gemelee Posted November 2, 2014 Report Share Posted November 2, 2014 Hi I'm setting up a 154 x 30 x 30cm tank for electric yellows and have a couple questions. I'm looking at powerheads at the moment and have read a couple smaller ones is better than one large one but am not sure what to look for in terms of flow rate, would say 2 x 700L/hr be suitable or am I completely off track? Also I heard about using a mix of baking soda and epsom salts as a buffer, does this work and if so what ratio? How long before water change does it need to be added to the new water, for example can it be dissolved in placed in right before water change or should it be left to sit for a few days? I prefer to not use store brought cichlid buffer and pH raising chemicals. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gemelee Posted November 2, 2014 Author Report Share Posted November 2, 2014 Also I have an adult bristlenose, he should be ok in there right? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bananalobster Posted November 2, 2014 Report Share Posted November 2, 2014 Hi, I've just recently set up my own African tank. I would say 700lph would be far too weak to do anything in your size tank. I I were you I would probably double that. I havnt used any in my tank because it is 300l and has a 2700lph canister filter providing plenty of flow, but power heads will work too of course. The ph up you buy in pet stores is bicarb soda aka baking soda as far as I know. Personally I don't touch these because I don't want to cause any wild ph swings. I just dedicated a whole tray in my canister filter for lime chip which acts as a natural in built buffer. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SanityChelle Posted November 2, 2014 Report Share Posted November 2, 2014 I only know what my tank is like, but when I was first setting up my african tank (a 120x45x60cm) I was advised to get two wp-25s (http://www.fish-street.com/jebao_wp-25_8000l_wave_maker) which are 8000L wavemakers. Two seemed a lot when I got them going in the tank, and I have very small juvies at the moment, so I downgraded to a wp-10 (4000L), but I'll be going back up to one wp-25 soon, as the fish have gotten older, and the wp-10 isn't moving the crap enough anymore. I don't know if you missed a zero on the end there, but 700L/hr powerheads won't do much in a tank that size. As for buffers, I'm personally not buffering my water with anything, save using Aragonite as the substrate, which has been enough to keep the pH about 7.6 - 7.8. I will looking in to adding crushed coral into the cannister filter if it looks like the pH is dropping. I'm not sure about how effective epsom salt would be, all I know is that it's great for getting fish to poo if they're bloated. Swimming in that all the time would surely get rather messy. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nudge Posted November 3, 2014 Report Share Posted November 3, 2014 What is the ph of your water supply? I use aragonite and coral in my tanks and filters and i personally don't think they buffer your water that much, they will help but its not gonna alter your water chemistry as much as bi carb and epsom will. IMO you should cocncentrate more on KH and GH. The higher you get your kh the higher your ph will be. The higher your kh is also means there will be less chance of your ph dropping. The baking soda will raise your KH and the epsom salts will raise your GH. I have trophs and we are on tank(rain) water so I buffer my water with baking soda/ epsom salt. I find it pretty good it keeps my tank at a ph of 8 and kh 13 and gh 20 ( using api test kits). I have found that the bs/epsom won't get your ph much over 8 regardless of how much you use. As for what ratio to use it depends what your water supply readings are from the tap. My water has a ph of 7 with kh of 7 from the tap but goes up to ph 8 and kh 13 with the buffer. I use 2 tsp of epsom salts and 3/4 tsp of bi carb per 15L. So test your water 1st and go from there. A lot of people on here dont bother using buffers but it's easy to do once you have your recipe sussed. I fill a barrel of water and add the right amount of buffer, drain my tank and add the buffered water. It doesnt need to sit for a couple of days. As long as you dont forget to add it every water change theres not really anything that will go wrong. Check out cichlid-forum.com or google cichlid buffer there are some good articles that will explain the advantages of water chemistry a lot better than I can. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Adrienne Posted November 3, 2014 Report Share Posted November 3, 2014 For total turnover for a cichlid tank aim for 8 - 10x the number of litres. Push as much as possible through your canister filters to aid the tank maintenance but power heads a great for dead spots in the tank. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gemelee Posted November 3, 2014 Author Report Share Posted November 3, 2014 Thanks for the help everyone :gopo: I plan using crushed/small pieces of coral in the as a layer in the filter but am having some trouble finding any (unless someone has some to spare :thup:) also I may use some limestone in the tank itself but not sure yet. Like nudge said I've heard before that using coral etc may not get the pH to the desired level which is why I thought about using a buffer. I haven't had the chance to test the GH and KH of the tap water yet. The pH of the tap water is higher but my planted tanks usually have a pH of around 6.5 using just tap for water changes. As for powerheads, the aquaone 1200l/hr is rated for up to 300L so I figured 2 x 700l/hr = 1400l/hr as well as a 1200l/hr canister filter would be sufficient. I've never really thought of using a wavermaker instead, how do they work? In a similar way to powerhead? Sorry about all the questions this is my first cichlid tank, i usually have planted tanks. Oh and is my bristlenose ok going in there or will the yellows harrass him? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Adrienne Posted November 3, 2014 Report Share Posted November 3, 2014 pH always drops in established, planted tanks. Using coral or even shell should pull it up to about 8 but remember that the amount you have in the filter will reduce as the acid in the water eats away at it. The rating on canister filters is the amount that the filter can pump with no media in it. The amount and type of media will reduce the flow accordingly. The 1200 works well on tanks between 90 - 120 litres in my opinion (having used them for a number of years. Powerheads have a constant flow, wave makers have a controller so the flow rate and pattern can be varied and controlled. I am using a RW-8 in my 250 litre marine tank, it pumps it out and I can control the flow speed and pumping pattern. Bristlenose will be fine as long as it has caves available and you acclimate it to the higher pH. The yellows won't harass it any more than other fish would. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
smidey Posted November 6, 2014 Report Share Posted November 6, 2014 i prefer to keep my africans, tanganyikans specifically now as easy as i can with the least amount of messing around. that keeps conditions stable that the fish will adjust to (minimally) and do well. If your on town supply the water will automatically be near what you need as the water supply needs to be acidic so it doesn't destroy the water supply system. In cases where you are on tank water, like me, concrete tanks are good and plastic tanks make it much harder to get the water to desirable conditions. I have kept africans for years and always set up like this, they have all done well and bred in massive numbers so i know what i do works. If you choose to add chemicals you risk getting it wrong over time and have the water conditions swing and really hurt the fish. Also keep in mind the fish you have or will get are not wild caught fish or any where near it so many generations above them have been kept in fish tanks so wild conditions aren't that important as long as you keep your conditions in a similar nature. My tap water is ph of about 7.4. In my tanks i have crushed marble as a substrate along with whole and crushed shells. I keep the temp about 26, filtration of around 6 times the tank volume per hour with 30% water changes each week. feed good quality food and plenty of it and they will do well. stocking is a completely different setup depending on which species you go for but keep them in big numbers, more than you think is too many usually. once you setup is right they will be easy to keep, you'll have very few health issues and you'll enjoy them a lot with little weekly maintenance. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gemelee Posted November 8, 2014 Author Report Share Posted November 8, 2014 Is there anything else I can have with them in this tank size like dems? How many of each? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
smidey Posted November 8, 2014 Report Share Posted November 8, 2014 you could keep many other species in that tank as well, making it work is more about species compatibility than tank size. Dems and most other malawian species can be kept with yellows Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gemelee Posted November 9, 2014 Author Report Share Posted November 9, 2014 How many would I be looking? Would 8 of each be too much? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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