New to African Cichlids

wow those rocks look sweet in that tank and it looks like alot of weight as well i do see the egg crate on the bottom if you have any concerns you could also go to the hardware store and get a piece of foam like those foam pads but in a larger size to fit the bottom of the tank or you could add a thin layer of styrofoam place the eggcrate on that and then the substrate and those rocks would be an added precaution so to say..
 
Yes, I have thought about buying a 1/2 inch sheet of foam to put down underneath the eggcrate for extra protection. What I'm worried is that the foam will show through the glass under the substrate.
 
I have a question though, If I use aragonite sand (The dry kind, not the kind that is meant only for marine aquariums) will it raise the ph and hardness of the water to a suitable level for the Cichlids? The reason I ask this is because I can't find Crushed Coral anywhere localy, and shipping 20+ pounds of it is too expensive.

In the next 2 weeks, I will be setting up the tank. :headbang2:
 
yes aragonite should help buffer the PH as well, i have also heard of texas holey rock helping out with the PH dept but i have no hands on with this type of rock..
 
Ok then, so that means that aragonite sand will be my choice of sand in the fish tank. It might get a little pricey, but it will be worth it.
 
cool deal buddy i hope it works out for you heres another bit of a tip you can buy those bags of sea shells collected for home decor as long as they were not scented with fragrance should be fine put them in a plastic large fish bag and pound them with a hammer to make your own crushed sea shells this will help as well with the buffer capacities these crushed pieces could be buried in the sand as well, take care my friend..
 
Well, my LFS has something like that, except it is just crushed sea shells that have been smoothed out in the ocean. But the Ocean is about 100 miles away from here, so it would be easier to buy it at just $.69 a pound. The pieces almost look like polished gravel, except they are sea shells. I think I'll put them in the Aqua Clear filters that I'll be using, which brings me to another question: Should I use my AC filter like this?

Filter floss (Top)
Sponge
Crushed shells (Bottom)

Plus a sponge attached to the intake.
 
i had several large pieces of calcium carbonate rock in my last african tank worked great to keep the ph up ( tho i did use crushed coral for the base) also if your ph starts to drop cple tablespoons of baking soda will fix it right up
 
i wouldnt attach the sponge to the intake unless you really need to do this the rest of the material will do the job just fine, as for crushed coral or crushed sea shell yes you can use them in the filter as long as you place them in a filter bag, but in my opinion if your going to do this i would do alot more than a filter bag full of shells maybe behind your display of rocks where its out of sight and mind you could place more shells there, the thing is that when you place shells in a tank its not going to raise the PH really fast this is a slow effect the more the better is the rule of thumb..
 
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