I have a 125 gal cichlid planted tanks set up with similar plants and triangular form. It can be done with proper selection of plants and fish. No substrate rooted plants, only epiphytes and tough texture plants secured in pots to prevent digging. Mouthbrooders are easier on plants as they only make temporary nests. Large egg layers are more destructive as nesting period is prolonged. You can choose to keep males only to prevent breeding and nesting.
Usually I do not care for cichlid tanks due to the lack of plants, but yours is truly beautiful. I am very happy that you did not conform to the no plant rule of cichlids.
I love this video so much. I tried this also about two years ago but mine was less successful. We only have one male alive as he basically harasses the living daylights out of the others. You live and learn. So happy to see this success and makes me want to try again.
Brilliant, I think you need to move bigger house George, Go for the bigger tank, but you will miss the smaller tanks. Really interested in the snails, be good to see a post on the pros and cons in a planted tank, snails to keep and snails to avoid. Thanks George
Hi George, your first love is surely fully planted tanks - neither the Discus nor Malawi tank can quite fit that bill. Do think your Discus tank is a slightly smaller than ideal and obviously the Malawi's need a bigger tank. Don't know if this helps you make realistic decisions about space use in your home, but as a Tropica ambassador I strongly urge you to hold on to a planted tank and continue to explore the plant focused aspects of our hobby, maybe growing some really challenging plant species and trying the newly released from Columbia citric acid and baking soda pressurised CO2 system and trialling lighting systems, substrates, fertilisers etc. - seems a more long term eco friendly method to enrich our planted tank water with CO2 than industrial gas filled bottles. You did talk about a Dutch styled tank. Keep up the good work, your items have been very valuable in the current circumstances.
I miss your rimless tanks, but, I'm happy you got the brand deal with OASE. In a perfect world - OASE would make low iron rimless tanks and dub them "The George Farmer Series." Best wishes from California ~!
Go for it George, a huge discuss tank....go for it, go for it...do it....do it...do it😆😆😆. A really great video George, love how brave you are adding things in your tank irrespective of what is the norm. Your scapes and what you do is really inspiring.
Oh George...just stumbled on this video after watching the set up some time ago. You couldn't help yourself could you? Plants...LOL IMO just the rocks and the Kessel light looked fantastic. Still follow you so I can't be that upset. Scape on.......
Of all your aquariums this my favourite,I love its simplicity,when you added the greenery it was the icing on the cake, go for the bigger setup, thanks for all your hard work bringing these videos to us 👍
Hi George , cant believe its 2 years since you set it up,time flies. The idea of a 600 sounds interesting but at the cost of the smaller tanks. The studio would be dominated by just 2 tanks and possibly the 175 so would loose the diversity it currently has,also going away from the true planted tanks we have been so accustomed to seeing. Tough one really, but things do need to evolve and change, so good luck with whatever you decide to do. All the best, Martin
I planted my chiclid tank too! Wish I could get the BBA under control but as soon as I get that done it will look awesome. I also have Nerite snails in mine too, they eat BBA but not fast enough lol. Love your tank!
Such a beautiful tank George with the plants! My vote it for getting the bigger tank and moving the discus then the cichlids to the old discus tank! Just so I can see you scape something again! Love this channel and it’s part of the reason I have a passion for aquascaping now! I have learned a lot from you! Thank you!
Hi George, your beatiful book is arrived! It' s a shame to must have paid a plus price (about 9,00€) to duty tax into this same Europe. Thank you very much! Best regards !
Beautiful tank as always; it's cool that you have succeeded at combining cichlids and plants. Looking forward to seeing you move this into the Highline 400.
I like how this video feels like a nature voice-over - like David Attenborough! The sound is really good and it doesn't feel like you're speaking too loudly in order to be picked up by the mic. Really pleasant to listen to! And I vote for a bigger tank. Bigger tanks make more of an impact than lots of smaller tanks. Bigger is always better.
