Ohhh and he has a sale on salt until his supply runs out. I picked up 200g mix of IO today for $39.
Saltwater Tank
- Thread starter tarheels910
- Start date
What do you mean by it is hard to maintain water parameters? Are you saying it is hard to keep ammonia levels down or what?
You will have to frequently test for(at least once a week) the really important params:
Salinity
PH
Calcium
Magnesium
Alkalinity
Nitrates
Phosphates
and of course the usuals whilst the tank is cycling
Ammonia
Nitrites
Salifert test kits are the most popular due their accuracy and the d and d merck for phosphate sensitivity
(i check these once a month just make sure they are still 0)
Its harder to keep these stable in a small tank as there is not a lot of room for error so you would have to be vigilant in doing weekly 10% water changes to keep them straight and of course using RO water from the off will help using it for all water changes and and any top ups due to evaporation
As Wayne mentioned it is more about overall stability. With a small volume of water things can change rapidly and rapid change tends to be a bad thing with saltwater. Ammonia is one factor but so is keeping calcium and alkalinity balanced in a reef. Lots of parameters to consider. It isn't to scare you away, just make you aware. Your FW experience can either help you or hurt you in my opinion. If you're good about maintenance you'll be well served. If you come into it thinking you're set because of what you already know with FW it can hurt. The fact that you're asking questions leads me to believe you'll be the former.
Why are so many people such fans of these fish? They look kinda mundane to me, yet seem to have a huge cult following. What's the deal?
Lake Malawi cichlids are pretty colorful and in the distance, the setup full of these fish seem to resemble the marine setups.
I've gone to this before but I lost interest in them. I had SW before and find them more entertaining than these cichlids to be honest.
Yes, I constantly am maintaining my tanks. I check water params all the time. I contantly keep my pH between 7.5 and 8.0. I do 25% weekly water changes. I have never really had any ammonia problems in my tanks due to my maintenance and cycling of my tanks.
They are far from mundane, they have pretty cool personalities(at lest mine do) and depending on how you set up your tank and how you stock it they can be really cool to watch. If you want colourful fish without going down the S/W route these are the fish to choose, and you can keep more of them in a tank than s/w fish
