cichlid substrate??????

[k1clem]

What is the best substrate for cichlids? I was thinking of black gravel or sand but then I seen pool filter sand. Also i was thinking about putting crushed coral in the sump I made for a buffer. I will have about 125 pounds of texas holey rock in there aswell.

 

[mfdrookie516]

Depends on what kind of cichlids... with you saying that you're going to have a bunch of holey rock, I can only assume you're talking about africans. I kept PFS in my mbuna tank and didn't worry with adding buffers and stuff. I didn't keep wild caught fish, so I never felt the need to.

 

[k1clem]

Sorry, yea they are Africans. I have the cichlid substrate now in my 75 gallon but it doesn't look as nice as it did when it was new. Does the pfs turn green? I read on some posts that it gets alot of algae.

 

[mfdrookie516]

mine never did. some people will say that they've had issues with diatoms and this and that, but my experience wasn't like that. I was very happy with it, and still am in the 2 tanks that currently have PFS in them

 

[k1clem]

Awesome! Thanks man.

 

[HUKIT]

I use Caribsea's black Tahtian Moon sand and couldn't be any happier, IMO nothing brings out the color of fish like black substrate.

 

[k1clem]

Yea that would be sweet. I seen in a post that black substrate will make your fish darker. That was the first I heard of that.

 

[BillD]

I use black blasting sand, that retails for around $10 for 88lbs. It is an option if you want black and cheap.

 

[Fishguy2727]

I use Estes' Ultra Reef Black or black and white mixed. It is silica based but has a poymer coating to prevent any brown algae problems.

If you want/need to use crushed coral to increase KH/pH put it in the filter like carbon, not just sitting on the bottom of a sump or something. This will give it much better flow and be much more effective.

 

[k1clem]

Do you think that I would have a problem using egg crate with sand? I have some heavy hokey rock going in.

 

[Fishguy2727]

It is recommended. The eggcrate should go down first, then rocks, then the sand.