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At a crossroads - community or species.


tinytawnykitten

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Yeah I think you need to add some more fish to give them some confidence to come out and about :) Maybe its just the flash from the camera..

IMO dem's, yellows and some peacocks is the most colourful and easy to source setup you can have for a smaller tank.

I think im going to have to pull all my demasoni and yellow breeders out of the big tank and set them up in their own tank at some stage :) I have been considering it for a while now because its so annoying pulling a 540L tank down to catch one 1" holding female to strip every few weeks.

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Yeah it may leach stuff, I would stick with the old one :) I have some bits in my african tanks only small ones just as a token for the bristlenoses really.. If you have descent buffering coral sand or argonite or oyster shells or even adding baking soda it shouldn't change the ph.

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lol its your thread you can talk about what you want and its stayed more or less on topic :)

Buffering is basically something that gets your kh and usually ph up keeping the ph stable. This can be done by adding baking soda and stuff with water changes (see cichlid-forum recepie for buffer) or by having crushed coral, limestone, argonite, oyster shells or any number of things in your tank.

While the africans don't need a high ph and hard water to live they do prefer it higher and also all fish prefer it stable so adding these things is a good way to keep them happy.

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Hi there, I have a 400ltr tank filled with a large piece of driftwood, several large pieces of pumice and all the fish listed below. The substrate I used was part aragonite sand and part crushed rock with two pieces of coral all of which help keep the ph stable at 7.8.

In my old 200ltr tank I had all aragonite sand as well as the driftwood and that was enough to keep the ph stable. Buffering is just increasing and maintaining the ph at a given level so it doesn't impact negatively on the fish and as you know, cichlids do like a higher ph.

In that 200ltr tank I kept 1/2 dozen male peacocks from different strains. They were pretty but there really wasn't enough of them and I have found that when there aren't enough they can be a bit shy.

I think the E. Yellow, Demasoni and Peacock mix sounds great. My most awesome peacocks would have to be the Red Empress (a rainbow of colours!), the Chilumba (an awesome blue) and the Dragonblood (bright yellow). I also really like my P. Electra who is black and white but with a greeny violet sheen that has to really be seen to be appreciated.

Whatever you end up with, you won't regreat it - cichlids are so colourful and they are real characters and anyone whoever comes in your house and sees them will always be very taken with them!

Good luck! :D

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if you like the look of limestone - we got ours at Whakatiki Soil and Sand of course on Whakatiki Street, Upper Hutt. that of course was a while ago - so not sure if they still have. When we got it we searched around all their piles as it was mixed in with other rocks. they also had limestone chip - can't remember what we paid though.

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Ok so once I get my substrate and some limestone rocks , can I take out my substrate, wash the new, and put it in? Will that raise the PH slowly if I make daily water changes or something like that? I went out to see some cichlids last night at the house of someone on TM (ziggy / blazic - maybe he is on the forum?) and I really liked them. Of course he has an 8ft tank, but at least I got the gist of it.

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Cichlids are fantastic, once people get into them, they normally turn away from Community Fish & Tanks. :)

Calcite I have found to be the best Substrate so far (about $40-50 per 30-40kgs?) and can be bought from Remus's shop in Paraparam.

Limestone Rock and Dolomite Rock can be expensive - Limestone can be bought from a few Garden Centres (one in Plimmerton has some normally) not sure about Dolomite Rock, mine came from down south.

So that top picture, what kind of rocks are they? Can one just use river rocks (if they are scrubbed/boiled etc)

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Ok I might be keen on some rocks Mystic :P ! I am still a little undecided about substrate, was thinking about a mix of crushed coral and silica sand cos I love the bright white look, but worry about being able to siphon during a water change, will the sand go up the siphon? Or can you get courser grades of silica sand?

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Awesome always good to get stuff cheap or free.. All the buffering substrate is white anyway so don't worry about that :)

Thats a random mix of fish you had there mystic it looks cool! The fronts have grown though..

As mystic said sand isn't a problem to clean just hover over it and be careful not to suck too much up you can syphon into a bucket and chuck it back in if that happens anyway.

Sounds like your getting everything sorted now :) lol have you decided on any fish yet?

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