hey there, this is Pov. i would love to chat about any thing i have lots to learn.

[Cichlid4life]

I have two tanks one is about 200lt and the other is probably 140 they are both rescued tanks, the 140 I got from my sister the back smashed so I patched it up and siliconed in a picture to hide the patches. I enjoyed it so brought some more glass to add to some I had laying around and built the deep 200 litre .
View attachment 89598
I finished moving all my fish and a few new ones today Into the 200.
I have had these fish for 12 months now they are African chiclids. I have built a stump with an intense cave system in the first 1/2 foot of the tank , I imagine I could have at least 30 mbunas living in the system that only come out when I tap for food, in the morning or when I turn on the lights which, incredible spacious. I haven't put in any plants yet I have room for improvements and am open to suggestions.
My new fish I added today are 2 giraffe or venustus plus an extra electric yellow.
View attachment 89599
The yellow was to replace my other one ,because at first I only put in my 3 female blue zebra and non dominant kenyi male .they really loved it alone but became really aggressive with all the extra room . When I also add my electric yellow the day after he was attacked and drilled in the flanks, the second I put him in. he went and layed on the sand on his side and then hid and only came out later tonight , hooray.
I added the alpha blue zebra and new fish, altogether today and the former ,they have calmed again all is good the giraffes have found a spot in the sand the alpha zebra owns the under world ,at least till he finishes building his nest.
I keep the ph above 7.5 but my main goal is the low ppm and high carbonate hardness I need help with this I cant get it , I think I need to add a strong acid.
My lights are growlush 130 watt I can change colours if I want I don't use air or co2. My filter is home made I've got 1200 Lt/hr pump sucking into a internal sump and use filter mats with a fairly large space cut in the lid it moves a fair stream but you can't see the effect in the tank I guess it's probably moving a 10 cm sqr cube per second.
I have crushed coral over the caves and sand as well.
the other tank has guppies in it .and since it,s where my fish were housed I,s not decorated. I also have two 250 ltr water boilers with plants guppies and gold fish ,and crayfish out side.
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your venustus is a HAP cichlid, and the others are definitely mbunas, the blue ones are blue zebra cobalts,and the orange ones are red zebra cichlids. All African cichlids are very aggressive, you must know to expect aggression and make sure they have a lot of hiding spaces, they prefer rock caves to hide in, and they will lock mouths, were at first the size up their mouths, then the smaller one goes off and never comes back, but if they are about the same size, they literally lock mouths and then the fight, the winner gets to keep/take the entity that they fought over, territory, a female, or a high ranking like being the tank boss. The loser must hide and either go away to some other part of the lake, or hide and never show his face to the male that beat him. if you do not know anything much about the aggression of African cichlids, feel free to ask about it as i am a fully knowledge keeper of them and if i know anything about them, it is that cichlids are very unpredictable and you can almost never guess what will happen next.

 

[pov]

it,s funny the lady at my pet store told me they were Malawi chiclids, I thought mbunas ,I am the only person that really buys them. I thought exccelent anew yellow, but I read about them found that out and they were heaps aggressive ect .thought I might try any way it works good atm coz they do eat pellets but my mbunas won't, fixs the diet difference and I think they go better then my electric yellows they nest like haps beside rocks and do different mating dances . They do give me trouble but I can handle it.
anyway here's some pics they are not red zebras well the first two sent they are female blue zebra or ice blues p.zebra I think , but the other one I am not sure it,s female I reckon but it has a peachy colour two it maybe it is red zebra m.esthrae I think. Do you know?
and I do have questions about them being territorial ,coz they obviously don't they follow into a nest then leave it and take the eggs . See mine fight like crazy the two , do they fight over the male , I really want more but I have to wait till the pet store gets given females so she can make money , she buys mixed which is fair but it,s been 6 months.
you can see I have added air too I haven't had to for them yet but that was a more established tank, I noticed that the highly oxygenated water makes them agro ,have you seen this , I cant turn it down it,s already as low as it goes without restricting it which I don't want to do it,s expensive.

 

[pov]

and also are you aware of a behavior such as, "if a chiclid wants to harm another fish it bites the flank" . it,s super sensitive along the lateral line and it doesn't need much of a bite to knock it out by doing it, this is a kill blow.
you might see them standing side face usually during a jaw lock fight and sometimes when they are approached by a fish they are sparing with ,like when swiming around. it's kinda " remember this " …… the showing of the flank is like holding your face out in a fight except it,s more like your nerve endings in an open wound, holes in your teeth or if your male spreading your legs apart.

