180g Malawi Peacocks (load and pH)

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J

jkennedy

Feeder Fish
MFK Member
Jun 7, 2008
37
0
0
40
Arizona
I've been putting together a peacock aquarium and have a couple questions. First I'd like to know how many I should stock. I know that they live in and prefer to be in large numbers relative to other fish but I don't want to overstock and have to get rid of any. My tank is 180 gallons (6ft long and its the "tall" type so its slightly taller than it is deep)

Secondly, I want to raise the pH. I have a ton of nice lace rock in there already and don't want to add any limestone or anything into it. The substrate is aragonite sand but I'm not sure if it enough to get the proper pH. I notice most people have sand and lace rock in their malawi tanks so maybe its enough? I'm just trying to make the best environment possible.

Thanks
 
I used crushed coral for my substrate. It buffered my PH to about 8.0. I also added some decortive coral just for looks and then just used my regular river rocks and slate for decor. The coral buffers enough but doest push it to the limit. Over all i think spent less then $70.00 for all of it. Just be sure to rinse the coral off really really good or it will become VERY cloudy from the dust during your PWC. check out my tank, the link is in my signature if you wanna see how it looks. its in the 72G.

as far as stocking goes i have about 35 fish in mine most are under 3". i have like 3 fish that are 4". hope this helps.
 
Thanks man, I think I can get away with putting some coral pieces in there without altering my current theme too much. You're tank looks good. Its good to hear that you have 35 in yours Even though they are small right now, I'm thinking I could probably get away with having 35 in mine and having them reach adulthood...
 
yea ill have to move some from this tank to my larger one once they start getting bigger.

oh and from what ive herd, I may be wrong and some one might correct me here, but just a couple pieces wont really help the ph all that much...youll need to have a noticeable ammount to use it as a buffer. thats why i used it for a substrate and decor.
 
Well first I dont see you pH reading yet so have you actually tested the pH yet and if so what is the pH reading at? I have hard tap water so I never have to worry about buffers with my tank. From my understanding rock and sand/crushed coral should help raise the pH a little bit. I would give some of the suggestions on here a try if it helps. As for dosing with pH buffers and neutralizers, if it came to that, I wouldn't bother going that route. I say that only because I had to do it with one of my mom's tanks once and I had to many pH fluctuations (which is not a good thing) so I just stopped.
 
Thanks for the pH help. Does anyone have an idea about stock load? Any rule of thumb or anything for fish per gallon?
 
In a 180 you could have around 40 without a problem. With proper filtration and decor of course.
 
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