Step 3 to redesigning my 10gl to be a African Tank..

[Mantis_22]

Ok this is what I have completed as of right now...

1. Bought 5 Large pieces of maroon lava rock from the LFS.
2. Made a Rock Background using small pieces of landscape maroon lavarock on the wall..

Everything looks great as of right now but there is just one thing that whacks my eyes out of order. The substrate :rolleyes: lol. It a natural gravel thats small to medium sized. It looks very good if you ask me. But one thing I have noticed is that A. the PH of the tank isint respectively at 8.0 near where african cichlids thrive and B. Im looking for a smaller substrate to mix with the nautral looking gravel. So I have come to sand, I am wanting to mix the gravel im using now with some other color of sand. I have heard from some opinions of just using play sand from lowes which I can use and im thinking of buying. How much do you think I should buy of sand to mix with the gravel. I have 13 pounds of gravel in this 10gl. (Im thinking of taking out 15% of it due to adding sand) Would this be a good idea?

Also about the PH, I could use crushed coral and just put it in a holed ziplock bag to raise the PH or I can use playsand which has aragonite in it. Which should I use?


Thanks.... :)

[valerie]

what kind fo africans are you planning on adding? Since it is a 10g Mbuna an haps are out. Pretty much the only african that does well in a 10g are shell dwellers and for them you need all sand.

As for adding sand to gravel, wouldn't the sand sink to the bottom and all the gravel be on top eventually? Also adding sand and gravel will make it hard to vacume the gravel. I wouldn't do it. Why do you want sand/gravel mix?

[Mantis_22]

First of all I will have yellow labs in here as juviniles. This tank is a growout for smaller cichlids. Also I have never seen a gravel/sand mix before. Thats why I just asked :)

[valerie]

what tank will the yellow labs be going into when they get bigger? This will determine what you can get. What are the fish in the bigger tank or what fish do you plan on getting? Its hard to choose a fish for a 10gal growout tank when we don't know what tank they are going to be moving to and what tankmates they will have.

[Mantis_22]

whenever they hit peak they will be moved to a 30g along with another set of labs...

[valerie]

Even in a 30g you could probably only have 5-6 leaving a little bit of space of scavengers or a pleco. African mbuna aren't like normal fish, they need lots of room and are aggresive so they don't do well in smaller tanks.It is usually recommended people start with a 55g. If possible try for 1 male and the rest females.