Easter Haul - Freshwater Reef Aquarium

Spending my long weekend visiting Fish Farm again.  Here are some items/fishes I bought over the weekend and with it, I re-created an underwater reef.

Live Rocks
Very light and cheap live rocks from QH, the hair algae remains intact.  A coral has a dried clam in its midst too.  

Fishes 
Ruby Red Cichlid

Baby Dolphin cichlids? (Just guessing because it looks like a dolphin to me)

Mixed color cichlids (fell in love by its rainbowish color) my camera is not doing its colorful favour

Couple pieces of my favourite dark blue Johani

Re-arranging various rocks/dead corals for fresh water reef

Add-on external canisters 
Currently running the tank with Atman -DF1000: Flow rate 1500L/hr.
Add on Spare canister (Taiwan ADA brand sitting idle at home) - Flowrate 700L/hr

Easter Holiday project completed (Front & Side view)

Next assignment, a stroll in the park.

2ft Cube - tropical reef for Cichlids

I final acquired the "biggest" tank ever, for my little space at home. This aquarium measures 2ft by 2ft by 2ft and looks quite huge as compared to my previous cichlids aquarium (1.5 x 1.5 x 2).  It is a next step to my dream size fish tank and will be the final fixture for my home.

Going forward, I plan to create a tropical reef scape for my cichlids.
Investment include:

Ikea lack table - with dozen of legs
Atman DF1000 external canister
Sunsun 2000L/H wave maker
Fine Coral sand
Holey rocks
Real dead coral (will lookout for couple more interesting specimens). They are cheaper than faked one.

After a back-breaking weekend, trying hard to reach to the bottom of the tank, for rocks placement, here is the final result. A rather randome placment because I couldn't see  the front view due to tank height.

Candidates introduced are:
Couple of tropheus (Bemba, Dubosi)
Peacocks
Mbuna

My favourite quiet corner, to simply do nothing but indulge and dream as the night deepened and soothed away all the daily cares.

Update: 13 Mar (Sunday Haul)

Above: Blue Johanni

Above: Yellow & Blue peacock

My Colorfull cichlid tank

Mbuna Story through its color

Months ago, I bought more than a dozen colorful cichlids.

Months later, they have grown a fair bit and a new baby was found hidden behind a rock cave.

These fishes are easy to keep, just maintain a regular clean water and they eat anything that is thrown in.  I fed my fish heavily before heading to work in the morning, and than feed them again after returning from work. The fish are mild and won't jump out of my open aquarium. They have "completely" stopped chasing each other tail too, and I believe it was due to the quantity of them inside my tank.   With varied colors, they are a real pleasure to watch when the lights are on.

Foods I fed my cichlids

Ocean Nutrition - sinking pellet (my dubosi favourite food and also loved by other cichlids as snacks)
Dynmax - floating pellet (loved by all my cichlids)

Betta Tank - hydroponics system

I received a free hydroponic system betta tank during my visit to Aquarama 2015. This gift, more than compensated for the entrance fee I paid at the event. Personally, I felt this year Aquarama was themed "Marine fish" and less focused on tropical aquarium. Thus, for avid fans of tropical fishes & plants, Aquarma2015 is a non-event so-to-speak.

Anyway, here is a pretty gift, courtesy of Qian Hu, which makes my visit to Aquarama 2015 "less regretable"...

It came with cut-sponge for the plants, has led lights, base plates to hold cyrstal-like pebbles, dividers (optional - to separate male/female betta), two water holder compartments - top container to provide water nutrients for the plants, bottom containter to clear off extra waste water,

A pail of Lucky Bamboo (extras from CNY purchase) ready for the hydroponic set up.

No regret receiving this as "reward" for attending the Aquarama 2015.

Fluval C3 HOF

I wasn't a fan of HOF. When I first started a journey in aquarium, a couple of my HOFs flooded my home. After acquired my first external filter, Eden 501, I have never looked back to own another piece of HOF or OHF.

However, under friend's recommendation  and watching a few positive reviews from Youtubers about their experience with Fluval C3, I've decided to purchase one for my Cichlid tank. Another reason was because I am going to use my existing Eden 501 for an upcoming Vivarium  project and thus run short of filter for my existing aquarium.

Initially, I was a little hesitant because this HOF is not cheap and Amazon buyers, who bought similar products, have left rather negative reviews - mostly about its noise level. 

This product is very easy to install, it has no suction cups nor messy tubes. Give it a good rinse, pour in the media as according to their visual instruction guide and you are ready to plug-n-play this HOF.  As for noise level, it is SILENT!!!  Yes, I emphasize the noise level is hardly audible with the exception of water flowing sound.  If you hate water-fall, than this filter or any other HOFs is not your cup of tea.

The outflow current is quite strong and my water was cloudy before it became cyrstal clear after the 3rd day.  I am quite confident this HOF can quietly deal with all the poo-n-pee of my cichlids.  Highly recommended!