Okay I’ll get rift lake salt, thanks for advice!
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Advice on salt?
- Thread starter AmyKieran
- Start date
Okay I’ll get rift lake salt, thanks for advice!
I would take the tank to bits and put a fine limestone chip base in your tank, then all your problems will be solved.
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I believe the one with carbonates and bicarbonates is the Malawi and Victoria buffer, could be wrong. The cichlid lake salt is high in calcium and magnesium. Should I be adding aquarium salt and cichlid salt every water change? Or just cichlid lake salt?
The web page for that Seachem product does say
Experiment in a bucket of water to see how much you need to add to get the GH, KH and pH needed by the fish you have.
So depending which lake your cichlids are from means you need one of those buffers as well.
Experiment in a bucket of water to see how much you need to add to get the GH, KH and pH needed by the fish you have.
Okay I’ll experiment and probably ask for more advice in a few weeks time. Can I just ask, and not to dismiss already given advice and seem pessimistic. I obviously want the long term health for my fish and to replicate as best I can their natural environment, but I can pretty much guarantee that all of my fish in my tank have never ever seen any of the African lakes that they come from and are probably just used to the water in my area without the salts. Will using the salts and changing all of these factors not be detrimental if they haven’t lived in these conditions before?
The shop may or may not have kept them in hardened water - some shops keep all the fish in plain tap water, some have ranks with hard water fish and ranks with soft water fish and adjust the chemistry on one rank depending on the tap water. We cannot know the conditions the breeder and wholesaler kept them in. Even if the shop kept them in soft water they could have been bred in hard water; fish are only in the shop for a short time, not long enough to succumb to calcium depletion.
These fish evolved over millions of years to be adapted to the chemistry of the Rift Lakes, and just a few generations is not long enough to rewrite their DNA.
Changing the water quickly could be detrimental. Either start off with slightly hardened water and do your normal water change regime, increasing the new water hardness a bit at every water change; or do more, smaller water changes at the final strength new water. This will slowly increase the hardness to the target level.
These fish evolved over millions of years to be adapted to the chemistry of the Rift Lakes, and just a few generations is not long enough to rewrite their DNA.
Changing the water quickly could be detrimental. Either start off with slightly hardened water and do your normal water change regime, increasing the new water hardness a bit at every water change; or do more, smaller water changes at the final strength new water. This will slowly increase the hardness to the target level.
Okay thanks for the clarification, I will only add the rift lake salts every water change and monitor levels from there thanks
I would like to see more calcium in the Seachem Rift Lake salt but it will do if nothing else is available.
Check the ingredients on the Seachem buffer, most of them contain sodium bicarbonate, which can be bought from any supermarket for a couple of dollars a box.
Your pH isn't too bad for Lake Malawi cichlids (it could be a bit higher but they naturally occur in water with a pH between 7.6 & 8.5). It needs to be higher for Lake Tanganyikan cichlids that have a pH around 8.0-9.0.
You can add shells, limestone rocks and dead coral rubble to help raise the pH. These are all calcium based. Dolomite as mentioned by @Essjay can also be used. You can put some shells or limestone in the bucket of water you make up with the Rift Lake salts and that can help raise the pH while the salts are mixing. You need to make the Rift Lake salt up at least 24 hours before using it so all the salts can dissolve completely.
Check the ingredients on the Seachem buffer, most of them contain sodium bicarbonate, which can be bought from any supermarket for a couple of dollars a box.
Your pH isn't too bad for Lake Malawi cichlids (it could be a bit higher but they naturally occur in water with a pH between 7.6 & 8.5). It needs to be higher for Lake Tanganyikan cichlids that have a pH around 8.0-9.0.
You can add shells, limestone rocks and dead coral rubble to help raise the pH. These are all calcium based. Dolomite as mentioned by @Essjay can also be used. You can put some shells or limestone in the bucket of water you make up with the Rift Lake salts and that can help raise the pH while the salts are mixing. You need to make the Rift Lake salt up at least 24 hours before using it so all the salts can dissolve completely.
But the fish may decide to die if you re do your scape. Don't do that!
Yeah I probably should have done that in the first place. I don’t think I could be bothered to completely redo the substrate in the tankBut the fish may decide to die if you re do your scape. Don't do that!
Ph, GH & KH need to go up.
You can add some of the Rift Lake salts to a container of tank water, mix them thoroughly and then slowly add that to the tank. Do that a couple of times a week or start doing water changes a couple of times a week with harder water made from the Rift Lake salts. It will go up pretty quick.
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