I've been thinking of starting an African cichlid tank but i'm not sure what to put in there. I have a standard 75 gallon tank with a xp3 and pengiun hob filter. I have neutral water with ph of 7 so i know i'm going to have to make some changes to raise the ph level and hardness of the water. I'll start by adding either aragonite or crushed coral mixed with pool filter sand as substrate. I was also thinking of adding limestone as my rockwork. One of my questions is what else would I have to add to the water to raise ph and hardness of the water? Another question is what to stock it with? I like the look of male eye biters (Dimidiochromis compressiceps) what would be good tankmates for this species if I only got one?
Thinking of starting an african tank
- Thread starter lthom
- Start date
hi..!
you could add many haps in it or peakcocks in it.. really don't know..i'm more into tanganyika than malawi cichlids.. but anyway here i leave you something to rise the ph and hardness of the water.
http://cichlidforum.com/articles/buffer_recipe.php
good luck on the proyect..!
you could add many haps in it or peakcocks in it.. really don't know..i'm more into tanganyika than malawi cichlids.. but anyway here i leave you something to rise the ph and hardness of the water.
http://cichlidforum.com/articles/buffer_recipe.php
good luck on the proyect..!
if you have a zebra hogging a cave, you could move the cave, and/or remove the fish and let the other fish claim it and add the zebra back
Keep in mind that D. comps get large they dont stay small they can get to 10-12 inches. From my own personal experience with the fish I had him with mbuna but he eventually grew larger and started picking on them. I would suggest something that is just as agressive and that gets larger than 6 inches. On the other hand I ve seen people keep D. Comps with other fish and not have any problems. Really with a 75 you could do a tank of quality peacock (alunocara) cichlids. Maybe do a Tropheus tank there are a variety of those that look cool. Theres xenotilapias which are somewhat hard to find but they can grow failry large or stay relatively small depending on the species and are pretty cool looking schooling group. It really just depends on what you like. As for the pH really adding what you already plan to should raise it enough for it to be in the range you dont have to get the pH all the way to 8.5 they should do fine in 7.5-8.5 range. Anywho hope that helps some.
The best way I have found to raise ph is to put agronite in a filter bag and put it in to your filter way more effective then just putting it in substrate. Huumm 75 .I would go with alunnacara and some smaller haps .But I'm biased.