Just bought your book a day ago and I am on lighting chapter and must I say it is the best aquascaping book I have ever read you really put effort and love into this book👍👍😇
Great inspiration for me as I was planning to set up a Cichlid tank and watching these videos has proved invaluable to give me some good ideas. Now going to add plants from the start. After 2 years tank looks even better as you could not help yourself adding more plants 😂 Also, I hope you have improved your extension socket in cupboard - fix it to side and get sockets individually switched! 👍
Beautiful video and tank! I couldn't get rid of any tanks, so I guess I would re-home the fry and an adult or two. But I would definitely think about sitting on the floor to add another beauteous tank! Just think what you could put in it! 😉
It's hard to believe that it's been two years 💚 really one of the coolest Malawi cichlid tanks ever 😍 it always is amazing to see these fish with such a difference between male and female they just compliment each other so well! This is a fish that I've actually kept and enjoyed very much!! I look forward to keeping them again someday! That's really interesting about how the fish are having better growth and survival rates since you added the plants 👍 I'm excited about the 600 coming 🙏 I think it's time for you to build some shelving 🤣 so you can expand the gallery 😁 It's amazing how well these plants have done and how the aquarium has balanced out. And that is surprising that the fish have left the snails alone 👍🐌 It absolutely looks wonderful George!! Thank you for sharing all you do.. much love my friend 🙏🌿🐟🌿💚
Big planted discus tanks have been done to death by every man & his dog so I'd leave the discus where they are & get a bigger tank for the cichlids. Then I'd pick a second species of cichlid to stock with the ones you already have. Huge tank, plenty of plants, lots of color & activity from the fish. Would be a very impressive display that very few people would have seen before.
It might be overstocked but I think it works better that way with Mbunas. And you chose the smallest Mbuna which the Saulosi so I won't worry about that. Those won't grow more than now. If you have an empty tank at home you can also catch the female when she's holding and wait till she split the fry. That way you can have the full African cichlids experience and you can easily catch them in order to give them to somebody else. I don't understand why your fish don't eat the plants but it looks great 👌
I bought a used aquarium when I got back into the hobby around 7 years ago and it was packed full of a colony of this species that had been breeding for 20 years but I didn’t realize what I had and thought they were mutts, I gave them away. I’ve been looking for them ever since. So dumb of me!!!
Posting On behalf of Bluebrook Aquatic Design: I think you should sell on the juveniles and a couple of the males and keep the two smaller stylines. Better to have more tanks to play with than one massive one.
Wow! Creating an environment for fish, so that they start breeding is something equal to nature, or I can say that you are really a gifted person and also a nature lover. Hats off to you mate😊
I liked this aquarium. I think I liked it without plants but that might not have pleased the fish. Your discus tank is great...very artistic and it makes me feel that the fish must really love it in there. Funny as who knows what they "feel" but I am leaning towards the idea that fish do "feel" at home more in some aquariums than others. Perhaps they can be at best colors when they aren't worrying at being seen weak from being ill at ease?
I think a larger tank would be great. But at the same time if you have to give up to tanks for a larger tank, then you have just two big tanks right? Might be a bit boring, especially as both big tanks would be full of fish who aren't that great with plants. Good for maintenance tho!
Gorgeous tank man! I actually wouldn't consider your tank all that overstocked. I mean, 7 or 8 Mbuna is a decent amount for a 46 gallon no doubt, but Mbuna when it comes to Mbuna - if your going the overstocked root, you really have to do a bit more than you'd do for a peacock/hap tank. And your able to do this also due to how much smaller most of them are, even most Peacocks grow a good half inch to a full inch longer than the vast majority of Mbuna. And seeing as how overly aggressive most of them are, especially the smaller ones, (Aurora, Demasoni, Salausi, etc), the only way to keep them in a 55 gallon tank or smaller, is to overstock it to tamp down the aggression. Of course you don't wanna overcrowd the tank, so this present a real challenge when working with smaller tanks and Mbuna, you really have to be patient to find that happy medium. I had tried twice to house dwarf Mbuna in a 40 gallon long and in both cases it ended in disaster, so much so that i pretty much gave up on it for a couple years until finally hit the nail on the head in my third attempt. I found the perfect balance with 2 male Saulosi with 5 females, (pretty much your identical set-up, just in a slightly smaller tank), and it's worked great for years now. Granted i also had to to have a shit ton of rocks and caves in order to allow the sub-dominant male to escape and hide from the dominant one. That said, despite it looking pretty great, it certainly wasn't nearly as gorgeous as yours is, congrats man.
I would get rid of the two smaller tanks, move the discus to the new bigger tank and give the mbuna the discus tank. I have around 40 mbuna in a chopped down IBC tote which holds around 600 litres. and is stacked with a lot of rocks.
Hi George, thank you for a good video. I am struggling to get plants in my 600 liter lab/demasoni tank. Microsorum Windelöv works if you keep it far from any of the territories i.e. Places were me as ”aquascaper” do not want it. They remove the plants even when tied to stone. The java moss is struggling as the fish removes it or load up a large pile of sand on it. I think it would be great also for the fish to get some plants but we seem to disagree. Any thoughts?
Hi george, i'm sorry for my bad english, i'm from austria. can you tell me your water values? Illumination duration and color temperature. Do you use UVC? What kind of stone name? Thank you, I use a Lido 200 and want the same setting as you :-)
@@jbj980 unfortunately you are wrong it is not overstocked you need plenty of fish in an African Cichlid tank to curb aggression I have been keeping them for 25 years + so I know what I’m talking about all you need to do is remove one male fish Solely because eventually there will be conflict between them. If he removes any of those fish and lowers the numbers there will be massive aggression or centred around one particular fish they will die one by one from aggression and stress the more fish the better the less males the better.
It's been a while since I've kept cichlids but the visible aggression seems normal imo and I don't think removing a single male would do anything except potentially upset the already established hierarchy. I think the numbers are fine as they are no?
@@justintechnic1995 The numbers are fine as they are the only reason I would remove the sub dominant male is because he’s already showing interest in the females and it’s him that he is causing the small amounts of aggression at the moment that aggression is going to intensify as he challenges to take over from the dominant male. 👍🏻
Lol..I’d rent a space and keep them all. I’m greedy like that though lol...or an addition of a room lol. They all look great. Be sad to lose some of them. I find growing your own so special.
Hi es wäre toll wenn man bei deinem Kanal auch eine Übersetzung in Deutsch bekommen könnte so wie bei Green Aqua ...es kann halt nicht jeder perfekt englisch ...und die Software macht’s ja möglich siehe Green Aqua Grüße Jürgen
![Noob To Max With DRAGON REWORK In Blox Fruits [FULL MOVIE]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/LnBMOinoOvA/mqdefault.jpg)
![Felix "Unfair" | [Stray Kids : SKZ-PLAYER]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/Oswujxm2Ag0/mqdefault.jpg)
I remember when you started that tank. I would go for the larger tank. Great video as always.
Hi, what substrate do you use for your planted cichlid tank?
I have a 125 gal cichlid planted tanks set up with similar plants and triangular form. It can be done with proper selection of plants and fish. No substrate rooted plants, only epiphytes and tough texture plants secured in pots to prevent digging. Mouthbrooders are easier on plants as they only make temporary nests. Large egg layers are more destructive as nesting period is prolonged. You can choose to keep males only to prevent breeding and nesting.
Usually I do not care for cichlid tanks due to the lack of plants, but yours is truly beautiful. I am very happy that you did not conform to the no plant rule of cichlids.
Great video today George, can't believe it's two years old now. Thanks as always for sharing .
I love this video so much. I tried this also about two years ago but mine was less successful. We only have one male alive as he basically harasses the living daylights out of the others. You live and learn. So happy to see this success and makes me want to try again.
What a beauty. Those fish are amazing. Love that scape as well. - Little Bobby
Brilliant, I think you need to move bigger house George, Go for the bigger tank, but you will miss the smaller tanks. Really interested in the snails, be good to see a post on the pros and cons in a planted tank, snails to keep and snails to avoid. Thanks George
Hi George, your first love is surely fully planted tanks - neither the Discus nor Malawi tank can quite fit that bill. Do think your Discus tank is a slightly smaller than ideal and obviously the Malawi's need a bigger tank. Don't know if this helps you make realistic decisions about space use in your home, but as a Tropica ambassador I strongly urge you to hold on to a planted tank and continue to explore the plant focused aspects of our hobby, maybe growing some really challenging plant species and trying the newly released from Columbia citric acid and baking soda pressurised CO2 system and trialling lighting systems, substrates, fertilisers etc. - seems a more long term eco friendly method to enrich our planted tank water with CO2 than industrial gas filled bottles. You did talk about a Dutch styled tank. Keep up the good work, your items have been very valuable in the current circumstances.
