yankeeslover
Aquarium Advice Activist
- Joined
- Jan 4, 2012
- Messages
- 107
Good morning. After 1.5 years away from the hobby, I have the itch again. I had a reef system up to 2018, but didnt have the time to really upkeep it like it should have and got the the point where the pleasure did not outweigh the work so it was time to take a break.
Recently I purchased a 55 gallon tank to venture into Cichlids. I have always wanted Africian Cichlids as I think would be a nice happy medium between my old freshwater days and my saltwater. I realize it will be a bit more challenging then my community thanks, but not so much challenging as my reef setup. I have decided thru research that I would like to do an all Mbuna setup.
Here are my two questions for now. I setup the 55 gallon with the caribsea cichlid sand. Roughly 65 or so pounds of it. I understand this is a good buffer for the PH. I'm wondering how I raise the PH level when I do partial WC? As far as upping the PH in the new tap water that is. If my tank is say 8.0 ph but my tap is say 7.5, is their a product we use to raise the tap water up? I know I use baking soda in my pool but I imagine not so healthy in a fish setup? Or would adding that lower ph water to my tank automatically raise once it hits tank?
Second question is about fish. I would like to do a few groups of 4 or 5 different mbuna species, like say 5 yellow labs and 5 Acei, this is for example as I'm not sure what species I will go with(that's another question for the group another day). I understand I should do 1 male with 3-4 females per each species, but how do I know the sex of the species? Let's say I purchase 5 labs to start my setup after I am all cycled, as I want to add each species at a time. 5 labs, then couple weeks later add another species and so on, but every LFS I have visited or every online fish store I browsed are all unsexed, how do I know what sex I am getting? My luck I would end up with all males or all females. Any suggestions? Thanks for taking time to read and help.
Recently I purchased a 55 gallon tank to venture into Cichlids. I have always wanted Africian Cichlids as I think would be a nice happy medium between my old freshwater days and my saltwater. I realize it will be a bit more challenging then my community thanks, but not so much challenging as my reef setup. I have decided thru research that I would like to do an all Mbuna setup.
Here are my two questions for now. I setup the 55 gallon with the caribsea cichlid sand. Roughly 65 or so pounds of it. I understand this is a good buffer for the PH. I'm wondering how I raise the PH level when I do partial WC? As far as upping the PH in the new tap water that is. If my tank is say 8.0 ph but my tap is say 7.5, is their a product we use to raise the tap water up? I know I use baking soda in my pool but I imagine not so healthy in a fish setup? Or would adding that lower ph water to my tank automatically raise once it hits tank?
Second question is about fish. I would like to do a few groups of 4 or 5 different mbuna species, like say 5 yellow labs and 5 Acei, this is for example as I'm not sure what species I will go with(that's another question for the group another day). I understand I should do 1 male with 3-4 females per each species, but how do I know the sex of the species? Let's say I purchase 5 labs to start my setup after I am all cycled, as I want to add each species at a time. 5 labs, then couple weeks later add another species and so on, but every LFS I have visited or every online fish store I browsed are all unsexed, how do I know what sex I am getting? My luck I would end up with all males or all females. Any suggestions? Thanks for taking time to read and help.
