sealife
Aquarium Advice FINatic
Hello everyone,
First post here *waves*
Im starting a new American cichlid tank. Possibly anything like; black belt, jack dempsey, texas, red devil, convict, flowerhorn, etc etc. Not sure which kind yet. But i do want 1 bristlenose catfish in there, as i love catfish. Hope they are compatible.
I had some questions:
1.
I wanted to ask. I am currently doing fishless cycle with ammonia, and after that, apart from the water ager (that i already used before the cycle, and after) to remove chlorine, what else is best used for these type of fish?
2.
Do i add some kind of cichlid salt and KH buffer etc etc? (how high should GH and KH be?)
3.
Is normal tap water PH fine? or should i lower it? (local store said it needs to be lower than tap water of 7.6ph)
4.
And water average water temp should i have. I set it to 23.5 to 24 degrees.
5.
Also do i need an air pump? i have a large filter over 11 times the water flow rate of my tank size. (store said its fine with no air pump)
6.
When I am done with fishless cycle, I heard I need to do a large 70 to 90% water change to get rid of nitrates. I don't want to kill off my bacteria with new water that holds chlorine. When I empty tank and add new water in tank, can I put water in bucket with ager for 15 minutes, to clear chlorine, then pour into tank? is 15 minutes enough with ager to get rid of chlorine?
I have searched everything online, and keep getting different results all the time, from different websites.
Most local fish stores also recommend buffering water and using salt, but im not sure if they are just after my money....
i just want the best for my fish health.
Thank you.
Kind regards,
sealife.
First post here *waves*
Im starting a new American cichlid tank. Possibly anything like; black belt, jack dempsey, texas, red devil, convict, flowerhorn, etc etc. Not sure which kind yet. But i do want 1 bristlenose catfish in there, as i love catfish. Hope they are compatible.
I had some questions:
1.
I wanted to ask. I am currently doing fishless cycle with ammonia, and after that, apart from the water ager (that i already used before the cycle, and after) to remove chlorine, what else is best used for these type of fish?
2.
Do i add some kind of cichlid salt and KH buffer etc etc? (how high should GH and KH be?)
3.
Is normal tap water PH fine? or should i lower it? (local store said it needs to be lower than tap water of 7.6ph)
4.
And water average water temp should i have. I set it to 23.5 to 24 degrees.
5.
Also do i need an air pump? i have a large filter over 11 times the water flow rate of my tank size. (store said its fine with no air pump)
6.
When I am done with fishless cycle, I heard I need to do a large 70 to 90% water change to get rid of nitrates. I don't want to kill off my bacteria with new water that holds chlorine. When I empty tank and add new water in tank, can I put water in bucket with ager for 15 minutes, to clear chlorine, then pour into tank? is 15 minutes enough with ager to get rid of chlorine?
I have searched everything online, and keep getting different results all the time, from different websites.
Most local fish stores also recommend buffering water and using salt, but im not sure if they are just after my money....
i just want the best for my fish health.
Thank you.
Kind regards,
sealife.