Combining cichlid's and plants is really awesome
Don't get rid of the smaller tanks! They look so good.
So beautiful, the aquarium looks like an OLED Tv.
I miss your rimless tanks, but, I'm happy you got the brand deal with OASE.
In a perfect world - OASE would make low iron rimless tanks and dub them "The George Farmer Series."
Best wishes from California ~!
Great idea to move them into the (now) discus tank, a new set up for everyone and we get to see you do it, Woot!
Go for it George, a huge discuss tank....go for it, go for it...do it....do it...do it😆😆😆. A really great video George, love how brave you are adding things in your tank irrespective of what is the norm. Your scapes and what you do is really inspiring.
Oh George...just stumbled on this video after watching the set up some time ago. You couldn't help yourself could you? Plants...LOL IMO just the rocks and the Kessel light looked fantastic. Still follow you so I can't be that upset. Scape on.......
Of all your aquariums this my favourite,I love its simplicity,when you added the greenery it was the icing on the cake, go for the bigger setup, thanks for all your hard work bringing these videos to us 👍
How many snails did you add for reference as I will probably do something like this. Appreciate your work.
i have 3 in my 60l and i haven't clean the glass or the hardscape for over 6months. they are great
Hi George , cant believe its 2 years since you set it up,time flies. The idea of a 600 sounds interesting but at the cost of the smaller tanks. The studio would be dominated by just 2 tanks and possibly the 175 so would loose the diversity it currently has,also going away from the true planted tanks we have been so accustomed to seeing. Tough one really, but things do need to evolve and change, so good luck with whatever you decide to do. All the best, Martin
I planted my chiclid tank too! Wish I could get the BBA under control but as soon as I get that done it will look awesome. I also have Nerite snails in mine too, they eat BBA but not fast enough lol. Love your tank!
Nice to revisit old tanks
Such a beautiful tank George with the plants! My vote it for getting the bigger tank and moving the discus then the cichlids to the old discus tank! Just so I can see you scape something again! Love this channel and it’s part of the reason I have a passion for aquascaping now! I have learned a lot from you! Thank you!
Hi George, your beatiful book is arrived!
It' s a shame to must have paid a plus price (about 9,00€) to duty tax into this same Europe. Thank you very much! Best regards !
Beautiful tank as always; it's cool that you have succeeded at combining cichlids and plants. Looking forward to seeing you move this into the Highline 400.
I like how this video feels like a nature voice-over - like David Attenborough! The sound is really good and it doesn't feel like you're speaking too loudly in order to be picked up by the mic. Really pleasant to listen to! And I vote for a bigger tank. Bigger tanks make more of an impact than lots of smaller tanks. Bigger is always better.
Thank you! Some people hate my voice so this is lovely to hear! :D
Has it been 2 years I thought it was only like 6 months...man I'm getting old
George - I would move the Malawi cichlids to the current discus tank and then move the discus to an even larger tank. Beautiful tank
So interesting to see a planted Cichlid tank, looks great George!
Just bought your book a day ago and I am on lighting chapter and must I say it is the best aquascaping book I have ever read you really put effort and love into this book👍👍😇
Great inspiration for me as I was planning to set up a Cichlid tank and watching these videos has proved invaluable to give me some good ideas. Now going to add plants from the start. After 2 years tank looks even better as you could not help yourself adding more plants 😂 Also, I hope you have improved your extension socket in cupboard - fix it to side and get sockets individually switched! 👍
I love that you always give us gallons as well new sub great tanks I’m just now getting into aquascaping and I’m excited ‼️👍🏾
Will yellow pricnce is also suitable in planted tank
These are beautiful fish! great now I want another tank
What other tropical fish can u put in with Salosi’s?
Yesss
I love this tank, keep up the good work George.