 

[Cichlid4life]

it,s funny the lady at my pet store told me they were Malawi chiclids, I thought mbunas ,I am the only person that really buys them. I thought exccelent anew yellow, but I read about them found that out and they were heaps aggressive ect .thought I might try any way it works good atm coz they do eat pellets but my mbunas won't, fixs the diet difference and I think they go better then my electric yellows they nest like haps beside rocks and do different mating dances . They do give me trouble but I can handle it.
anyway here's some pics they are not red zebras well the first two sent they are female blue zebra or ice blues p.zebra I think , but the other one I am not sure it,s female I reckon but it has a peachy colour two it maybe it is red zebra m.esthrae I think. Do you know?
and I do have questions about them being territorial ,coz they obviously don't they follow into a nest then leave it and take the eggs . See mine fight like crazy the two , do they fight over the male , I really want more but I have to wait till the pet store gets given females so she can make money , she buys mixed which is fair but it,s been 6 months.View attachment 89617 View attachment 89617
you can see I have added air too I haven't had to for them yet but that was a more established tank, I noticed that the highly oxygenated water makes them agro ,have you seen this , I cant turn it down it,s already as low as it goes without restricting it which I don't want to do it,s expensive.

the first photo shows two red zebras, the second show a red zebra with a male kennyi at the top left, and the third image has the two venustus in the background near to top of the photo, an electric yellow lab in the middle, and the others are red zebras.

 

[Cichlid4life]

nd also if a chiclid wants to harm another fish it bites the flank . it,s super sensitive along the lateral line and it doesn't need much of a bite to knock it out by doing it, you prob see them standing side face usually during a jaw lock fight . and sometimes when they are approached by a fish they are sparing with ,like when swiming around. it's kinda " remember this " ……. can you add here ?

no offense to you, but i can't read some of what you are saying, either it is because i am an American and you are an Australian and both countries have many different words from each other, or it is that the typos are not making sense to me, but it seems like you are trying to ask if i have heard of a phrase or something at the end of your message, but i can't find a matching or similar one that i know of.

 

[pov]

the first photo shows two red zebras, the second show a red zebra with a male kennyi at the top left, and the third image has the two venustus in the background near to top of the photo, an electric yellow lab in the middle, and the others are red zebras.

thanks, for that I get what your saying about red zebras. I thought I found that red zebras where the opposite colours, blue females. And blue zebras were also p.pseudotropeus. Also larger which my blue one is it,s about 14 cm maybe more. It,s hard though the pictures of the fish in the descriptions change. I was about to say m.callainos then I seen the picture of them with a blue stripe like the electrics. The ice blue picture has red cheeks and the cobalt is almost black. It,s kinda like my typing.

 

[pov]

no phrase, just can you tell me more about the behavior of showing there flanks to each other. As well as tell me what the females fight for rather then territory.
I also edited it a bit. And thanks for telling me about the red zebras. It maybe why they are smaller.

 

[Colin_T]

no offense to you, but i can't read some of what you are saying, either it is because i am an American and you are an Australian and both countries have many different words from each other, or it is that the typos are not making sense to me, but it seems like you are trying to ask if i have heard of a phrase or something at the end of your message, but i can't find a matching or similar one that i know of.

It's because you are an American that doesn't use full stops

 

[FishGuest5123]

Hey, I’m an American and I use full stops. (I’m assuming you are referring to periods?)

 

[Colin_T]

I'm old school where we use capital letters, full stops, paragraphs and very few abbreviations. Although I do like LOL

 

[NickAu]

Colin its time you joined the rest of us in the 21 century, smoke signals went out about 100 years ago. We now have things like Iphones with cameras and we use abbreviations when we type.

I bet he hasnt even got Twitter.

 

[Colin_T]

My canary twitters and cheaps

 

[pov]

colin I probably should bow down a bit , in my tank I did measure out my carbonates and balance them aswell, I have read a section in wiki aquaria about raising kh with with bicarb ect it describes raising kh as adding carbonates. I do not take back what I said at all though.
and although I don't understand why adding ca and mg would have no effect on kh.
I cant put in all my research in my notes it has 45 ca , 25 mg , 125 co3 + h20 = 195 ions which balanced to the research done on the rift lakes, and In short
theres is for malawi
total solids 140mg/l
cations 2.45 anions 2.59
E.C 200ppm note that, lake tanganyiki is 600 +
PH, 8.55
caco3, 85.6 as ca= 49.0 mg= 36.6
cac03 129.0 as carbonates 2.58 meq/l
carbonates 78.69 mg/l
and instead of pointing out that co3 and so4 and po4 are similar saying that is why we measure out the ca and mg to unravel the kh mystery ,I,l err towards the o2 and co2 balance that effects that effects ph firstly , and more how the co3 (po4) is closer to the co2 at effecting our buffering ability in waters.

 

[Colin_T]

although I don't understand why adding ca and mg would have no effect on kh.

If you use calcium and magnesium chlorides it won't affect KH but will increase GH.

If you use calcium and magnesium bicarbonate then it will increase the KH.

It depends on which type of calcium and magnesium you use.

 

[pov]

this is a helpful link I found not a response !
lime reacts with CO2 in water to form calcium carbonate, https://www.education.com/science-fair/article/gas-sniffers/