# Help Scratching and shaking



## X-Pande-R (Feb 15, 2005)

Hey people
My tank is on about it's 3rd week of cycling,but my ammonia,nirate & nirite level are a little off.What shall i do???? :shock: [wave] Also in between my gravel i get alot of poo and dirt stuck what can i do to reduce that??? Can you guys people tell me if my setup looks right?? Should i make any changes to it???


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## malawi4me2 (Jan 18, 2005)

What size tank is that?  It looks pretty small for the amount of fish you already have in there.  Even if you're cycling with fish, you shouldn't have _that_ many, I can see at least 7 in your pic!  I would immediately do a water change, it will prolong your cycle, but ammonia and nitrite spikes will kill your fish!


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## guppyart (Jan 22, 2005)

I agree with maliwime2 it does look small but I have to say it looks nice


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## Lisachromis (Jan 19, 2005)

X-Pande-R @ Mon Feb 14 said:


> Hey people
> My tank is on about it's 3rd week of cycling,but my ammonia,nirate & nirite level are a little off.What shall i do???? :shock: [wave]


Water changes. It'll slow your cycle down a little bit, but that's not a big deal.



> Also in  between my gravel i get alot of poo and dirt stuck what can i do to reduce that??? Can you guys people tell me if my setup looks right?? Should i make any changes to it???


Well, for the gravel, you'll need a gravel cleaner. You should be using this for your water changes. Just stick the gravel cleaner into the gravel at the same time as you are doing a water change. Siphon up the 'crap' and move the siphon to a new place. The setup itself looks fine, however if your tank is only 35g as mentioned on the other post, you have too many fish. The fish you do have are too aggressive for such a small tank. Unless you plan on keeping them in their temporarily and buying a much larger tank, I suggest that you take the fish back to the store and get something a little more appropriate for the tank size. :| [/quote]


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## X-Pande-R (Feb 15, 2005)

Tank looks small in width=61cm but it is very tall.There's a total of 8 fish in there, but i am trying to swap them in and getting a setup of 2female solusi 1 male & 3 female electric yellow and 1 male.Hows that sound??? Also i will be putting in a extra filter but of the amount of fish. Will that be ok?


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## Lexus (Jan 19, 2005)

how many gallons is that


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## malawi4me2 (Jan 18, 2005)

It's 35g. I would stick to one species in a tank less than 36" (approximately 91cm) long.


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## X-Pande-R (Feb 15, 2005)

so what fish do you recommend?? how many??? male or females???


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## malawi4me2 (Jan 18, 2005)

I'd go with the labs, they're generally a little less territorial than some other mbuna. Well, 4 females and 1 male would be a nice breeding colony... Or if you don't want them to breed, maybe 4 or 5 females.


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## Lexus (Jan 19, 2005)

I'd go with Labs too, they are awesome! Gorgeous color and great personality


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## X-Pande-R (Feb 15, 2005)

anything else i can mix in with labs? in a different colour...solusi???? anything else???


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## Lisachromis (Jan 19, 2005)

X-Pande-R @ Tue Feb 15 said:


> Tank looks small in width=61cm but it is very tall.


Cichlids require more area than height in a tank. That means that the 'footprint' should be as big as possible. Adding more height doesn't do much for them as they are territorial over bottom space. Just FYI.


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## X-Pande-R (Feb 15, 2005)

Shall i make more cave areas around the bottom surface to reduce stress or get rid of some big guys?


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## Lisachromis (Jan 19, 2005)

More caves never hurt. But at some point, you'll probably have to get rid of some of those fish.... the tank is just too small. :?


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## Osiris (Jan 18, 2005)

that is true, on the bottem but u can change that by having caves run around th back, like stack up lace rock against back of tank it will make fish feel more safe.


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