voiceless_kat

I will be setting up a small cichlid tank, 36g. Since I am having problems finding what I want, I am starting with kribs and pearl gouramis or kribs and rainbows. My water is very, very hard off a well, and I currently use it in my 55g community tank.

I have heard there is a special substrate/gravel to buy for cichlid tanks that keeps the PH constant and the water ( in this case), alkaline.

Is it necessay to use this as substrate, or is regular aquarium gravel all right - keeping in mind that the kribs could one day be traded for dwarf African cichlids.


Thanks. Val

steveangela1

you don't have to get the cichlid substrate, you can buy crushed coral for them and it has the minerals in it and will keep the ph alkaline for you just the same. Also, a good rock to use in your fishtank if you can get it from a landscaping company is limestone, luckily here in tn where I live it is plentiful, I got a ton of it for free out of our local lake and treated it myself (we soaked it in bleach and then boiled it for a while, then scrubed it in water) you would want to treat any rocks you get from anywhere including an online aquarium supply company.

If you get reg aquarium gravel, you could ad limestone in the tank when you get the african cichlids. I would make sure you get a thin gravel, they like to dig in it w/ their mouths and move it around a lot.


Honestly if you have hard water, having african cichlids is the way to go, that is the same problem we have w/ our city water. If we go w/ any other fish we will need an r/o unit.

voiceless_kat

Kronus 85...
I am SOOOOOO Sorry! When I posted this I thought I was starting a new post, now wonder I couldn't find it.

I did not mean to hi-jack the post kronus 85 started.

I just deleted the post answered above and will try to start a new one.

Val

voiceless_kat

I will be setting up a small cichlid tank, 36g. Since I am having problems finding what I want, I am starting with kribs and pearl gouramis or kribs and rainbows. My water is very, very hard off a well, and I currently use it in my 55g community tank.

I have heard there is a special substrate/gravel to buy for cichlid tanks that keeps the PH constant and the water ( in this case), alkaline.

Is it necessay to use this as substrate, or is regular aquarium gravel all right - keeping in mind that the kribs could one day be traded for dwarf African cichlids.

Won't the water stay alkaline on its own??

Val

Butterfly

http://www.caribsea.com/pages/products/cichlid.html Heres six different Cichlid gravel/sand mixtures. I use the Sahara Sand for my Multies and love it
Carol

Butterfly

Val I took the liberty of moving those posts to where you thought you were posting them
Carol