Ok I decided what I wanted to do with my 55 gallon. I put the tetra's and angels into a 29 I have that only has 6 other occupants, and from there I changed all the driftwood that I had in the 55 to the 90 and took all but two rocks out of it. I went to the lfs and got one big piece of lace rock or kind of rock that would help with calcium and general hardness that Africans need. I also used just a lake Malawi buffer not the PH lake malawi raiser, I used proper PH for that to get it up to 8.2. Ok...I tested it yesterday and it was at 6.8 before any lace rock or buffers were added, after the rock and buffers and PH up was added it shot strait to 8.6 which is as high as the test kit I have goes...this morning more than 18 hours later it is at 8.0-8.2. I know that Africans would be fine with this but should I get the lake Malawi buffer to raise the pH because don't I have to use it after I change the water??? The amount of water I take out I am supposed to replace with the equal dose of buffer each time...if this is correct and sounds good to any and all of you all experienced African keepers thanks.
African Set-up
- Thread starter scubasteve06
- Start date
I got one Red Zebra what all would be good to put with him...I do not know much about the different species besides their requirements.
Well I dont know if you all remember my 90 with all the rocks in it. Well now it has lots of driftwood and stumps looks real amazon, took the driftwood out of the 55 and put all the rocks that were in the 90 in to the 55 to make the biotopes more correct. Here are some pics I wish I had my digital camera but its been acting crazy lately...
Sic_Maggot13;1724331; said:
I have already added one big piece of reef rock, I plan to add 2-3 more pieces to add and raise calcium and gH, also added african cichlid lake salt buffer to raise the hardness to and the purpose of the reef rock is for the minerals in the salt to stick to and retain it also helps with raising pH. I used proper pH 8.2 to get it up to 8.6 yesterday and know its at a stable 8.0-8.2. Every time I change the water I'm going to have to use the seachem lake Malawi pH up to keep the pH where these guys like it. I might throw some little small shell dwellers in there and before I do that I would add some crushed coral or shells to get to around 8.4-8.6 pH which both could thrive at still. I can't wait to add to what one fish in my stock I have now.
FSM;1724442; said:
Yea I was going to but this area gets much more traffic and members coming through than the african section and I don't know which to post in riverine or rift lake.
P.S. I plan on changing the background the tank used to have driftwood in it and it looked good...I'm going to either go black or a background that looks like what it would naturally be for africans.
watch out for the red zebras; the one i had was the terror of the tank until i got rid of it.
Crushed corals or even whole pieces work great at maintaining proper PH for your tank.
I got mine set up as rock works for my yellow labs to hide in.
Crushed corals or even whole pieces work great at maintaining proper PH for your tank.
I got mine set up as rock works for my yellow labs to hide in.
I've had Africans for a couple of years now and I've never added ph buffer, or lace rock, or special substrate and I have driftwood. At first it was because I didn't know enough. Then, later, because they did fine without it for a year, why waste money? Most Africans have been bred for many, many generations in aquariums and are pretty much acclimated to a lower ph than what is found in the rift lakes.
That's not to say that you are doing the wrong thing in trying to replicate their natural parameters, but even in the rift lakes, conditions can vary greatly from spot to spot in the same lake. They are flipping ginormous after all.
And, I like Yellow Labs and Peacocks for stocking. But, that's just personal preference. One nice looking fish prevalent in the hobby but causes more problems is the Kenyi. I'd stay away from these. Everyone I've known that has tried to keep them in a community always ends up giving them away (including me).
Check out cichlid-forum.com and the profiles section. While being a little more serious over there than here, their collective knowledge of African cichlids is unparalelled.
Here's cichlid-forums.com's profiles section. The choices are nearly limitless.
http://www.cichlid-forum.com/articles/african_cichlid_genus_gallery.php
Check out their forums too, there are many African experts there.
That's not to say that you are doing the wrong thing in trying to replicate their natural parameters, but even in the rift lakes, conditions can vary greatly from spot to spot in the same lake. They are flipping ginormous after all.
And, I like Yellow Labs and Peacocks for stocking. But, that's just personal preference. One nice looking fish prevalent in the hobby but causes more problems is the Kenyi. I'd stay away from these. Everyone I've known that has tried to keep them in a community always ends up giving them away (including me).
Check out cichlid-forum.com and the profiles section. While being a little more serious over there than here, their collective knowledge of African cichlids is unparalelled.
Here's cichlid-forums.com's profiles section. The choices are nearly limitless.
http://www.cichlid-forum.com/articles/african_cichlid_genus_gallery.php
Check out their forums too, there are many African experts there.