumDomain.]

@@Ceretrea Steal away...improve on it a bit...and I will steal that improvement back from you 😁😁 In all seriousness though it is awesome to be able to share ideas with other hobbyists all around the world 😁

[@michelrood2966]

Feed cichlids spirulina and greens they leave plants alone. Its nothing special. Im not a fan of your scape, its def. Not a Malawi biotope. Not hating here, just a observation

[@AquariumDomain.]

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