Malawi advice

[Cavey]

I am setting up a 300lt Malawi tank. The aquarium had housed Discuss and some Bolivian Rams. When re setting it up for Malawi Cichlids I re used 200lt of the water that was in there and the filter medium was washed in the existing water before I added some limestone rock, lava rock and cichlid sand/gravel to the aquarium. After 3 days the nitrate level and ammonia is 0, the nitrate is 40 and the ph is about 7.6. Our tap water has a ph of 7. What I'd like to know for now is how long is it likely to take for the ph to stabilize? Also, with the tap water being 7, if the ph in the tank stabilises at say 7.7 or 7.8 will I need to add a buffer to the new water when doing a 30% water change? Seachem Malawi/Victoria buffer is readily available here. Once it does settle I should be able to start stocking the tank. The fish I intend stocking it with are a couple male Peacock's, some Kandangos, 2 Blue Dolphin and 5 or 6 Electric Yellow's.
Thanks

 

[Andrew McFadden]

I am setting up a 300lt Malawi tank. The aquarium had housed Discuss and some Bolivian Rams. When re setting it up for Malawi Cichlids I re used 200lt of the water that was in there and the filter medium was washed in the existing water before I added some limestone rock, lava rock and cichlid sand/gravel to the aquarium. After 3 days the nitrate level and ammonia is 0, the nitrate is 40 and the ph is about 7.6. Our tap water has a ph of 7. What I'd like to know for now is how long is it likely to take for the ph to stabilize? Also, with the tap water being 7, if the ph in the tank stabilises at say 7.7 or 7.8 will I need to add a buffer to the new water when doing a 30% water change? Seachem Malawi/Victoria buffer is readily available here. Once it does settle I should be able to start stocking the tank. The fish I intend stocking it with are a couple male Peacock's, some Kandangos, 2 Blue Dolphin and 5 or 6 Electric Yellow's.
Thanks

again
Imo that's to many big fish for a 300L imo. The blue dolphin get to be 9" and kandango get to be 8". If you really want some haps I'd find some that only get around 5-6". Or I would probably only do 2 maybe 3 of the Cichlids that get to that 8-9" marker if I really wanted them then maybe a couple smaller ones.

As far as the ph goes if it doesn't change within 24 hours it more than likely won't. Another thing I wanted to show and tell is that you can use the rift lake salts if you want it will help. Or you can make your own witch is cheaper and will last a lot longer. Here is a link for that
http://www.cichlid-forum.com/articles/buffer_recipe.php

 

[Cavey]

Thanks Andrew. I thought I might of been pushing my luck a little with the Dolphins and Kandangos. It is the male Peacock's that I really want and I was looking for other Malawi cichlids that might not get too aggressive. Can you suggest any others? The last time I tried the African Cichlids there was very little info available on them, this is before the invention of this thing called the 'Internet'. I put about 6 Auratus in a 4' aquarium with crushed coral base and one large sandstone rock in the centre. It wasn't long before I had one male Auratus left, he killed the rest. So I've stayed clear of African's until now. I might try 4 male Peacock's and 6 Electric Yellow's if I can't find anything else available.

So it looks like the ph has settled at around 7.6 - 7.7. The local pet shop that stocks a lot of the African's have the ph in their tanks at 7.7 so I don't think I'll add buffer to the aquarium, but with the tap water at 7 should I add buffer to the new water during a water change (30%)?

Thanks, all advice is greatly appreciated.

 

[Andrew McFadden]

Tramitichromis Intermedius
Placidochromis Electra "Makonde"
Lethrinops Red Cap "Itungi"

That's a few here is a trusted profile list of all haps but remember thing small because most get really big
http://tinyurl.com/yqx2sw

Something is buffering your water if its 7 at the tap and higher in the tank. Do you know what it is? Did you use crushed coral? If you are buying wild or f1 caught you may want to use the rift lake salt. It will keep them from flashing so much, mine was horrible about it then I started using epson salt and aquarium salt. I have even tryed the minerals but I didn't notice a change.

 

[Cavey]

Thanks. Yeah, the substrate is doing the buffering. Can't remember exactly what it was called but is a fairly fine (1 - 2mm) white rock and is recommended to raise hardness and ph in a African cichlid tank. Do you think I should add a buffer to the water to get the ph up higher or would I be okay to leave it where it is? If I was to add a buffer and raise it to say 8.0, am I going to have a problem adding the fish that have been in tanks with a ph of 7.7? How much of a ph variation can you get away with adding fish from a different level? Ideally I'd like to leave it where it is at around the 7.7 and just add buffer to new water being added during changes. But then again, if I'm not going to have any dramas moving fish from 7.7 to 8.0 then I may as well buffer the tank up to 8.0 now. Sorry for all the questions, hope I am not running around in circles

 

[Andrew McFadden]

Thanks. Yeah, the substrate is doing the buffering. Can't remember exactly what it was called but is a fairly fine (1 - 2mm) white rock and is recommended to raise hardness and ph in a African cichlid tank. Do you think I should add a buffer to the water to get the ph up higher or would I be okay to leave it where it is? If I was to add a buffer and raise it to say 8.0, am I going to have a problem adding the fish that have been in tanks with a ph of 7.7? How much of a ph variation can you get away with adding fish from a different level? Ideally I'd like to leave it where it is at around the 7.7 and just add buffer to new water being added during changes. But then again, if I'm not going to have any dramas moving fish from 7.7 to 8.0 then I may as well buffer the tank up to 8.0 now. Sorry for all the questions, hope I am not running around in circles

It will be fine where it is at I wouldn't add anything else other than the rift salt stuff. You'll do it now to get the water ready for the fish than at every water change for however much water your replacing, not on top off's though.

You can try it without if you want ( I did) to see the difference or to see if you can get away with not using.

I have hard well water I don't use any buffer. The only stuff I use is epson and a little salt because I think it helps them.

 

[Cavey]

I think I'll leave the aquarium water the way it is and add buffer to the new water until it matches the water in the aquarium. Thanks very much for your help Andrew. I'll post a pic once I get some fish in there later next week.

 

[Cavey]

Another question. If I add the seachem Malawi/Victoria buffer and cichlid lake salt, how long does it take for the water to stabilize after adding these. That is, will I get an accurate ph and hardness reading if I test the water an hour after adding these or do I have to wait longer?

 

[Andrew McFadden]

Another question. If I add the seachem Malawi/Victoria buffer and cichlid lake salt, how long does it take for the water to stabilize after adding these. That is, will I get an accurate ph and hardness reading if I test the water an hour after adding these or do I have to wait longer?

I only wait an hour but some people wait a few hours before testing again.

 

[Cavey]

Great. Thanks once again.

 

[Andrew McFadden]

Great. Thanks once again.

No problem