Angela_96

We have the 55g new tank, I am taking back our substrate tomm we bought gravel and I really don't like the color and since we haven't opened it yet I figured I would exchange it. I have got mixed view points from websites and my 3 different cichlid books I have read. What we think we are going to do and I need opinions on this is half sand and half crushed coral? I am thinking the crushed coral will aid in the increasing of the pH for the cichlids that they like being african cichilds and naturally adding minerals to the water. I don't like the color of the cichlid substrate they sell and do we really need to buy that? I also have an aquarium book that said crushed coral shouldn't be used in a tropical fish tank, but from what I understand african cichilds lake water is salty, hard water, with a high ph so that wouldn't be the same as your normal tropical fish tank that say my guppies are in.
My question is this, would my crushed coral w/ half sand be okay?

Next question, I found some atlantic ocean based coral rock for sale would that be okay mixed in the tank w/ some river rocks to build caves/hidding spaces for the cichilds? I have also been looking at holey limestone, my husband mentioned lava rock but it seems to rough and I don't want the cichilds to scratch themselves on it, and w/ having catfish I don't like the lava rock either.

Also, do I have this right, for this type of cichlid it says no wood for the tank, they naturally do not have wood in their enviroment, and no plants. They only have alge.

sorry for so long of a bunch of questions but we want to get this right when we set this up and we don't want to put anything in the tank to hurt the fish and we are getting different veiwpoints everywhere we look, on websites like www.cichlids.com, and from our books that we bought.

≈ D ≈

The crushed coral/sand will indeed work for the reasons you stated. Just give the crushed coral and especially the sand a really good rinse to get rid of the dust.

I thought of doing the same but have decided instead to go with Eco-Complete for African Cichlids as it is black in color. Dark colored substrate brings out the fish colors more IMO and seems to make them feel more secure.

A lot of cichlids (African & American) are tank raised so having salt in the tank is not something to be concerned about - salt is generally used in FW tanks for medication only if I remember correctly, with the exception of brackish water setups.

The ocean coral rock - If you found this at a LFS it would also be safe to use but again give it a good rinse. If at the beach I would say boil it to make sure there are no critters in it but I'm not sure if it would just end up crumbling apart so you might want to wait for better advice on that. Or try and then let us know your results

Holey limestone - same as the coral rock.

Wood and plants - Well you could put wood in there if you want to but it will counteract the buffering of your sand/coral mixture a bit and may also turn the water a little brown (tannins). The tannins can be removed by soaking/boiling the wood first to remove most of them and then when in the tank carbon will eventually remove the rest. Bottom line is you can use it if you want to. There are some plants that you can have in an african cichlid setup but I don't remember what they are. Generally, plants get eaten up by them as well as dug up. The ones that I can't recall are not liked by them (taste-wise) and if placed in between rocks will help prevent them being dug up. If I do find which ones they are, I'll post them in this thread.

Barbrella

Here's a really good and detailed article that gives advice on setting up that type of tank!

http://www.cichlid-forum.com/article...lawi_setup.php

≈ D ≈

The link that Barbrella gave you is also where I saw the plants that can be used

BIG thank you Barbrella for nudging these old braincells of mine

Ntruder1400

Thanks for the link Barbrella. I am looking into starting a Malawi tank, and that article was very informative.