bobo Posted September 27, 2011 Report Share Posted September 27, 2011 Hey guys, I'm setting up a tank, and I haven't kept these types of cichlids before- it looks like I'll have electric yellows, peacocks, maybe some shellies. My tap water has a ph of ~7.2-7.4, and a KH of 2, I don't have a GH testing kit yet. 1) What substrate do I use to raise the pH? Do I even need to? 2) How do I raise the water hardness? Can I do this via the substrate? 3) I'm thinking of using coral rock down the track - what effect will that have? However, I'd rather not rely on that -I want to get the values correct using other means first - because this rock could be quite some time away. The plan of the tank is to have a white sandlike base, with stones on top - changing these to coral rock in the future. Thank you for any advice! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
smidey Posted September 27, 2011 Report Share Posted September 27, 2011 your tap water is a good start, that is all i have ever had for mine & have had good success with them. i just used crushed marble as a substrate & my ph is usually around 7.2 from the tap & the tank is usually around 7.4. As for the setup, aim for 5 or 6 times turn over of the tank volume per hour, if your tank is 300L aim for 1500 to 1800LPH of filtration. Do 30% water changes per week & you shouldn't have any issues with water quality once your tank is established. this setup will be great for heavy stocking which is how africans should be kept. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
si_sphinx Posted September 27, 2011 Report Share Posted September 27, 2011 You can use oyster grit or broken sea shells in your filter to help buffer the water until you get the coral rock. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ymir Posted September 27, 2011 Report Share Posted September 27, 2011 Hey guys, 2) How do I raise the water hardness? Can I do this via the substrate? Epsom salts is an easy way to harden your water. Step one: You need to test your water. Step two: Get yourself a standard size container which you will use to fill your tank with. Step three: add measured amounts of Epsom salts until you get your desired hardness. Step four: double and triple test the total amount you got for your desired hardness. Step Five: Check pH with new Epsom salt mixture. (pH can be raised or lowered when you add Epsom salts) For pH it is the same process for Epsom salts but use baking soda instead. However, 7.4 is pretty good, just depends on how fussy you want be. If fish are happy and growing well, then why add chemicals? As for buffering, they are a lot of natural products around. Google buffering and African cichlids. I personally use calcite sand/pebbles. Great buffer, but hard to locate and can be expensive. Just remember to double check your GH, KH and pH of your final brew. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bobo Posted September 27, 2011 Author Report Share Posted September 27, 2011 Thanks for the feedback guys. I'd rather not be adding stuff to the water (laziness), like salts, but thanks for the suggestion. How about using 1mm aragonite as my base? Will that buffer the water and keep the pH up (to be honest, I'm not as concerned about the pH as I am about the hardness)? What is aragonite? A sand? Will the cichlids still dig/sift etc with it? Cheers! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jackp Posted September 27, 2011 Report Share Posted September 27, 2011 i use coral sand in my tank (dems, electric yellows, peacocks and julies). it buffers the water and i never add anything. it does show the fish waste, but if you set up your filter for good water flow this can be easily sorted. it can be quite expensive though (i got 50kg for $80, but haven't seen it that cheap since then). i've been told that crushed marble works well to but imo it doesn't look quite as good. otherwise you could use silica sand etc. and put peices of coral in the tank to buffer the water (or crushed shell/coral in the filter). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Navarre Posted September 27, 2011 Report Share Posted September 27, 2011 or you can do what us lazy fish keepers do Buy tank add water cycle add fish watch Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ryanjury Posted September 27, 2011 Report Share Posted September 27, 2011 Just get some crushed coral or aragonite and you should be fine it is a large grain sand which they can easily move around etc.. I try and use something to buffer in each of my african tanks, not sure if it is needed but I figure it can't hurt, so I stick a few pieces of coral or limestone rock or have buffering substrate, either way the africans are pretty hardy. I do have a few tanks I add epsoms salts and baking soda to, it isn't a hassle really just do a water change and then chuck the hose in along with the right amount of stuff, but again it probably isn't needed. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bobo Posted September 29, 2011 Author Report Share Posted September 29, 2011 Thanks for advice guys. I went got some coral sand and I'll add coral rocks when I can afford it. I put some random stones in from other projects as temporary housing. I've added 10 electric yellows and one unidentified fish. I got the electric yellow very cheap and will have to reduce the numbers as they mature. Do I need an airstone? The tank is enclosed (to stop jumping). The filter create surface agitation, but not enough to cause any bubbles. I post a tank pic once the camera recharges! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bigfishhead Posted September 29, 2011 Report Share Posted September 29, 2011 it is good if you can have airstone on all the time. Fish will love it. But for me, I only open the air pump when I feeding them, and also open the light only that time. For about 2 hours a day. Coral sand is good choice. I use coral sand as well. Coral sand with right lightning could create fantastic effect and look for your tank. Looks really beautiful. