Thinking of a Cichlid Tank, Need Advice

Congrats on starting a rift ake tank

The first question is do you want to do a malawi tank, or a tang tank? You could also do fish from lake victoria but they can be hard to find and can be a bit scrappy.

For a malawi tank your options are:

Peacock tank:
Pros: Gorgeous coloration, lots of variation.
Cons: they can be a little hard to find. I also find it difficult to find species that don't look similar. Females are very drab but you could do an all male tank.

A hap tank
Pros: Yet again lots of color. I honestly don't know a whole lot about haps
Cons: Many get too large for a 55 gallon so you will have to pick carefully. You also can't have as many because they are an open water species. Females are pretty drab but you can do an all male tank.

You can also mix haps and peacocks for a bit more variation.

Mbuna Tank:
Pros: Lots of color and activity, easy to find. You can have more fish in your tank since they need to be over stocked. Most females are just as colorful as the males.
Cons: Aggression, these guys can be really nasty if you don't get the right combination. Most of the fish have a similar body shape so there isn't much variation.
They also don't mix well with Peacocks and Haps



You could also do a Tang tank.

Pros: Lots of variations. It can be set up more like a community tank. They show a lot of interesting behaviors.
Cons: They are not as colorful as most malawis(for the most part). You also need to be careful that you get the right combination to avoid problems.



I will admit that I'm very partial to mbuna I don't know a whole lot about tangs but I know many people around here keep them.

Well thank you! that's my old arrangement as well. Here is the rescaped version. There's also a video so you can get an idea of how they behave. I have black colorquartz s-grade sand in my 55 gallon with egg crate on the bottom. I have no idea how much rock I have. I use to have it piled most of the way to the top but I removed a lot of the rocks as they got bigger. They key is to arrange them so they can set up territories. I have 2 filters on this tank. I have an eheim 2028 and a cascade 1000, it's a little overkill but I sleep well at night knowing my tank is well filtered. I currently have well over 20 fish but most are babies. As extra males appear I remove them.
The key to having a successful mbuna tank is picking the right species and getting a good ratio of males to females. For a 55 gallon it's generally recommended to only keep 3 species. Each species has one male and 3-4 females. A good beginner set up is 5 yellow labs (Labidochromis caeruleus), acei( Pseudotropheus acei) and rusties (Iodotropheus sprengerae). These are 3 species that look nice together and are less aggressive than most other mbuna.
My stocking in my 55 gallon is OB zebras(Metriaclima estherae, OB) acei (Pseudotropheus acei) and White top haras (Cynotilapia sp white top hara).

Another possibilty for filters would be two AquaClear HOBs.


Two AquaClear 70's would be perfect for a 55 gallon tank.

• Combined 600 gph which is just above 10x.
• They are easy to maintain.
• With two of them you could alternate mainteance on them.

Excellent filters!


Best wishes.

AquaClear is a great HOB filter, really! What I have in my 55gal mbuna tank, is one AquaClear 110 (500 gph) and a Ario 4 aerator. No problems so far in more than a year now.

my 55 is a tang tank, for my filter i have fluval 405 and one so far 600 gph koralia power head cause tangs like the current, the only thing bad about a 55 is stocking because its not wide enuff for rock out and to put fish that can hand the gallonige but not wide enuff, if i could go back it would have been a 75, better stocking imo

Razzo said:

Another possibilty for filters would be two AquaClear HOBs.


Two AquaClear 70's would be perfect for a 55 gallon tank.

• Combined 600 gph which is just above 10x.
• They are easy to maintain.
• With two of them you could alternate mainteance on them.

Excellent filters!


Best wishes.

Click to expand...

How heavy a bioload? I just don't see them keeping the water as clear as you would want..

You could do a lovely all male peacock tank with a group of synodontis multipunctatus or lucippinis. I had one (before a tank tragedy) and it was magnificant. You'd need to target the smallerish peacocks, get ones that don't look like each other, and be willing to remove anyone who doesn't play nice. Eventually you get a setup where everyone is friends and the color is breathtaking . . .