65G set up help!

[Erkebram]

Hi, just joined to get some help with my new 65g tank (two actually)...

I have a tap watter of 7.5 ph (8 once settled in the aquarium) atm i have 3 oscar cichlids (3 years old) and 4 GT (bout 1.5 yo) they are perfect and healty in their tanks but here comes my problem...
I want to get a pair of chocolate cichlids (temporalis) but a friend told me they are not going to do well in my ph, that it needs to be lower.
Is that true ? im not an expert and i dont want to play with the aquarium chemistry but i really like them.. Anyway.. if they are not going to work, what kind of fish do u suggest ? is there anything close to a chocolate/oscar looking that could work for me?
Keep in mind i would like to breed them and i don't really like africans.. hate how an overcrowded tank looks and the mix of colour (i like pairs, single big fish, or everything of the same colour)

Hope u guys can help me !

 

[markstrimaran]

PH can be buffered down with peat moss, drift wood, rain water roof collecter, reverse osmosis RO water filters. . Then check the water their coming from, as they may be well adjusted to similar water as yours.

 

[duanes]

Agree with Mark, its not so much the pH, but these fish come from tannin stained waters where the tannins act as anti bacterial agents. Higher pH water often is a soup which breeds types of bacteria these fish have a lower immune response to, and one of the reasons they end up with hole in head disease.
By adding tannins using peat, tree leaves, or driftwood you can help offset the effects of the higher pH soup. This may also be the case, and help with older oscars often scarred by HITH.
A heightened water change schedule also helps, because high nitrate also provide substrate for certain bacteria to attach to gill membranes.

 

[Erkebram]

Oh well tannins are not a problem, i have a lot of driftwood as i like the amazon look instead of crystal clear water. As i said i have kept Os and GT as well as some pangasius (with no holes ever till they outgrowth the tank and give them away) for years with my ph, the thing is i dont really want to pay with the chemistry and get it lower. Im just afraid, tried before with some 2" firemouth that died a week after quarantine for no reason, 3 left of 6 and i dont want to feel frustrated again, read somewhere that firemouth and Chocolate cichlid need a ph from 6.5 to 7.5 while os and gt do well from 6.5 to 8 and didnt want to go through the same again. Guess ill try and see. Thanks !

 

[duanes]

FMs being come from Mexico and northern Central American from (at times) highly alkaline waters, so they are not a soft water species. The pH is these waters is sometimes in the high 8 range, so I doubt it was high pH that affected your FMs.
The notion that Central Americans require the same soft water as Amazonian/Brazilian species is not the case.
I have had many Mexican and Central American species do well, and readily spawn for decades in my straight from the tap, high pH, high alkaline water, the source being lake Michigan, which has an average pH of 8.5, and high conductivity.

 

[Erkebram]

Yeah, im not sure what happened. The first died in the quarantine tank, the other two a week after moved to the rack (also those were the only ones, i have 3 tanks linked with a big sump but nothing else got affected) picked the fm in really bad shape (and for free) from a tank with some corpses, got them anyway to somewhat save them but.. well.. at least 3 are alive.

Was just talking about the way amazon water looks, i enjoy the brownish colour u get from tannins.

Maybe next week ill go to my fav store and get a temporalis, hope it works out im kinda anxious lol
Thanks again