salinity/specific gav for a. cichlids

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danepatrick

Feeder Fish
MFK Member
Jan 3, 2006
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louisiana, usa
let's clear this up. (or for me anyway)
what should the salinity and/or specific gravity be for the different african lake cichlids?
thanks in advance.
 
IMO, your pH and KH are far more important than SG for rift lake cichlids. While adding a marine salt mix will invariably raise your pH and your KH, it is not necessary for rift lake cichlids. SG need not be anything other than 1.000 as long as your pH is 7.5 or higher for Malawis and probably 8.0 or higher for Tanganyikans.
 
icthyophile said:
IMO, your pH and KH are far more important than SG for rift lake cichlids. While adding a marine salt mix will invariably raise your pH and your KH, it is not necessary for rift lake cichlids. SG need not be anything other than 1.000 as long as your pH is 7.5 or higher for Malawis and probably 8.0 or higher for Tanganyikans.
Click to expand...

so then what about a product like seachem's cichlid salt. what about the minerals and trace elements? :confused:
 
Before you start to add anything to the water, you need to know the the parameters of the tap water. Where I live, the PH, GH, and KH are fine out of the tap. I keep mixed Africans with a PH of 7.8 right out of the tap. GH varies from 10-14 or so, KH never gets more than 6 or so. Fish seem to do fine, and my thinking is the less I have to play with the water chemistry the better.
 
Rift lake Africans are not brackish fish. They have nothing to do with marine salt. No need for raising or measiring the specific gravity or salinity since you shouldn't have one. They are strictly freshwater fish.
They need hard water. That's all. You can achieve this easily enough using a certain types of media or substrate.
I used crushed oyster shell in my XP3 to serve as a buffering media. You can also use crushed coral as media and as substrate. If the tank can handle it (meaning it won't ruin your filter) you can use calcium cobronate based sand like Reptisand.
African "rift lake salts" are overprices empsom salts used for raising hardness. You can mix your own "salt mix" using an online recipe for much cheaper.

http://www.thekrib.com/Plants/CO2/rift.html#4
http://www.cichlid-forum.com/articles/buffer_recipe.php - This one uses marine salt but in such small amounts that it is not detectable.
 
I use aquarium salt and try to keep my sg reading constant. My meter shows the value for salt water but I try to keep my tanks at around 1000. Salt can be used as a simple form of medication. An article I read, written by a person with knowledge, explained that most of the bugs that create problems for fish are single cel organisims. A small change is the value of the saltiness of the water is enough to kill them off. The salt will also help the fish in general. Will try to locate the article and will them post some greater detail on the use of salt.
Adding some salt to the water with "hole in the head sickness" definitely helps to get rid of it.:naughty: :woot: :clap :headbang2 :thumbsup:
 
I have not kept African rift cichlids, mainly because almost everywhere I lived had somewhat acidic water, however here is what I have learned.
The rift cichlids don't require salinity, though there are a few exceptions such as the ones from saline pools and hot spring areas, the salts they require are mainly calcium, phosphorus, and magnesium salts.
Cichlid and rift salts contain very little sodium chloride, instead they are trace elements and calcium sulfate with phosphates and sometimes buffers.
For large tanks and frequent water changes they can get expensive.
PH. requirements vary per species but here are the averages;
Lake Malawi 7.4-8.6 pH
Lake Tanganyika 7.8-9.0 pH
Lake Victoria 7.2-8.6 pH

The pH most commonly recommended, especially for mixed tanks, is a stable 8.2-8.4.
The dH required also varies but 10-15 works for almost all of them, again the exceptions are specialty fish.
Straightjacket star has already mentioned home style buffers that can be used and here is a recipe for homemade "cichlid salts" that is much cheaper than store bought. It is an average of several found online and an exact repeat of the one from Badman's Tropical Fish,
This recipe is per 5 gallons water,
1 tablespoon Epsom's salt (magnesium sulphate)
1 teaspoon baking soda (sodium bicarbonate)
1 teaspoon aquarium salt or marine salt (Potassium and trace elements)

This recipe should bring you to between pH 8.2-8.6, dH 10-15, if you start at pH neutral dH 6-8.
Something I see repeated everywhere are reminders that rift tanks need good biofiltration as ammonia is much more toxic at higher pH levels.

I hope that helps.
 
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