Questions about setting up my cichlid tank.

[Big.Jon]

So have my first cichlid tank up and fishless cycling. I have been testing my water daily. Ammonia has finally drop from 4 ppm to 1 ppm in the past 24 hours(added back to 4ppm now). My concern is my PH levels they have been really high 8.4 - 8.8 . I went ahead and did a small pwc to see what that would do and it did bring it down to a little under 8.4. I am using crushed coral. Would it be a good idea to use something to try to balance the PH back at around 8.2?

 

[Davemac]

no let the cycle continue and no more water changes are required until your nitrates are 160 ppm or higher as this will slow your nitrite eating bacteria, once nitrite starts to spike above 5ppm cut back on ammonia by half the amount everyday even skip a day it may help

 

[Davemac]

your ph will go up and down as will conductivity and tempreture just let it cycle first then if still too high add peat to filter or better still boogwood will lower it a small bit try and stay away from ph down! more stable high ph be a lot better than an unstable lower one where cichlids are concerned 

 

[Big.Jon]

K thanks

 

[Patterson333]

Cichlids can adjust to high pH quite readily, in fact some of them show their nicest colors and most interesting behaviors at higher pH's. I was speaking to a breeder the other day and he told me that Malawi Cichlids can do just fine in pH as high as 9, and Tanganyika cichlids could adapt to 10!

Just one thing to remember though, the higher the pH, the more dangerous ammonia becomes (there's a whole chemistry lesson behind that, but basically it converts more of the non-toxic form of ammonia to the toxic one), so with a high pH, you REALLY gotta make sure that ammonia levels are really low.

 

[Big.Jon]

Cichlids can adjust to high pH quite readily, in fact some of them show their nicest colors and most interesting behaviors at higher pH's. I was speaking to a breeder the other day and he told me that Malawi Cichlids can do just fine in pH as high as 9, and Tanganyika cichlids could adapt to 10!

Just one thing to remember though, the higher the pH, the more dangerous ammonia becomes (there's a whole chemistry lesson behind that, but basically it converts more of the non-toxic form of ammonia to the toxic one), so with a high pH, you REALLY gotta make sure that ammonia levels are really low.

Good to hear thx