It’s been a couple of weeks since I set up this 240L Eheim Vivaline 240 LED, and in this episode I’m finally adding the first fish to my Malawi build. Before anything went in, I tested the water properly: zero ammonia, zero nitrite, and around 10ppm nitrate—which is exactly what comes out of my tap. That’s why I always say: test your tap water first, then you actually know what’s going on in your aquarium. pH is sitting at about 8 thanks to the seiryu stone and the aragonite sand, which should keep buffering it up towards 8.2. I’m not ready for peacock cichlids just yet, so I’m doing a “part fish-in cycle” to get the tank moving in the right direction. I added four Synodontis eupterus (a fish I used to keep years ago, so it’s honestly brilliant having them again), acclimated them slowly, and I turned the lights off to reduce stress after their journey. Because there’s basically no beneficial bacteria in a brand new system, I’m dosing NT Labs Bact/“Statis” daily for 7 days, testing constantly, and using NT Labs Optimus (or Seachem Prime) to detoxify any ammonia/nitrite while still leaving it available for bacteria to process. Next step is boosting the filter by moving media over from another tank in a week or two—then it’s nearly time for the peacocks.