Cichlid Lake Salt or Not?

With your water chem I would not use any additives at all. No salt. No "proper ph". Just large weekly water changes.

The pH and hardness of Malawi is not THAT high. If they were wild caught tanganyikans I might worry about it. Even then the only thing I would use is some baking soda to increase the dKh up to around 10-14 (about 200-280pppm).

A pH of 7.8 is at the bottom end for Malawi.

Your pH with nitrifcation will probably drop below that, and then it would cause a problem. I'd use crushed coral in your filters and keep up on your water changes, as already mentioned.

I live in an area with extremely pure water. I need to add table salt (without additives), baking soda, and Epsom salts in order to mimic Malawi water. (I don't waste my money on those expensive LFS additives which are the same things anyway.) I like to match the water to the fish and not the fish to the water, I guess you could say. It's more work but it's worth it.

Some Rift Lake cichlid keepers are lucky in that they already have harder, more alkaline water. Then again, maybe people with that kind of water who want to keep South African biotopes would think I'm lucky.

These are captive bred fish. I would agree taht your water is more than capable of handling them. Your change regieme sounds pretty good, but I would err on the side of caution and do 10% changes every couple of days to remove the addatives more slowly. There is no rush. When the tank water tests as close as possible to tap water then regular big changes can begin again.

Crushed coral is fine but it won't dissolve at that high of a pH anyway. There is a max limit.

If you're already using crushed coral substrate, putting it in your filter wont raise the ph very much if at all. You may get a barely noticable rise in the numbers.

You could add large peices of holley rock which raise ph and provide excellent hiding places. But once again, it wont raise it dramatically.

Cichlids4ever said:

Omega....
Do you have any problems with your water being cloudy or anything while using your homemade recipe? I like that idea BTW!

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Nope, water is crystal clear and many cichlid breeders use this recipe. It super cheap and quite easy.

Remember, how much you use depends on your tap water to begin with. You need much less than I do.

Here's a great article on exactly that:
http://cichlid-forum.com/articles/buffer_recipe.php

Here's also a great board specializing in Malawi fish only:
www.malawimayhem.com

I recommend a little research -

Omega said:

I live in an area with extremely pure water. I need to add table salt (without additives), baking soda, and Epsom salts in order to mimic Malawi water. (I don't waste my money on those expensive LFS additives which are the same things anyway.) I like to match the water to the fish and not the fish to the water, I guess you could say. It's more work but it's worth it.

Click to expand...

I recommend you do at least some basic research before making claims like this. Because if you had, you would notice that actually, "Baking soda, Table salt and Epsom salt" are nothing like what "Those expensive LFS additives" are. You claim to match the water to the fish, yet have no understanding of the chemistry involved. For example if we look at Seachem's Cichlid Lake Salt, they don't refer to common table salt (sodium chloride). They are in fact referring to mineral salts. Here is what is actually in Seachem's Cichlid Lake Salt:

Calcium (min) Calcium (max) Magnesium (min) Potassium (min) Sodium (min) Sodium (max) Aluminum (min) Iodine (min) Iron (min) Amounts per 1 gram.
Ingredients: magnesium chloride, calcium chloride, potassium sulfate, sodium chloride, aluminum sulfate, iron sulfate, potassium iodide,

You'll notice, there is no "common table salt (sodium chloride)" in Cichlid Lake Salt. If you do a little more research, you'll see that Seachem actually flew to Africa and analyzed the mineral content of all three lakes. This is how they came up with the formulation of their salt. And if you use Cichlid Lake Salt, African Cichlid Buffer & Cichlid Trace according to the instructions, you will actually have the closest possible match to their natural environment.

Also it doesn't matter if fish are wild caught or not, these animals have grown and evolved in their natural environment for a very long time. Their DNA is not going to change just because they are captive bread and raised. They still require a similar environment to thrive. And as hobbyists and caretakers, it is our responsibility to provide the best environment possible to these animals.

I suggest reading these articles. I found them very well written and informative:
The_Art_and_Science_of_Aquarium_Management
African_Cichlids

I can tell you from experience. 85% of customers that I sell the line too, come back 1-2 weeks later raving about how much better the Cichlid's look and behave.

Do us, your fish and yourself a favor - try the program, the entire program (Cichlid Buffer, Cichlid Trace and Cichlid Lake Salt). Just for two weeks. Then post back here what you find. Watch and look at your fish now, do a large water change and start dosing according to the instructions. And after two weeks compare their behavior and coloration. then post back and let us know what you think.

Another tip, try Dainichi's Cichlid food. Most cheap fish foods are like Ol Roy - It slowly starves your dog of nutrition. Same with fish food. Your fish are what they eat. You'll have less waste in the aquarium because the fish digest more of it, which means less goes out the rear, which in turn means less maintenance and higher quality water.

Sorry the post is so long - Hope it helps.

--Mike