Beautiful video and tank! I couldn't get rid of any tanks, so I guess I would re-home the fry and an adult or two. But I would definitely think about sitting on the floor to add another beauteous tank! Just think what you could put in it! 😉
It's hard to believe that it's been two years 💚 really one of the coolest Malawi cichlid tanks ever 😍 it always is amazing to see these fish with such a difference between male and female they just compliment each other so well! This is a fish that I've actually kept and enjoyed very much!! I look forward to keeping them again someday! That's really interesting about how the fish are having better growth and survival rates since you added the plants 👍 I'm excited about the 600 coming 🙏 I think it's time for you to build some shelving 🤣 so you can expand the gallery 😁
It's amazing how well these plants have done and how the aquarium has balanced out. And that is surprising that the fish have left the snails alone 👍🐌
It absolutely looks wonderful George!! Thank you for sharing all you do.. much love my friend 🙏🌿🐟🌿💚
Man, Cichlids are so intelligent
Big planted discus tanks have been done to death by every man & his dog so I'd leave the discus where they are & get a bigger tank for the cichlids. Then I'd pick a second species of cichlid to stock with the ones you already have. Huge tank, plenty of plants, lots of color & activity from the fish. Would be a very impressive display that very few people would have seen before.
I love the original aquascape. Not a big fan of the current planted version, it feels too busy
Hi nice video I wouldn't say that the small tank is that over stocked
It might be overstocked but I think it works better that way with Mbunas. And you chose the smallest Mbuna which the Saulosi so I won't worry about that. Those won't grow more than now. If you have an empty tank at home you can also catch the female when she's holding and wait till she split the fry. That way you can have the full African cichlids experience and you can easily catch them in order to give them to somebody else. I don't understand why your fish don't eat the plants but it looks great 👌
I bought a used aquarium when I got back into the hobby around 7 years ago and it was packed full of a colony of this species that had been breeding for 20 years but I didn’t realize what I had and thought they were mutts, I gave them away. I’ve been looking for them ever since. So dumb of me!!!
Posting On behalf of Bluebrook Aquatic Design: I think you should sell on the juveniles and a couple of the males and keep the two smaller stylines. Better to have more tanks to play with than one massive one.
Wow! Creating an environment for fish, so that they start breeding is something equal to nature, or I can say that you are really a gifted person and also a nature lover. Hats off to you mate😊
I liked this aquarium. I think I liked it without plants but that might not have pleased the fish. Your discus tank is great...very artistic and it makes me feel that the fish must really love it in there. Funny as who knows what they "feel" but I am leaning towards the idea that fish do "feel" at home more in some aquariums than others. Perhaps they can be at best colors when they aren't worrying at being seen weak from being ill at ease?
Gorgeous!!
Awesome tank!
Great video george, love the scape!! Fish look super healthy
I think a larger tank would be great. But at the same time if you have to give up to tanks for a larger tank, then you have just two big tanks right? Might be a bit boring, especially as both big tanks would be full of fish who aren't that great with plants. Good for maintenance tho!
Gorgeous tank man! I actually wouldn't consider your tank all that overstocked. I mean, 7 or 8 Mbuna is a decent amount for a 46 gallon no doubt, but Mbuna when it comes to Mbuna - if your going the overstocked root, you really have to do a bit more than you'd do for a peacock/hap tank. And your able to do this also due to how much smaller most of them are, even most Peacocks grow a good half inch to a full inch longer than the vast majority of Mbuna. And seeing as how overly aggressive most of them are, especially the smaller ones, (Aurora, Demasoni, Salausi, etc), the only way to keep them in a 55 gallon tank or smaller, is to overstock it to tamp down the aggression. Of course you don't wanna overcrowd the tank, so this present a real challenge when working with smaller tanks and Mbuna, you really have to be patient to find that happy medium. I had tried twice to house dwarf Mbuna in a 40 gallon long and in both cases it ended in disaster, so much so that i pretty much gave up on it for a couple years until finally hit the nail on the head in my third attempt. I found the perfect balance with 2 male Saulosi with 5 females, (pretty much your identical set-up, just in a slightly smaller tank), and it's worked great for years now. Granted i also had to to have a shit ton of rocks and caves in order to allow the sub-dominant male to escape and hide from the dominant one. That said, despite it looking pretty great, it certainly wasn't nearly as gorgeous as yours is, congrats man.
Hi, at how many ppm do you prepare water for aquariums? Greetings, MAK
I use tap water at 350-400ppm
What black Background are you using? Paint or windowtint?
The glass is black from manufacture
Hey do tea work for my fish tank I want to make it into a black water setup
I would get rid of the two smaller tanks, move the discus to the new bigger tank and give the mbuna the discus tank. I have around 40 mbuna in a chopped down IBC tote which holds around 600 litres. and is stacked with a lot of rocks.