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ryanjury Posted September 29, 2011 Report Share Posted September 29, 2011 Awesome glad to hear that you got the tank up and running There is no need to add the coral rock (unless you really want to because of the look etc) the coral sand will buffer the tank allowing you to source rocks from wherever if you wanted. An airstone is good back up I try and have one running as well as a filter on every tank. The filter provides surface agitation but if it fails and you have nothing else disturbing the surface then your fish can all die, this is more common in tanks with a heavier stocking so your tank will be fine now but maybe not so much when the fish grow up etc. I hope you got yellows from a good line, I know of tons of people who have got them cheap and small and ended up flicking the lot as they matured because they went black or did all sorts of ugly stuff Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bigfishhead Posted September 29, 2011 Report Share Posted September 29, 2011 LOL you up really early Ryan... Yep, I use to get saveral really cheap yellow about 2~3 cm and they all grow up to about 5 cm now. But not really good coloring. :facepalm: Some of them have little bit black line in the middle of the body. Some of them just not yellow enough which the bottom of the body turns a bit white. I try to give them good food and hope they could change their color a bit when they grow up. We will see... :smln: So yes bobo, I would recommend you to get your future cichlid from good source. :bounce: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ryanjury Posted September 30, 2011 Report Share Posted September 30, 2011 LOL you up really early Ryan... Yep, I use to get saveral really cheap yellow about 2~3 cm and they all grow up to about 5 cm now. But not really good coloring. :facepalm: Some of them have little bit black line in the middle of the body. Some of them just not yellow enough which the bottom of the body turns a bit white. I try to give them good food and hope they could change their color a bit when they grow up. We will see... :smln: So yes bobo, I would recommend you to get your future cichlid from good source. :bounce: Lol I had already been up for an hour, hard work getting a 2/3yr old ready and off to daycare and to work by 730, oh and of course feeding all the fish before work Yeah crap yellows are very very common, sometimes it can be food related but generally it is just crap fish, get them on NLS and a bit of spirulina flake see what they do. I have quite a few people come out to my room and comment on how good my yellows are and want to buy some to replace theirs.. Shame that they haven't started breeding until recently, but I now have a few batches growing out and 3 females holding so they must like the weather. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bigfishhead Posted September 30, 2011 Report Share Posted September 30, 2011 I should get some yellow off you I will see how it goes for my yellows for another 2cm. If no change I will grab some off you. Also the red Zebra...Generally called... I got some red Zebra which has very tiny black dot over the head and tail area. I did a bit research they are probably Peach red Zebra. The black marks is going to disapear when they grow to adult. Male adult will turn to peach color and female remain red orange ish color.... Correct me if I am wrong. Do you breed red Zebra at all? Ryan? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ryanjury Posted September 30, 2011 Report Share Posted September 30, 2011 You know where I am they are nice fish even the females.. These some fish from my red zebra line.. Have bred them for a while though but they are on the "todo" list.. I haven't seen any with black markings out of my lot so not entirely sure if they will grow out of it, only time will tell. Anyway back on topic Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bobo Posted September 30, 2011 Author Report Share Posted September 30, 2011 Hmmmmm not sure I can fit an airpump in with my current plug layout. If the filter stopped, wouldn't the fish breath from what available surface there is? You have some nice fish there Ryan I obviously don't know if the electrics I bought are good stock or not - but here are some photos - one if of Mum (hard to photograph - she hides). What is the mystery fish? The tank: Uploaded with ImageShack.us The Mum: Uploaded with ImageShack.us The Mystery Fish: Uploaded with ImageShack.us Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bigfishhead Posted October 1, 2011 Report Share Posted October 1, 2011 bobo, your yellow looks ok to me. I cant say they are A grad but at least with good color as far as i can see from your photo. You just bought your yellow off the trademe with one female and 12 baby right? I was watching on that auction and end up missed it :facepalm: good work. You got a great deal there. You should get some dems from Ryan. That should be a good combination with your yellows. :happy2: :happy2: :happy2: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bobo Posted October 1, 2011 Author Report Share Posted October 1, 2011 Heh Cheers. It was that trademe auction. I think the tank is too small for dems as well (it's a 120cm 120litre)? Anyone know what the mystery fish is? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
A.PROPHECY Posted October 1, 2011 Report Share Posted October 1, 2011 jewel cichlid, nice tank Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bobo Posted October 1, 2011 Author Report Share Posted October 1, 2011 Thank you! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ryanjury Posted October 2, 2011 Report Share Posted October 2, 2011 Nice looking tank, looks nice and clean, the rock layout isn't the best in terms of terriotories you have only set up one in the middle around all the rocks but you wont have any agro with fish that size. Yep looks like Jewel to me too, a bit of an ugly one shape looks a bit weird but I am not expert on them and it might be normal or just be old/poorly bred. Hard to tell how good those yellows are without a close up of the female, and no idea what the fry will turn out like without seeing the father either, but so far looks good, the fish is yellow with black fins Yeah I would say your tank is too small for dems long term unfortunately I have heard of people cramming them into smaller tanks in higher numbers overseas and apparently the large numbers and smaller territory reduces aggression, it is not something that I have experimented with or would recommend. Air pump wont be required unless you have a higher stocking level than what you do, I just treat them like a little bit of cheap insurance and try and have them running on all tanks. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bigfishhead Posted October 2, 2011 Report Share Posted October 2, 2011 Thats Red Jewel for sure. A hungry ugly beast always looking for food.... But if you feed them with good food their color could be really nice. See my red jewel below . I feed them NLS. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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