How deep must a sand bed be for African cichlids?

[peppermint22]

Hi! I'm relatively new to African cichlids as I have been keeping marine fish for some time. As far as I know, a marine aquarium requirs a deep sand bed of at least 3" to get the biological process working properly. May I know whether this also applies to Lake Tanganyikan cichlids, or can the sand bed be less than 3" deep?

[tom]

Welcome, peppermint

In a freshwater tank, you'd want a much shallower sand substrate: Effective nitrate reduction in a FW setup happens via frequent water changes. I keep my sand substrate no deeper than an inch--if that.

[jennigypsy]

My sand is also shallow...about an inch is what I've got.

[jonah]

Mine's 1"-3" depending on which tank it is. It doesn't matter anyway since the fish dig all the way to the bottom in all of my tanks. If I were setting up a new tank, I'd only use about an inch of sand.

[aharris]

How much sand you want depends on what type of cichlid you plan on keeping. Some like the Lake Tang featherfins build large sand bowers that need large amounts of sand to construct. That means some keepers will have as much as six inches of sand in the tank. However, the fish themselves are constantly movng and sifting the entire sand-bed preventing anaerobic pockets from forming.

[tom]

Thanks, Angela: Yet another thing I did not know about the featherfins (which as you might recall I'm considering for my next tank).

[peppermint22]

I have a breeding pair of Lamprologus brichardi (Tanganyika). Does that mean I need a deeper sand bed? What kind of sand is suitable: crushed coral, aragonite...??? Howabout rocks? Is there any particular rockwork design I need to follow to make them happy?

[aharris]

For the brichardi, 1-3" is plenty. They're not featherfins even though they're commonly called fairy cichlids. Even with my featherfins, I started with 3" and just added more here and there as they bared the bottom of the tank with their digging. I've heard one guy say his male C. foai built a nest about 12" tall.

[peppermint22]

What substrate is suitable?

[Vip]

what about for large ca and sa cichlids? cause im really thinking of doing it

[SGypsyMermaid]

Originally posted by 2qik4u
what about for large ca and sa cichlids? cause im really thinking of doing it

you should ask that question in the american forums.