#54: 832L Biotope/Natural Aquaria malawi hill

Sean Lebida Bowdoin, United States

Awards and Comments

Third Place
You should be proud of yourself! A really beautiful display. Your fish are perfectly suited to your biotope. However the rounded rocks are more typical of a fast flowing river than they would be of a lake environment. Still it's a lovely tank and a wonderful home for your collection of Lake Malawi cichlids.
— Karen
A very nice job using simple elements. I would have liked to see something besides rocks - maybe more prominent algae would help in the long run.
— George
You should be commended on putting together such a nice tank from fiberglass and plywood. This is a good representation of an African cichlid biotope. Allowing the rocks to flow to the front corners of the tank might improve the look of the tank some.
— Bailin

Aquascape Details

Dimensions 244 × 61 × 56 cm
Title malawi hill
Volume 832L
Background black fiberglass background
Lighting 4, 40 watt flourescent fixtures
Filtration diy wet dry trickle filter.
Plants rock algae
Animals pseudotropheus cobalt zebra,pseudotropheus red zebra,melanochromis auratus,labidochromis caeruleus and pseudotropheus lombardoi.
Materials About two years ago I decided I wanted to try to build a diy plywood tank. First I thought I wanted a 80 gallon tank but by the time I was done it was over 200 gallons. That winter I started to build the tank with plywood and fiberglass resin. It definately was work but it was worth all of it. Once I built the tank I started on the stand. Wood is a lot easier to work with than fiberglass resin! By mid March of 2001 at the age of 15 I had built it!
Additional Information the rocks in the tank are field stone.the sand is quartz and silica sand from local store.

Website problems? contact showcase@aquatic-gardeners.org | privacy policy | terms of use