What kind of background are you using? Just a "simple" black one?
Hi George, thank you for a good video. I am struggling to get plants in my 600 liter lab/demasoni tank. Microsorum Windelöv works if you keep it far from any of the territories i.e. Places were me as ”aquascaper” do not want it. They remove the plants even when tied to stone. The java moss is struggling as the fish removes it or load up a large pile of sand on it. I think it would be great also for the fish to get some plants but we seem to disagree. Any thoughts?
I have been waiting for this..
Looks awesome man 🤙🏼💯
Hi george,
i'm sorry for my bad english, i'm from austria.
can you tell me your water values?
Illumination duration and color temperature. Do you use UVC?
What kind of stone name?
Thank you, I use a Lido 200 and want the same setting as you :-)
No it’s not overstocked that’s a good ratio when it comes to African cichlids. Just remove one male. And your good 😊👍🏻💞
Even removing a male still remains an overstocked tank...
@@jbj980 unfortunately you are wrong it is not overstocked you need plenty of fish in an African Cichlid tank to curb aggression I have been keeping them for 25 years + so I know what I’m talking about all you need to do is remove one male fish Solely because eventually there will be conflict between them. If he removes any of those fish and lowers the numbers there will be massive aggression or centred around one particular fish they will die one by one from aggression and stress the more fish the better the less males the better.
It's been a while since I've kept cichlids but the visible aggression seems normal imo and I don't think removing a single male would do anything except potentially upset the already established hierarchy. I think the numbers are fine as they are no?
@@justintechnic1995 The numbers are fine as they are the only reason I would remove the sub dominant male is because he’s already showing interest in the females and it’s him that he is causing the small amounts of aggression at the moment that aggression is going to intensify as he challenges to take over from the dominant male. 👍🏻
@@JustMyFish and miss cichlids! Lol thanks
Go big or go home....... or you are home. Just go big 🤩😍
I guess a studio like MD is too expensive and too much of a commitment of your time
Lovely video
Lol..I’d rent a space and keep them all. I’m greedy like that though lol...or an addition of a room lol. They all look great. Be sad to lose some of them. I find growing your own so special.
Wonderful tank George, it’s been a pleasure seeing this tank develop. Out of interest what temperature do you keep the tank at?
Looks amazing!
Is the fish eat algae?
There is also a lot of aggression in that tank. A lot, no wonder you have mortality stats. It's a stressful tank to say the least.
mbuna are aggressive by nature
Hi es wäre toll wenn man bei deinem Kanal auch eine Übersetzung in Deutsch bekommen könnte so wie bei Green Aqua ...es kann halt nicht jeder perfekt englisch ...und die Software macht’s ja möglich siehe Green Aqua
Grüße Jürgen
Definitely go for bigger tank 👍
How many gallons is the case 400
115 i guess
Bigger is better. Discus to the 600 and the cichlids (awsome tank by the way) in the 400
Excellent
Looks awesome 👌👌👍
How many litres George and how many cichlids ?
Remember a rule of thumb with Malawi is 10 litres per fish 👍
What size of fish?
@@frankiepitt9135 they just have to be Mbuna mate 👍
Am Jealous. Lovely tank. One day, when I have space... Lovely tank. I wonder how a LiveCam stream of the tank would work?
good :)
I would go for a bigger tank
Looks a bit small spaced with the cichlids
Cichlids are my post High Energy Planted tank fishkeeping escape route. Now you go and plant a Cichlid tank up! Typical 🦐✔️
Get a genuine studio in stead of your living and realize the needed space
Small tanks are more relatable for the average fish keeper I would say George but it’s obviously your decision 🤷♂️
Check out my new 1000L 300G African Cichlids tank and let me know what you think peeps!
2,2 will work, those guys are ok, not so aggressive...and keep some offspring around in the tank, the will relive the rest of aggressions.
new seguidor....plese spanish traduction
Rehome.... give them to MD Aquatics...... I don’t think it over stocked. Need higher numbers to spread aggression
Grumpys back . In answer to getting a bigger tank . Simply get a bigger house 👍
Sell some of what the tank "produces" and turn that into fish food money so the wife thinks your frugal lol.
Start a larger cichlid tank!
Larger tank
плохой аквариум - африканские цихлиды и растения плохо совмещаются - это не смотрится и не естественно