salts for africans

[zoezealand]

hello,
I dont keep any africans at the moment, but am researching keeping Malawi Mbunas,
the water out my tap has a pH of 7.7 (so i dont think I'll buffer that)
there seems to be lots of salts out there that people use (pool, epsom, table, magnesium sulfate etc.), each website I come across suggest different things or different doses
would I need to buffer hardness if I just keep electic yellows or saulosi? if so what salt is best for this? or would crushed coral and stuff be better?
basicly, what do I need to add that is essential? (keep it simple, i'm learning)

thanks
kathryn

[cosmotiger1]

hi kathyn
if you could put some crushed coral in the tank that will certainly help buffer the water and as for salt, i just use cooking salt.
for malawis roughly 1 tablespoon per 20 ltrs.

you will find everyone has different oppinions on how much salt. alot of people will prob not use that much but i find it helps protect your fish against diseases and parasites better.

but as long as you use some salt it should be fine.

cheers
hope that helps

[here fishie fishie]

The most important thing is ph stability. Therefore I would be checking the carbonate hardness of your water.
http://www.cichlid-forum.com/articles/hardness.php

Calcium carbonate/crushed coral can be good, but once algae or waste has covered the surface area then the buffering capabilities is alot less to nil.

Some good reading on salt too.
http://www.aquascienceresearch.com/APInfo/Salt.htm

Frenchy :D

[zoezealand]

great thanks!
I went down to my LFS to get my hardness tested, but they were out of indicater  :roll:  the guy gave good advice though, (said that the water was generally hard)

plan:
either a 2' by 2' or a 3'x1' tank (which is better?)
either 4 electric yellows, or 4 saulois or similar
calcium carbonate gravel stuff (where is the cheapest place to get this?)
1tbspn salt per 30L
no other pH buffer (except maybe when aclimatising new fish to my 7.5ph, is this a good idea, I had some fish die previously, because I think the change was to sudden (even though I floated the bag for 2.5 hours))
1500L/h internal filter


sound good?
am I missing anything?
i hope to buy some fish at the next auction to put in

thanks

[here fishie fishie]

[quote:7dabde667b]no other pH buffer (except maybe when aclimatising new fish to my 7.5ph, is this a good idea, I had some fish die previously, because I think the change was to sudden (even though I floated the bag for 2.5 hours)) [/quote:7dabde667b]
What was the ph of the water where you bought these last fish from?

Fish shouldn't be left in the bags for long. This can create more harm than good. Stress them out for a start....
If you were concerned about ph differences, better of placing fish & water  from bag in a bucket with air stone & adding water from the tank to the bucket.

Frenchy :D

[caryb]

Hi, This is a contentious issue amoungst Cichlid breeders/collectors, myself I use pool salt 5 times out of 6 on the sixth water change I use plain (treated) water. The reason for this is through evaporation you get a concentration build-up of salt.


Cheers cary

[gc]

I think it would be better to replace the same amount of water you take out, then top it up with fresh water.

The Mbuna would like a big pile of rocks along the back of the tank.

[zoezealand]

I dont know what the ph of the bag was, it was saulosi
I opened the bag when it was floating, and removed the dirt from the bottom, I added a cup  - 2cups full of my water every 20mins, when the bag was full and they were in 90% my water (about 2 hours), I released them into a 20" quarintine tank, it had no gravel but several coral like shells making caves and stuff, and 2 teaspoons of salt per 15L (~the same as 1tablespoon every 20L), they looked fine that evening, lively, next morning, 4 dead fish on the tank bottom, dont know what killed them, no visible signs, and the other non-cichlids were fine (in different tank) so I blame the change in water chemistry

I considered adding them to a bucket, but there was not much water in the bag, so I thought that shallow water would stress them too, next time i will aerate the bag though, any other suggestions??

stress might have killed them, but would all 4 go?

the evaporation is a good point, i'll remember that, caryb did you use the same dose of salt as cosmotiger?

dont worry gc, I'll play around with rocks, caves, backgrounds and stuff

thanks for all the input :D
kathryn

[GTR73]

You're right Kathryn, lots of different salt recipes to go by and it's always a hot topic among fishkeepers. I went down the road of extensive research, deciding on a regime involving baking soda, rock salt, epsom salts and testing kits, and in the end it was just too bloody complicated. When I found that my P.saulosi and E.yellows were still happy and breeding straight off Brisbane tap water and regardless what mucking around I did, I came to the conclusion to simply use the good ol' KISS theory: Keep It Simple Stupid.
So now all I do is add 1 teaspoon of Rock Salt (Sodium Chloride) per 18Ltrs of water changed, which seems to be the only thing required in my summation, and that keeps 'em happy and fornicating.

Each to his own but this is simple, keeps my Mbuna happy and looking great (including my recent addition of P.Acei with their first mouthfuls), so it works for me.

[Savage_roo]

Ok
I have heaps of malawies and i never add salt unless one of the fish has a cut or somthing and my fish breed all the time
But I do think peacocks may need salt
You can get a sepcialty salt made for maliwies , but its not cheep
I use crushed coarl for a buffer 1kg 200Ls works best
Its about 12$ for 2 kg
I may be a bit lasy I do a water change every 2 weeks weekly for growing fry

So I hopethis helps for what its worth
Godd Luck with ya next batch

Andrew

[zoezealand]

great, that does help,

is the lfs the best place to buy crushed coral/calcium carbonate?

cheers :D

[GTR73]

Post a WTB (Want To Buy) for Crushed Coral here on the forums in the Aquarium Trader section and you will hopefully get responses from breeders or traders that will have it available cheap.
Same with just about any aquarium related product - cheaper here thru the forums, whether it be a sponsor or a fellow enthusiast.  :roll: