Newbie with Cichlids in 55gal cycling question??
- Thread starter rossman901
- Start date
You have money to lose.
Well, minus that...
It seems like you can't get anything for free in today's world :headshake2:
What happened to candy stores selling gum for a penny? It actually made finding coins on the sidewalk worth something!
...but I digress.
We have had great luck with Bio-Spira and also Super Bac both. It is hard to find either in the LFS stores around here though. The products can be a bit expensive but we lost absolutely no fish when we used either of these products in our 55 gallon and our 20 gallon.
Whats up guys I was wondering about the salt but I knew it couldnt really hurt. I have an aquaclear filter in my tank. I was wondering about giving him some of the bio -rocks or whatever they are properly called out of my filter. I guess I could give him some of those and some of my rocks. I have also helped another one of my friends set up a 25gal freshwater tank. I gave him a handfull of gravel and it really seemed to help his tank. I have had lots of fry so I gave him some of those too. So thanks to you all on this forum I have now helped 2 of my friends properly get thyre tanks going.
Giving your friend part of your media and rocks is giving him a seed culture of the various kinds of niter bactieria. Makes things much quicker than waiting on them to develop naturally and is what is supposed to be in the bottles of stuff to cycle a tank. It needs oxygen to live, so most of the time those bottles have nothing useful by the time they sit on the shelf. The downside to sharing filter media (make sure you transport it in a ziplock with your tank water in it to keep it alive) is you are also sharing bad stuff in your tank if you have any.
The only reason to add cichlid salt to this tank would be to buffer the water. Meaning to stabilize the PH and make the water harder. I'm not a cichlid expert (yet) as I just started my own first cichlid tank, but my reading and research indicates that the african cichlids like very hard water. And I know from several years of keeping planted tanks that PH fluctuation are bad juju. In my tank I am using a crushed coral substrate that took my PH from 7.6 out of the tap to 8.0 and raised my KH way up. Haven't gotten out the liquid test kit to see exactly how much, but the test strips show it just about doubled.
If you do decide to use salt, this is a mix I found when researching that is similiar to what you buy in the store, but much cheaper made at home. I don't recall where I got it, or I would give credit.
A common Rift Valley salt mix is as follows. Per 5 gallons/20 litres:
1 teaspoon baking soda (sodium bicarbonate)
1 tablespoon Epsom salt (magnesium sulfate)
1 teaspoon marine salt mix (sodium chloride + trace elements)
Robert
And apparently the last half of my previous post is invisible and I can't edit it anymore... TinyMCE (the message editor being used) is such fun sometimes...
The only reason to add cichlid salt to this tank would be to buffer the water. Meaning to stabilize the PH and make the water harder. I'm not a cichlid expert (yet) as I just started my own first cichlid tank, but my reading and research indicates that the african cichlids like very hard water. And I know from several years of keeping planted tanks that PH fluctuation are bad juju. In my tank I am using a crushed coral substrate that took my PH from 7.6 out of the tap to 8.0 and raised my KH way up. Haven't gotten out the liquid test kit to see exactly how much, but the test strips show it just about doubled.
If you do decide to use salt, this is a mix I found when researching that is similiar to what you buy in the store, but much cheaper made at home. I don't recall where I got it, or I would give credit.
A common Rift Valley salt mix is as follows. Per 5 gallons/20 litres:
1 teaspoon baking soda (sodium bicarbonate)
1 tablespoon Epsom salt (magnesium sulfate)
1 teaspoon marine salt mix (sodium chloride + trace elements)
Robert
The only reason to add cichlid salt to this tank would be to buffer the water. Meaning to stabilize the PH and make the water harder. I'm not a cichlid expert (yet) as I just started my own first cichlid tank, but my reading and research indicates that the african cichlids like very hard water. And I know from several years of keeping planted tanks that PH fluctuation are bad juju. In my tank I am using a crushed coral substrate that took my PH from 7.6 out of the tap to 8.0 and raised my KH way up. Haven't gotten out the liquid test kit to see exactly how much, but the test strips show it just about doubled.
If you do decide to use salt, this is a mix I found when researching that is similiar to what you buy in the store, but much cheaper made at home. I don't recall where I got it, or I would give credit.
A common Rift Valley salt mix is as follows. Per 5 gallons/20 litres:
1 teaspoon baking soda (sodium bicarbonate)
1 tablespoon Epsom salt (magnesium sulfate)
1 teaspoon marine salt mix (sodium chloride + trace elements)
Robert
I just suggested he add the salt to help with the fin rot that was developing on two of his cichlids. One didnt have any spots on it just the beginnings of fin rot as there were a few spines missing the flesh in between. The other however had a couple of small spots at the base of its fin. I didnt even add enough to treat the whole tank as suggested just enough for half. Plus if you all suggest he doesnt need it he doesnt have to add it next time he changes the water. So maybe I was wrong I just know that in my tank I add it rarely whenever I see any stressed out fish with the beginnings of fin rot and it really seems to help it almost instantly eliminates it.
Salt promotes the slime coat to develop which helps prevent bacteria from getting into any sores or other injuries. Na ions irritate the skin and cause a slime coate to form, CL ions bond with the receptors in the gills more readily than NH4 does, which is why "salt" is listed as being beneficial to fish.
Finrot is almost always a sign of bad water quality, in his case uncycled tank.
I'd test the GH and KH in the tank and if the GH/KH is to low either add crushed coral to the substrate, or do something like the salt mix above. GH should be 7 or higher and KH should be 10 or higher for most African cichlids. The baking soda raises the KH, the Epsom salt raises the GH, the marine salt raises both a little bit along with adding Na and CL ions to the water.
Downsides when doing water changes:
Crushed coral, a large water change causes the PH to drop and come back up gradual. So requires smaller, but more frequent changes.
Salt mix, you have to have it on hand and mix it OUTSIDE the tank in proportionate amounts to what you remove.
Robert
Finrot is almost always a sign of bad water quality, in his case uncycled tank.
I'd test the GH and KH in the tank and if the GH/KH is to low either add crushed coral to the substrate, or do something like the salt mix above. GH should be 7 or higher and KH should be 10 or higher for most African cichlids. The baking soda raises the KH, the Epsom salt raises the GH, the marine salt raises both a little bit along with adding Na and CL ions to the water.
Downsides when doing water changes:
Crushed coral, a large water change causes the PH to drop and come back up gradual. So requires smaller, but more frequent changes.
Salt mix, you have to have it on hand and mix it OUTSIDE the tank in proportionate amounts to what you remove.
Robert
i did another water change last night and the ammonia levels went down between .5 and .25. im going to do another today when i get home from work..........after i test whats in the as we speak. ill post the results after i get done testing. and to clarify things, the salt wasnt specified for cichlids, it was just api aquarium salt. one question that i still have is.....can doing too many water changes hurt my fish??? and should i stilil be using the stresscoat, salt, or the bottle of stability that i bought??? sorry for being such a newb, just dont want my kids to die. :headbang2:
