Dimensions 390 × 90 × 70 cm

Title Shoals of Cape Maclear, Malawi

Volume 1892L

Background The back of tank is lined with a black adhesive plastic film.

Lighting To encourage the growth of aufwuchs and encrusting algaes, this tank is equipped with three 165 W LEDs MarsAqua and ReefBrite 175 W, 6700 Kelvin Mogul metal halides

Filtration Fluval FX6, 2 7-inch filter sock, 9 W UV-sterilizer

Plants Encrusting aufwuchs and assorted algal mats

Animals Pseudotropheus demasoni (x5), Metriaclima estherae (x10), Melanochromis cyaneorhabdos (x10), Metriaclima lombardoi (x8), Metriaclima callainos (x8), OB Red Blotch Zebra (Metriaclima sp.) (x8), Pseudotropheus socolofi (x8), various peacock Haplochromis

Materials The rocks found along Cape Maclear (i.e., the Charnocitic Suite and the Dzalanyama Suite) are composed of weathered, rounded quartzite and fine-grained granite boulders. With this in mind, for this aquascape, we used a variety of rounded quartzite boulders to imitate the environment around Cape Maclear. The largest boulders in the tank weigh more than 45 kilograms. Several large angular pieces of driftwood were placed in the aquascape to compliment the round boulders and to imitate vegetation which had fallen from the rocky cliffs.

The left side of the tank is densly hardscaped with much more quartzite cobble and the driftwood. The right side of the tank is sparsely and loosely hardscaped with cobble. That has been interesting is the territories which have been established between the species and the hardscape areas. For instance, the Kenyi seem to enjoy the densely hardscaped portion of the tank, but the Red Zebras prefer to spend time in the sandy, gravel areas of the aquarium.

I apologize for the main photo of the tank being a compound photograph. It is a 13 ft tank and quite difficult to photograph wholly with decent definition.

Additional Information buffered with limestone, Purigen used