It’s been a month since I set up this 240L Eheim Vivaline, and in this episode I finally get to do the bit I’ve been waiting for—adding my first Malawi cichlids. Before I went anywhere near fish, I made a few tweaks to the scape: I added more rockwork through the middle and one side to give my Synodontis catfish more cover, and I dropped in a couple of spare bits of wood I already had. That wood is mainly for the green phantom pleco in here, so it’s got something to chew on and it just gives the tank a bit more going on visually. I also tested the water properly and confirmed the tank is cycled (0 ammonia, 0 nitrite, and roughly 20ppm nitrate), then did a big first water change—50%—using the Hygger HG919-2500 water change pump (60W, 2,500L/h) to see if it could shift water quickly on a tank this size. After that, I headed to Ripples Waterlife (Bridgemere, Cheshire) and picked up 10 Africans—mostly peacocks, plus a few haps including blue dolphins. I acclimated them in a bucket rather than floating bags because the temps were basically the same (26–27°C). They were skittish at first, but once food went in they clocked I’m the bringer of food, settled right down, and the colours started popping.