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Re=scape of the 240

Tankster

Members
I've been thinking about a re-scape for some time now and after placing a large order for 12, 4" to 6" Haplochromis and Aulonocara I thought it would be a great time to do it. I've watched quite a few Malawi dive videos to get a better idea of what the habitat should look like.

I pulled out the old scape of Cypress Knees and removed around 100 lbs of sand. Side note: I found my missing Pleco. It seems he tunneled under a rock and removed a bit too much sand and the rock collapsed on him. Felt bad for the little guy. The new scape has the stone sitting directly on egg-crate so that won't ever happen again.

My goal in this re-scape is to emulate the Lake Malawi structure where the huge rock formations have smaller rock structure radiating out from the main structure. After selecting just over 300 pounds of rock (to go with the 400 pounds of sand already in the tank), I pressure washed the stone and used my stone cutting blade to flatten the ends of the tall stones I wanted standing on end in the back of the tank. I am extremely happy with the finished product and can't wait to get the new fish in the tank that are arriving Thursday.

Enjoy the pics and please comment. I need more encouragement than I get from the family which mostly consist of comments like, "you're crazy", or "it looked great before, why are you changing it?"

Rock before pressure washing - looks like that are all the same basic color
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After Pressure washing the variation in colors came out.
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Cutting the rock to position vertically in the tank for height and large boulder illusion.
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Laying the rock out in the general pattern I was wanting in the tank.
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Before re-scape
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After
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After
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Lots of nooks and cranies and tunnels for the fish to swim though and hide from larger agressive fish.
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What do you think? Any suggestions for improvement?
 

Tankster

Members
Thanks to both.

Fisheggs, is this because of poop and waste getting trapped in the rocks, or are you saying the rocks will foul the water?
 

FishEggs

Well-Known Member
Just because you rescaped it. Stirring things up like that can give you a sharp spike in ammonia, more than the current bacteria in the filter can handle. It was a very expensive lesson for me. Dont want you to have to pay the same price.
 

Tankster

Members
Thank you for the heads up. I checked before the tank had cleared from the re-scape (still cloudy) and ammonia bumped up to about 0.5 ppm checked again tonight and down to zero, or very close. I’m not using a digital meter and doubt it’s actually zero. I’m over filtering which probably helps.
I’m more concerned about doubling the bio load on Thursday with the addition of 12 fish. I’ll probably go through a full batch of test strips in less than a week, testing 3 times a day probably:)
 

stany

CCA Members
I bought into the need for hiding places for each fish and originally had at least one cave for each fish. Unless you keep shell dwellers this is over stated. Some fish I rarely saw becase they had a favorite cave in the back of the tank.. I've seen many bare bottom tanks with few rocks that work for people. It seems a fish being able to be far enough away from an agressive fish or out of line of sight works just as well. The fish you are getting you told me in a 240 should be fine. During water changes I have to remove the rock to clean out waste. With my redo of my all male I am going to reduce the caves and see what happens.
 

Tankster

Members
You’re probably right, and to be honest, the re-scape was for me just as much as it was for the fish. :).
I thought it would be good to change the environment before adding fish to reduce any potential aggression towards the new tank mates.
It is pretty cool to sit down here at night with all the lights out in the room with just the tank lights on watching the fish swim through the tunnels and zipping through the gaps and such.
 
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stany

CCA Members
I've found that having reduced the rocks and adding smaller cichlids to the mix I see the fish more often with just a light on in the next room at night. They all seem to be drawn to it and I removed rocks to open up that area, I'm going to remove more rocks at the next water change.
 

Tankster

Members
I prefer all the same rock but that looks awesome!

Thanks!
I thought they were. I should have brought a water bottle with me to the stone yard and poured some test spots on the rocks. The variation is growing on me but I’ll be keeping my eye out for more of the red rock (front center stone) as I think it comes closest to what I’ve seen in the Malawi dive videos I’ve watched.
 

DiscusnAfricans

Past President
Amazing how much the stones varied after pressure washing. Like the new scape, you can always add more rocks to the bottom without creating hiding spots since you don't have any bottom dwellers. Definitely like the tall ones. I'd suggest some frequent water changes during the first couple of weeks after adding that many new fish.
 

Leffler817

CCA Members
The new layout looks fantastic.

Was it difficult cutting the rock? I'd never used rock big enough to cut and therefore had not considered it.
 

Tankster

Members
The new layout looks fantastic.

Was it difficult cutting the rock? I'd never used rock big enough to cut and therefore had not considered it.

Thanks Shawn!

Cutting the rock is not that difficult but it is very messy. The main challenge is making sure you are cutting on a bias that balances the rock upright with a decent center of gravity. For tall rocks if you are even just slightly off. the rock can be tipsy which is very bad with big rocks next to glass (the upright ones in back are close to 100 lbs each). My super accurate scientific method is to balance the rock upright until I can keep it from tipping over with the tip of my finger. I then mark either side the same distance from the ground using that as my cutting line. I use a super old craftsman circular saw with a diamond coated cutting blade and it cuts through the rock like butter. I wouldn't use my primary saw on this as it pretty much wrecks the saw for use in carpentry. It would still work but getting the stone dust cleaned off is more effort than it's worth, especially if you can get ahold of a second hand tool on the cheap.
 

Tankster

Members
Amazing how much the stones varied after pressure washing. Like the new scape, you can always add more rocks to the bottom without creating hiding spots since you don't have any bottom dwellers. Definitely like the tall ones. I'd suggest some frequent water changes during the first couple of weeks after adding that many new fish.

I was really surprised as well..., but was not about to haul 300 lbs of rock back to the stone yard. I like the hiding spots and am super tempted to eventually get some yellow labs. My main reservation is feeding requirements and managing the opposing dietary needs of Peacock/Hap vs yellow Lab Mbuna Malawi. That will probably never happen but it would be cool.
I will definitely be upping the water changes for a few weeks. Probably overkill but I was thinking 75g every other day.
 
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