LFS Water Conditioning Recommendation

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Luca Brazzi

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Oct 12, 2002
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I am still fishless cycling my 75 gallon soon to be African cichlid tank.

Ive noticed, however, that my pH and Alkilinity are NOT suitable for Africans. From the tap, my pH is 7.2, and my Alk is low (my test kit doesnt supply actual numbers for the Alk, only LOW, NORMAL, and HIGH). My Alk tests at the lowest end of the colorchart.

So... I went to my LFS yesterday to talk to the "Cichlid expert". Suprisingly enough he seemed pretty knowledgeable. I told him the issue that I was having with the water, and he said that I should add 1 teaspoon/gallon of Aquarium Salt, and possibly some baking soda to get the water parameters in line. I currently have about 10 lbs of crushed coral in my sump as well.

I added the aquarium salt (about 60 teaspoons) and about 6 teaspoons of baking soda. Todays measurements read very different. My pH is now at 8.4, and my Alk is at the High end of the colorchart.

Does anyone agree/disagree with what Ive done? The directions on the box of salt recommended adding 1 tablespoon/5 gallons. Is there a danger in adding too much salt?
 
Which African Cichlids? There is effectively no salt (sodium chloride) in Lake Malawi, there is a small amount in Lake Tanganyika. African Cichlids are not, repeat are NOT brackish water fish. They are hard water fish. The need potassium (at least 18ppm or more) , they need magnesium (77ppm or more), they need carbonates, and some sulfates don't hurt. They also need traces of iodine. Those suggestions are from Dr. Paul Loiselle's book "The Cichlid Aquarium"

I would not use sodium chloride at all.

Your crushed coral will harden and buffer the water on its own given time. The baking soda will add bicarobnates/carbonates.
 
what type of substrate do you have? for an african rift lake tank, you should use something that will constantly buffer the water such as crushed coral. depending on your tank volume 10lb's won't be enough. with out this you will constantly have to add something to the water,

but remember consistancy is the key. as long as you can keep the water parameters constant (like all of the time) your fish should be ok. consistency IS the KEY!
 
Crushed coral in the sump may or may not be enough to raise your hardness. In most cases it will do the trick, but it also may take several weeks to see where pH and KH will stabilize. Also, if you do large scale water changes (not a bad idea with messy fish like african cichlids), you may see drops in pH and KH right after the change. To counter this, you can add commercially prepared Rift Lake salts and buffers (I formerly used Seachem's, and liked them, except for the expense). You can also make your own. I use one bag of epsom salts and two large boxes of baking soda to make a batch, then add 1 tablespoon per ten gallons of water. Your water will probably require different proportions, but it's easy (and fun) to experiment to get your KH and GH into the upper levels. (I also add a squirt of Aragamilk, a concentrated liquified source of calcium, carbonate, strontium, magnesium and potassium for good measure.) I try to get GH to about 400 ppm and KH to 250-270 ppm. pH winds up in the 8.0-8.2 range.

As has been noted, there are lots of things sold as 'aquarium salt'. Where I live, that generally refers to some sort of NaCl-based preparation, although you may have mean Rift Lake salts when you originally wrote it.

HTH,
Jim
 
ELKDOG - the big problem with "aquarium salt" is they don't tell you what's in it. That's why I won't touch it with a bargepole.

You can buy Calcium carbonate (they sell it asa powder for chelonians, though making the bugger dissolve could be interesting). You can buy NaCl. You can buy Bicarb. You can buy Epsom salts (magnesium sulphate). You can also buy "African cichlid salts" that at least you know contain Mg and Ca.

I see no use, therefore, for a magic "Aquarium Salt" box of unknown composition. I've hunted the web high and low for any indication of what's in the stuff, but the manufacturers treat this information like the Colonel's 'secret mix of herbs and spices' for Unlucky Fried Kitten, or my grandmother's recipe for fruitcake.

What Luca has achieved, due to lousy advice from the LFS, is brackish water. I'd be surprised if the tank didn't now taste of brine.
 
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Luca Brazzi: given the dosage you were told to add, I am pretty confident that you have been using an NaCl based aquarium salt, probably a mix intended for Marine aquaria. That means that you is creating brackish conditions, unsuitable for Rift Lake cichlids as RTR noted.

At this point, a series of 50% water changes (I'd do one a day for 8 days) will reduce your NaCl concentration to less than 4% of its current levels. Then I'd add some Seachem Rift Lake buffers AND salts (they are two different items). Because of the crushed coral in the sump you might be able to reduce the amount of buffers you are using.

For a tank the size that you are setting up, a 1 kg container of Seachem buffers and a separate 1 kg of salts would last you for more than a year, and would run you about $25 from one of the on-line retailers. Remember that you do not need to dose for the entire volume of your tank each time, but only for the volume of water you are replacing.
 
Thanks all..

Since I do not yet have any fish in the tank, there is no problem doing a large waterchange and starting over. I read an article in cichlid-forum.com about making a homeade mix using the ingredients some of you described (epsom salt/non iodized salt/baking soda). I think I may try this instead, and in much less concentration than I did with the other stuff.

Now that I think of it the guy at the LFS did say that Africans were brackish (so I guess I wont be listening to him anymore).

Anyway... my water did reach much better readings in pH and Alk (both are now at the high end of the scale), but there is probably WAY too much salt in there.

As far as substrate, Im using Black Beauty sand, I like the way it looks (and it was only 9.00 for the 100 lbs bag I used). I know that a total Crushed Coral substrate would probably buffer the water better but I figured that I could fit enough in the sump/biotower to at least help some.
 
Iodised salt is fine. Iodine is actually one of the things RTR listed that these fish need. But I'm not quite sure of the logic behind using NaCl at all with Malawians.
 
Mbuna in particular are prone to goiter, (just as they are to bloat from high protein diets), so iodized salt is a source of iodine for them. If this is not used and your area lacks iodine, a drop of reef iodine supplement monthly or so is in order.

Thanks Faramir for explaining that "Aquarium Salt" is a totally undefined material, therefore not something a cautious aquarist would elect to use.
 
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