New to africans

If they are Rift Lake cichlids, the following links contain a lot of info.

http://www.cichlid-forum.com/profiles/

http://www.cichlid-forum.com/articles/

http://www.monsterfishkeepers.com/forums/showthread.php?456034-Bloat-Causes-Cures-and-BIG-Myths




That should keep your friend busy for a while.

I have always stuck to a certain rift lake and done a biotope around that. I.e. Malawi, Tanganyika , Victoria.

I personally love tangs but there's more colorful fish from Malawi. Just be careful because some fish can be very aggressive. Believe it or not the more fish less aggression with these fish.

I like the tangs because of the difference in the fish you can have in one tank. A 125-150 you could put together an awesome tank. Could have some Shellie's (lamp brevis), paracyprichromis nigri, ink fin calvus, benthochtomis tricoti, any of the cyanthopharynx & cyprichromis. That mix would fill up all the water columns.

Haha might have to think about setting one up again. 125 would be perfect tank. Got any questions just ask.

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Just my opinion, but of all the Rift lakes, Malawi seem to be the most forgiving to newbie mistakes. I would start there if he wants to do Africans.

I agree with paulW and further, IME a mixed gender mbuna tank would be the most risk-free. I would not do them in a tank under 36" even temporarily though. In a 40G breeder I might do a single species of something small and peaceful like yellow labs for practice.

For my 125 mbuna tank I use some onyx sand for buffering the water but I do not rely on it. Don't be tempted to use crushed coral, I started with that in my 55 and grew to hate it, IMO, overtime it starts to look bad. I know there are "rift lake buffers" for sale but I cannot say if they are good or bad, I've never used them too expensive for me. I have well water so I'm not concerned about adding minerals to my water they are already there. to buffer my water I use bicarbonate and epsom salt. The bicarbonate raises my PH to 8.2 and the more you add the higher your KH will be. I did some testing in a 55G food grade drum and I found that if I add 3TBS and 1.5 tsp of bicarbonate, my PH is 8.2 and my KH is 13. The epsom salt I add 4TBS and 2tsp, my GH is 18. All water is different so you would need to conduct your own test. I only added 1 TBS per 24hrs during my test keep the water agitated the entire time I was testing. I finally came up with my quantities for my water.

further testing in my tank, I have 33 mbunas in my 125, My PH never drops, even if I only do 1 WC per week, the KH is the reason for that. KH gives the water strength to hold PH. ( I normally WC 2x per week) Back when I used the crushed coral to buffer the water I would notice a PH drop throughout the week, I found that it was due to a low KH. As soon as I brought my KH up with bicarbonate, PH was steady never dropping.

KH and GH targets, I have nothing in official writing for this but this is what I was told by someone on the African Cichlid Hub,
KH 12-14
GH 16-18
With bicarbonate, PH will never go above 8.2

The only evidence that I have is my tank. At any given time I have at least 3 females holding in my tank. My fish are thriving and growing. One of my biggest problem is fry. I'm never 100% sure they are not hybrids so I either let my females spit in the tank.

Crushed coral, or even better crushed oyster shell, if required, are best used in ones filter as media, not as substrate.

Not to steal this thread but the site won't let me PM yet...
RD. I'm finding your sticky topics on bloat very interesting. Thanks for putting out the effort.