Stocking 2 new tanks

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Pops848
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Afternoon all,

Brand new to the hobby, and I've been cycling two tanks, a 260l bow front and a 160l 3ft tank. I'm currently nearing the end of my cycle with no ammonia and 2 consecutive days of no nitrites, as such I've been researching a lot of fish that I'd like to stock.
Both tanks are well planted, and scapped with bogwood. One tank has additional rock features as I'd like to keep cichlids

the 260 bow front I was advised by an online fish distributor I could keep 20-25 cichlids, whilst I have 2 filters running, a fluval 406 and a EFX 1500 this seems a little high still. AQAdvisor seems to suggest around 15-18 peacocks is my limit, slightly overstocked to help with aggression but still well within the filtration capacity. I'd also like some helper fish, such as a pleco. Any suggestions on this?

for the 160 I'd like some rainbow fish, a rainbow shark, BN Pleco. few gourami and five banded barbs. Again, AqAdviser suggests this will be ok and online research suggest the barbs temperament will be ok (unlike that of a tiger barb).

As always, reading material is only half the challenge and with no experience I'd like to hear from any members who might have useful input, be it that I am making a total mess and need to rethink my ideas, or if I am on the right track albeit with swapping a few fish around to ensure they thrive, rather just survive.

TIA
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black ghost
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Tiger Barbs are peaceful if they’re kept properly (big numbers in a big tank). The 3ft is probably too small but they would probably be fine in the other one (without the cichlids of course).

For Peacocks or other Rift Valley cichlids you’ll need hard water...

Are you adding ammonia and seeing both it and nitrites at zero within a day?
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Stephen
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Your Portsmouth water is hard at around 16dGH (German) with an average pH of pH7.3.
You'll need to boost the pH up a little (over pH7.5) for Lake Malawi cichlids, easily done by adding crushed coral to the filters (which will also boost the hardness).
A tank water temperature of around 26/27C should also be fine.
Provide lots of rocks to provide natural caves.
A nice group of peacocks will look great.

As for the smaller aquarium I would suggest stocking fish that are suitable to your hard water as soft water fish species won't necessarily do well.

All the best
425L SeaBray Elite aquarium - Rio Mamoré (Bolivia) theme
4 x Cupid Cichlids, 14 x Cory caudimaculatus, 13 x Cory sterbai 52 x Reed Tetra, 4 x Honeycomb Bristlenose (L519)

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Pops848
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Stephen wrote: Wed May 05, 2021 14:35 pm Your Portsmouth water is hard at around 16dGH (German) with an average pH of pH7.3.
You'll need to boost the pH up a little (over pH7.5) for Lake Malawi cichlids, easily done by adding crushed coral to the filters (which will also boost the hardness).
A tank water temperature of around 26/27C should also be fine.
Provide lots of rocks to provide natural caves.
A nice group of peacocks will look great.

As for the smaller aquarium I would suggest stocking fish that are suitable to your hard water as soft water fish species won't necessarily do well.

All the best
Thanks Stephen,

Yes, relatively hard water here, using NT Labs test kit I get around 7.5-8PH, 14KH and 18GH. I'll look into crushed coral to aid buffering
Pops848
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black ghost wrote: Wed May 05, 2021 13:42 pm Tiger Barbs are peaceful if they’re kept properly (big numbers in a big tank). The 3ft is probably too small but they would probably be fine in the other one (without the cichlids of course).

For Peacocks or other Rift Valley cichlids you’ll need hard water...

Are you adding ammonia and seeing both it and nitrites at zero within a day?
Relatively hard water here, 7.5-8 PH, 14KH and 18 GH out the tap, as Stephen has since said I might need to add some crushed coral to buffer the water.


Yes, adding ammonia daily, tanks have been running just over 4 weeks now, I've seen ammonia processed to 0 for about a week now, and nitrites processed to 0 for the last 2 days, before that it was processed to 0 every other day.
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plankton
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Well done for the cycling. :)
The "shark" will be too big for the 3', they need a lot of swimming room and at least a 4' for their territory.
Which rainbows were you thinking of? You'll need smaller ones, the dwarf neon (praecox) will be the largest it can manage.
Pentazona are the best for a community tank, but they do better in softer water.
The 260l should be able to take that many Rift Lake cichlids, as long as they're not the huge ones.
Pops848
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Thanks the tips!

Sounds like I'm ok with the cichlid tank but may need to rethink the community tank, i'll go do some more research before buying any fish :swim2:
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