Need Advice on Stock

[Devereaux2106]

Hi everyone I'm looking to start a tank of African cichlids, I've been keeping South American cichlids for several years now which I use RO water for since my tap water is fairly hard (~160 ppm). So since I have a lot of "waste water" from my RO unit I'd like to put it to use. The waste water is ~300 ppm is this too hard? I assume that something would be able to live in it. I'm looking for something that would stay around 4-5 inches and reproduce as much as possible, I'd like to use the young as feeders for my pike cichlids. I'm not that concerned with how pretty the fish look I'm really just looking for something to produce feeders and can live in hard water. So far I've looked at Neolamprologus Pulcher since they will raise several generations of fry at once but I'd like the advice of people that have experience with Africans. Thanks in advance for any advice.

-Joe

 

[Mokujin22]

If you're only concerned about them providing food, most folks around here use either jewels, H. gutatus. They have huge spawns and their fry grow relatively quickly.

I wouldn't use your RO/DI waste water in their tank. Too high a concentration of other random bad stuff in there - chemicals and metals. If you want to easily harden water/raise pH, add 1 TBS baking soda per 10 gallons tank water. Cheap and easy.