New To The Forum And New Malawi Set Up! Excited! :d

[mattyouk]

Hi there!!
Recently had a change of heart and decided that my pair of Oscars were getting too big for my 45 gallon tank. I wanted to go for something interesting colorfull and that will breed, so of course Malawi were the obvious choice!!
I have 8 malawi's (3 Yellow Labs, 2 Red Zebra and 3 other that I'm not sure of) and one Albino Convict. Will add another 10 fish next weekend. The tank is fully mature after having the Oscars in their and is filtered by an external Fluval 205 and an internal Fluval U2. The PH currently is at 7, but am looking to buffer it up to 8 ASAP. Any advice on how to do this? I was thinking of putting crushed coral into the external filter but not sure on how much I would need? Any advice, comments or criticsm appreciated!! thanks.

Before with Oscars

And now

 

[mattyouk]

Have been searching the net and think I may have identified one of my cichlids as a Tropheops sp. "red cheek", seems to match the description and is one of the more aggresive habitants of the tank.

Can anyone confirm please and also male or female?

 

[PEneoark]

I use a mix of 20 lbs crushed coral/graded aragonite and 30 lbs aragonite sand for my substrate in my 55 gallon Malawi. pH from the tap is 7.2-7.4, and is buffered to 8.2-8.4 from the substrate alone.