Lake malawi setup with 160-gallon tank and 100-gallon sump

[felix8on]

Quick update as promised.
Tank's set up, still need to add sand to the display tank, and I might reposition some rocks to hide the overflow. Overall, I'm pretty happy with the initial rock hardscape.

There's plenty of caves and tunnels in the rocks, but they're packed in fairly tight, so I might loosen them up a bit for larger gaps.

Here are a few pics of the rock piles – comments are always welcome, whether good or bad.



Pic of the sump – I added a chunk of styrofoam since I was getting some oversplash. The two open spots are for a plant refugium and possibly another gravel bed with small gravel. I'll replace the white floss with a sheet of thick foam.



Another shot of the tank setup. I started cycling the tank today, and since I've got filter cleaning scheduled for my sig. tank tomorrow, I'll "borrow" 25% of the media from my FX5 and add it to my sump.

Updates will follow once more gets done – work keeps getting in the way. Feel free to share your critiques or comments on the rock setup, sump media, or the tank itself. I can take it – I'm a big boy!

[felix8on]

Wife and I had a chat about stocking this tank, and she's got some ideas that I just happen to agree with. One of them is yellow labs - she thinks they're awesome, and so do I. I've always wanted them, but I'll give her credit for it.

Thinking of a four-species tank with a bit of a higher bioload, and I want a school of cuckoo cats - they're pricey, but worth it. Here's my stocking plan so far:

- 15 yellow labs (aiming for 3-4M:11-12F) - they're around $6 a pop
- 10 white top afras (1-2M:8-9F) - these guys are around $7 a piece
- 12 demasoni (2M:10F) - they're about $7 a fish
- 4th species is still up in the air, but I'm thinking 10-15 total
- Cuckoo cats - I'm thinking 8-10 of them - they're around $16 a fish

Total fish count would be around 55-62, and I'm looking at around $400, not counting the 4th species. It's a lot of inches of fish, but my filter should be able to handle it.

Any other stocking suggestions would be great - I'm looking for color and movement in the tank.

[goldfinch]

Looks awesome to me. I agree, the rocks do seem a bit packed in, might be worth spacing them out a bit more for better water flow and visual appeal.

Your stocking plan looks solid, nice variety of species. I've got a friend who's brother recently set up a massive 360L Lake Malawi tank and it was incredible - I'll try to get some more info on the stocking for you, might give you some inspiration.

[felix8on]

That would be awesome goldfinch, on the stocking list.
As soon as I get home tonight I'm gonna roll up my sleeves and get to work on "loosening rocks".
Might just end up removing everything and starting over, this time grouping the rocks on the floor with similar heights so I can easily stack stable piles.
We'll see how that goes, sounds easy but we all know how that'll turn out...stacking rocks all night, here I come.

[goldfinch]

Just got the stocking list from my friend's brother - hope it gives you some ideas, Felix.
He's got Electric Yellow, Malawi Butterfly, and Electric Blue - no numbers though, sorry about that.
He did have a Demasoni and a Bumble Bee, but they were too feisty and had to go back.
That's all he remembered, but hopefully, it helps.
By the way, having fun with the rock stacking, I hope?