Quikrete play sand

[gwand]

What do you want your Cichlids to do? It may sound like a really dumb question, but it's central to choosing. What kind of stocking and behaviour interests you?

Stocking. Given my Water GH of 200 ppm I was thinking of a few mating pairs of Anomalchromis thomasi and a few mating pairs of Pelvicachromis subocellatus.

Behavior. I am curious about courtship, rituals, parental care, and feeding behaviors. I am not interested in seeing a lot of aggression. I am hoping with a 4 foot long tank, plenty of Rocky caves and appropriately placed plants aggression will be mitigated. Thank you.

 

[GaryE]

Generally, Pelvicachromis subocellatus should be one pair per tank. A Pelvicachromis in nature can hold a 9 square metre territory. I don't know of any dwarf that tolerates company, even in a four footer.
A thomasi wouldn't be company in their world, as they don't compete for spawning sites, and six would work. They are hard to sex, so you take your chances.
Neither would breed well in 200 ppm water, if at all. The eggs would probably be infertile. I had trouble at 140, though I got reduced broods of subocellatus. I really don't think your water would compromise their health. They just may not be able to spawn well.

Sometimes you get 5 or 10 fry instead of 50-60, which works for a lot of us.

Both species will allow you to have tetras too.

Female subocellatus in breeding colour are fantastic. They are so colourful it looks like it would hurt to look like that. You will see that at 200 ppm. A four footer would let you add a shoal of Phenecogrammus interuptus or Alestopetersius caudalis. That would look very good, especially the Alestos, which aren't as big. You have a Congo Cichlid and tetras, and Guinean thomasi group.

 

[Magnum Man]

This may not be what you're looking for, but I've tried 3 sands, this was the most expensive, but required "almost" no rinsing...

Amazon.com

I got the black & love it... my earth eaters & Cory's also love it... I sill got a little sang i9n my hang on tank Tidal 75, at last service... I had gotten some really fine sand, the 1st I tried, &, as @GaryE ... said I literally lost half the bag...

part of the trouble with the cheaper sands is they are not classified ( sized consistently ) shipping can add more fines , I'm sure the moisture percentage where the sand is packed also effects the % of fines...

 

[sharkweek178]

This may not be what you're looking for, but I've tried 3 sands, this was the most expensive, but required "almost" no rinsing...

Amazon.com

I got the black & love it... my earth eaters & Cory's also love it... I sill got a little sang i9n my hang on tank Tidal 75, at last service... I had gotten some really fine sand, the 1st I tried, &, as @GaryE ... said I literally lost half the bag...

part of the trouble with the cheaper sands is they are not classified ( sized consistently ) shipping can add more fines , I'm sure the moisture percentage where the sand is packed also effects the % of fines...

I had a bad experience with that brand once. I put some in a bucket to rinse it off. I added water and got this...

 

[Magnum Man]

may have been the black... ( which is what I bought ) I'd probably choose white the next time... I probably could have pulled the "cheaper" out of the last line of my post above, and just said "sands" aren't consistent...

BTW... I did get some of that, a tablespoon or so, in a 20 lb bag but it floated, & was easy to separate from the granules...

 

[gwand]

Generally, Pelvicachromis subocellatus should be one pair per tank. A Pelvicachromis in nature can hold a 9 square metre territory. I don't know of any dwarf that tolerates company, even in a four footer.
A thomasi wouldn't be company in their world, as they don't compete for spawning sites, and six would work. They are hard to sex, so you take your chances.
Neither would breed well in 200 ppm water, if at all. The eggs would probably be infertile. I had trouble at 140, though I got reduced broods of subocellatus. I really don't think your water would compromise their health. They just may not be able to spawn well.

Sometimes you get 5 or 10 fry instead of 50-60, which works for a lot of us.

Both species will allow you to have tetras too.

Female subocellatus in breeding colour are fantastic. They are so colourful it looks like it would hurt to look like that. You will see that at 200 ppm. A four footer would let you add a shoal of Phenecogrammus interuptus or Alestopetersius caudalis. That would look very good, especially the Alestos, which aren't as big. You have a Congo Cichlid and tetras, and Guinean thomasi group.

Thanks, Gary. That is helpful. Let me pick your brain on another topic. My tanks are filled with well Water with a constant nitrate level of 28 ppm. For my smaller tanks when I do water exchange, I use 50% well Water and 50% springwater that has no nitrates. But with this new 60 gallon, it would be ridiculous to try to dilute 30 gallons of water each week with springwater. I thought of the RO systems, but then I have to lug about 50 gallons of RO water around to fill my tanks, not to mention doctoring it up with salt and minerals. There is an ion exchange resin system that I could hook up to my well water system that will completely fill throughout nitrates. But it cost over $2000 so that’s not gonna happen. So my question is do you think I will be doing any short or long-term harm having these fish in Tanks with nitrate levels of 28 ppm. Because I am fastidious about Water exchangers the nitrate level never goes above the baseline 28 ppm contributed by the well water. Sorry to be long winded.

 

[NinaK]

1. Since the new tank will house African cichlids what do think of this product?
CaribSea African Cichlid Mix - Sahara Sand 20lbs. I assume it has a lot of calcium carbonate. My pH is 7.5.
2. Do African Cichlids have a preference for white vs. black sand?
Thanks

I used crushed coral in my 90g mauna tank. Our Ph is very low where we are and the crushed coral was very efficient as a constant buffer.