Mess with the water chemistry or not?

[AfroCichlid]

I think the area where you live, water is hard so its not very hard to go with the decision of not changing the natural water chemistry. In my case though, it is on the borderline. But I think I will go ahead without any additives and will monitor water condition often and see what happens from there...

This sounds like the best bet to me. Once you get into chemical buffers it becomes difficult to maintain. It's better to have a steady pH and hardness than to have it fluctuate.

 

[Pittbull]

and with a small mistake you can wipe a whole tank out.. but sound advice..

 

[yhbae]

A small mistake? Like what?

 

[Pittbull]

Like adding too much chemical or what ever you use to raise the hardness or PH the equivalent of a PH spike either dropping too fast or raising too fast could wipe the whole tank out..

You have to be careful that's why a lot of hobbyist don't recommend doing this with chemicals and is why they say use substrate and natural decor to accomplish it..

 

[DrNo]

You're likely just fine so long as the specimens are not wild caught. Breeding might be a challenge though as some specimens seem to prefer certain conditions.

 

[yhbae]

I used to keep mbuna for years under water with added chemicals so I am not scared of it but I also remember it did cost me additional money and some hassle.

DrVader, breeding is one of my interest... I've never had WC fishes before but I may try to get some F1s.

 

[KarlTh]

The pH is fine. The GH and KH are a bit low. I'd up them with commercial cichlid salts (for the GH) and sodium bicarb (for the KH). Do it gradually; fish take time to adjust to TDS (Total dissolved solids) changes, unlike pH which takes a matter of hours at most.

 

[yhbae]

I setup one tank with nothing except water and two AC filters. I let it ran for about a week. This time, I paid extra attention when I was measuring water parameters.

This is what I read now:

pH = 7.6
KH = 7 (or 8, color changed slightly after 7th drop)
GH = 10 (or 11, color changed slightly after 10th drop)

I really think raising GH and KH is not necessary.

 

[jpappy789]

Not necessary, but it's kind of in between "hard" and "soft"...couldn't hurt if done properly.

 

[yhbae]

LOL... I'm trying so hard to not mess with water chemistry but the **** parameter is so close to the borderine! Few more GH/KH and I would have felt much more comfortable...