There are some pics of the peacocks I had in my Photobucket tank so you can see the color I am talking about. They were all bought out of 'assorted Africans' tanks, none were the expensive, high-end ones.
Water softener and African Cichlids...
- Thread starter Kevin007
- Start date
You should have a faucet the bypasses the water softener (usually a kitchen sink) or find a way to bypass it manually. Test that water and post the results.
I always forget how exactly water softeners work but the end result is a near zero GH/KH but water that is higher in TDS (total dissolved solids). I would bypass the softener if possible rather than adding salts to water already high in TDS.
Thanks reptileguy2727, I like COLOR in my tank however, the wife gets angry with fish beating on each other then i have to hear it from her. I want fish that have color, peaceful, and can thrive in my high PH water. ANOTHER QUESTION ON SUBSTRATES, is the argonite reef sand ok to use with africans, my dealer says you cannot use that with anything but salt water, but i like the way it looks. I can't locate any pool filter sand locally so i can eyeball it's appearence I see cichlid sand but it looks to dark & salt & pepper to me.
Great advice... if you have no choice but to use the soft water, make sure your unit uses potassium chloride salt (not sodium chloride) as the softening matrix. Softeners swap out the 'hard' ions of Mg and Ca for for a different ion that is not as hard (K or Na). High Na is not great for fish, inverts, or for plants. High K has less effect on fish and is actually a core fert. for use by plants :thm:
No, pool filter sand won't buffer your water chemistry, aragonite sand will be just fine in an african tank as long as it isn't live.
What percentage of crushed coral would be enough mixed with pool filter sand to buffer the water properly?
I'd say 1:3 (1 part cc, 3 parts sand), although I'd rather run the cc in the filter instead of mixing it, the sand will eventually sink leaving the cc on top of it.
Your water doesn't need buffering, and crushed coral doesn't do a good job of it anyway.
Course substrates like gravel, crushed coral, etc. trap debris. This promotes nitrate problems and more maintenance for you. I would stick with just a sand substrate.
Is the aragonite reef sand a live (wet) sand or dry in the bag? Dry is fine, wet has things beneficial for marine tanks that would just die in a freshwater tank. They are priced a lot more too.
Course substrates like gravel, crushed coral, etc. trap debris. This promotes nitrate problems and more maintenance for you. I would stick with just a sand substrate.
Is the aragonite reef sand a live (wet) sand or dry in the bag? Dry is fine, wet has things beneficial for marine tanks that would just die in a freshwater tank. They are priced a lot more too.
