How to keep a Peaceful, Planted African Cichlid Aquarium.

8 month update on my 125 Gallon Malawi River African Cichlid Mbuna, Turkana Jewel and Dolphin Hap aquarium.
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[@ryanrogers8211]

You’re making FatherFish proud! 😊

[@AquariumDomain.]

LOL, I am sure FatherFish will approve of the plants and deep substrate in this tank....but I do feed the fish and have a sump...so maybe a 5 out of 10 aquarium on the FatherFish scale :-P

[@ryanrogers8211]

@@AquariumDomain. it’s a great setup

[@kunalprataphr]

Just wow... Chichlid in planted... 2 water changes in 8 mnths.. Amazing

[@AquariumDomain.]

Live (emergent grown) plants are amazing at filtration. :-)

[@charleskile3769]

That bog filter is working amazing.... Simple yet very affective.

[@AquariumDomain.]

Yes sir, and it is fun to watch the bog plants grow! :-)

[@philcarlino6942]

Love the bog filter. Those fish are also looking really nice. Agree, the usual African cichlid tank you see is just too busy. Your stocking seems just right. Keep up the great work!

[@AquariumDomain.]

At the current size of the fish I keep wanting to add just a couple more, but have to remind myself what the tank will look like when they are their adult size. Of course I shouldn't have to wait too long as they are very avid eaters lol :-)

[@ryanrogers8211]

A couple of compressiceps would look really nice in there

[@ryanrogers8211]

Beautiful setup sir, I love all the plants 🌱 too!

[@AquariumDomain.]

Thanks Ryan! At this point I can't image keeping African Cichlid without all those plants....I just love seeing them swimming in and out of the jungle! :--)

[@Rabittsfoot1]

Great channel; Love the content 👍

[@AquariumDomain.]

Thank you! :-)

[@donaldwilson1819]

Nice.

[@AquariumDomain.]

Thanks!

[@billpremore9509]

Absolutely love it!!

[@AquariumDomain.]

Thank you!!

[@WHY269]

AquariumDomain: Let me show off my synodontis… The synodontis: That’s gonna be a no from us dawg… 😂😂😂😂😂😂

[@AquariumDomain.]

Yeah no kidding right! lol :-P Literally 99/100 times they come out and attack the food, pull out the camera...nothing.

[@garciamario5436]

Absolutely beautiful

[@AquariumDomain.]

Thank you! 😊

[@philippagross1920]

Really impressive!

[@AquariumDomain.]

Thanks! 😊

[@eues803]

Yr doing what all aquarists most African keeper's don't do, mix plant with them, it's looking very nice

[@AquariumDomain.]

One reason I never kept African Cichlid for a long time was that I didn't want a rock scape only tank. However, mixing their wonderful colors with plants looks great to me. :-)

[@eues803]

@@AquariumDomain. I agree with you, yr tank looks great for me, full of life and plants 👍👍

[@johnopen3464]

@@AquariumDomain. Totally agree. I've always heard ciclids would destroy any vegetation, obviously not. Great job.

[@adamcenteno6155]

I love it! It looks so natural. I was wondering if this setting would be good for Discus?

[@AquariumDomain.]

In general yes, but Discus would prefer a bit more open swimming room than what I have in this tank. I build this tank to be the ultimate sight-line blocking, tons of caves & niches tank to eliminate the typical African Cichlid aggression. I have an update coming on this tank really soon...looks better now than in this video...plants growing in big time! :-)

[@chrisdavis1059]

This planted cichlid tank is Amazing! If I could get you to help me out on what plants you have that would be excellent.

[@AquariumDomain.]

Thanks! The plants are Anubias Barteri 'Coffeefolia', Anubias Nana, Anubias Congensis and Java Fern.

[@chrisdavis1059]

@@AquariumDomain. thank you

[@jonathannorth531]

Great videos - has inspired me to start planning my own build. When you do the video on your next build - could you include some details on how you determine the size of wood you use, and also the glass thickness? Thanks

[@AquariumDomain.]

Thanks Jonathan! I am working on a step-by-step build series of videos for the next build. Going to do my best to try and cover all of the how's, why's and things I have learned along the way.

[@ryanrogers8211]

Sounds great 👍🏼

[@ranjanty]

What type of substrate did you use? I'm new to keeping fish and all the videos I've been watching said you can't keep cichlids in a planted tank and bam I come across this. I'm in the process of setting up a 55 gallon so I can get mbuna cichlids. Today I filled one side with sand and the other side with pea gravel. After watching this video I think I will pull it out and add potting soil and sand on top and go for a heavily planted tank like my other community tank. I simply love the look of a natural habitat. Thanks for sharing what you did and encouraging others to do the same. I just wish I had the room for a 125 tank because I know the fish would be happier.

[@AquariumDomain.]

You can keep some plant species with Mbuna and other Cichlid, but it needs to be plants with thick leaves like Anubias, Java Fern and similar species. Most of the plants like this are rhyzome plants that feed from the water column and don't require substrate at all. In my tank I have 2" of eco-complete with 2" of sand on top, which I do for filtration and aesthetic reasons, not really for the plants.

[@larryjacksonjr3636]

Would this work n a smaller tank like a 55gal with mbunas tired of rock only scape would like some plants and what type

[@AquariumDomain.]

Yes it will work in a 55, keeping short sight lines in the tank will help keep the dominant fish from trying to control every square inch of the tank. :-)

[@jameshanks8608]

Is this a self sustained tank? A nature tank? I'm getting ready to setup a 75g cichlid tank and I think I want to do this.

[@ryanrogers8211]

@@jameshanks8608yes, look up FatherFish for how to set up a nature tank

[@mikeeger7581]

I agree with you buddy,,I hate the way those overcrowded African cichlid tanks with 20 different types of males,, and a bunch of rocks and nothing else!!!

[@mikeeger7581]

I prefer the live plants and natural scape over anything else

[@AquariumDomain.]

Definitely!

[@AquariumDomain.]

Plenty of times they even leave out the rocks lol :-)

[@wheresthefish8910]

Hey brother I have a question about installing the glass I have a bow in my wood and have a gap did you run into any of that while you did any of your tanks if so can you tell me what u did ?

[@AquariumDomain.]

Yes, I have had that happen once. On Predator Bay one of the side panel frames ended up being bowed out a bit, about 1/2" from bottom to top. So if the glass is pushed flush on the bottom it would be 1/2" off the wood frame at the top. Or of course vice versa if I made it flush at the top would 1/2" off at the bottom. Since the water pressure is at the bottom, I made the bottom flush and used a ton of extra silicone at the top to fill in the 1/2" gap. Basically I used and extra piece of wood and clamps to keep the silicone from oozing and basically filled in the entire gap. Then pressed the glass in place and braced, making sure that the entire "large gap" portion was fully filled in with silicone. Since in my build the silicone between the glass and frame functions as a big gasket it works out fine to do it that way. Then of course I applied the water proofing bead of silicone. The key is to let the massive 1/2" silicone gasket part to setup some and harden some before compressing the glass into place...to make sure that the glass is fully supported by the silicone gasket and not air pockets. Don't want to put silicone in and immediately clamp the glass in place and cause too much silicone to ooze out. I hope that makes sense and helps you with your situation.

[@PULAG]

How would you go about adding new African cichlids to a tank if they're smaller than the current residents?

[@AquariumDomain.]

In an African Cichlid tank like mine it is pretty easy as there are a ton of hides and visual site breaks. In fact there are 3 generations of Mbuna in there and some are quite small and get along. Much tougher though in tanks that have minimal aquascape and use fish crowding to keep the peace.

[@yogeshsg7]

You are tank looking awesome.... I am also trying to make malawi cichlid planted tank I hav 4ft aquarium.plz tell me which light r u using.... because in Market aquarium light price is very expensive

[@AquariumDomain.]

The lights on this tank are actually expensive lights (Kessil Tuna Sun) but you can grow all of the plants in this tank with simple LED floodlights or any of the moderately priced aquarium LED strip lights, Hygger, Nicrew, etc.

[@nanettedecker7981]

Do they dig up the substrate layers?

[@AquariumDomain.]

No the African Cichlid haven't, but the Synodontis catfish have cleared a little bit of sand out of their caves areas...not too bad though

[@aqua.scape69]

Do you have trouble with algae growth in your sump area with the light? What do you use to treat / feed your plants?

[@AquariumDomain.]

No. In fact the issue I run into with all of my tanks that have immersed plants growing in them is that I have to dose nitrates and phosphates or feed super heavy to keep all the plants fed. The fact that immersed grown plants have essentially limitless co2 from the air makes them extremely good at processing nutrients from the water column....and long story short...leaving nothing for the algae. 😄

[@breedingbubbles]

Love the line-of-sight idea, but you didn't cover why your plants survive the African Cichlids. What's the secret there?

[@AquariumDomain.]

Anubias (many species) and to a lesser extent Java Fern aren't preferred by most vegetarian fish, combined with respecting the fishes natural diet and in this case providing the Mbuna a diet that is primarily made up of vegetable matter.

[@fernandomonramos1129]

Can u give me an idea for rock work and fake plant on the 40 breeder

[@AquariumDomain.]

What type of fish do you plan to keep?

[@fernandomonramos1129]

@@AquariumDomain. mbuna

[@billpremore9509]

Putting big rocks like that in a tank makes me super nervous that its too heavy. Any tips on safely doing so? Tia

[@AquariumDomain.]

Definitely. If you don't want a deep sand bed or you have serious substrate diggers you can put down under the rock to distribute the weight...most people use lighting diffuser aka egg crate. Or like in the case of my tank with a deep sand bed substrate you can place the rocks on top of 4-5 inches of sand, which will effectively distribute the weight as well. Lastly, where I have the large rocks built up vertically I also use wood branches wedged between the rocks to essentially work like a buttress sending some of the weight through the branch to a spot in the substrate away from the main pressure point.

[@lordbetty4806]

If you want a peaceful aquarium DO NOT get a male & female Turkana Jewel cichlid, male will start killing off anything it can, he'll be a total psycho boyfriend.

[@AquariumDomain.]

😊