Changed tank to cichlid tank

[dolphinsrok]

my 1st tank a, 35g I started the tank about 3 months ago with some mollies, red plattiea and neon tetras then decided to buy 3 electric yellow cichlids and they were fine until one day i see my largest plattie (bigger than the cichlids) on his back laying on the sand with his head missing and part of his fat stomach eaten. Pretty horrific scene so 2 days later I gave away all my fish except the 3 yellow cichlids. Last week i bought 1 orange cichlid, 1 blue cichlid and 1 livingston cichlid which looks like a army camoflauge. I have live plants, anubas, and plan on getting plants the livingston is comfortable with like tall grass but i need to raise my ph, i'm at 6 now, what's the safest way to raise ph?

I'm at the tail end of my cycle, I''m getting small amounts of nitrates but no nitrites and very little amonia. I'm worried about the ph and don't want to raise it the wrong way and hurt something. I'm not using any salt but will consider it if it helps. thanks

[Lab_Rat]

What is your hardness? As you likely know the rift lake cichlids need a high pH of around 8 and hard water to do well. A pH of 6 is not healthy for them but you don't want to change it rapidly. I add epsom salts to increase hardness and baking soda to increase pH for my mbuna. I have very soft water and every week when I do a 50% water change I add 3/4 tsp epsom salts and 3/4 tsp baking soda.

Just so you know, you'll soon need to upgrade to a much larger tank. I'm guessing your orange cichlid is a red zebra and the blue one could be a variety of species. All of these fish (along with the yellow labs) need a tank with a 4' footprint minimum when they start to hit sexual maturity or there will be deaths. The livingstoni will need 125g to be healthy. They get very large, too large for even a 55g. I'd reconsider keeping him in your tank even short term.

[dolphinsrok]

The livingstoni will need 125g to be healthy. They get very large, too large for even a 55g. I'd reconsider keeping him in your tank even short term.[/QUOTE]

I was worried about that, luckily i have a responsible friend tyhat has a 90 freshwater and wouls be willing to take him in. The hardness is about 60, is that too high? Also i'm doing about 50-55% water changes every 2 weeks, will that work if i get my ph and hardness up to par? I always use purified RO water with nothing in it.

[Billythefish]

Labrat has it down to a t, oh and be carefull to many male's and your in trouble, take a look at your yellow lab's if thay all have solid black fins all over then thay are male, if thay are females look for a more fadded black on the fins.

[Collin1104]

that is not a very good way of identifying the sex, the only way with most monomorphic cichlids is to vent them... look it up... and for proof that females can have extremely dark fins and males can even have very light if not any black, here is the best site in the world for cichlids.. [Only Registered Users Can See Links.] .. use the drop box underneath the picture to look at other pictures, they have females in there with all black fins

[Billythefish]

that is not a very good way of identifying the sex, the only way with most monomorphic cichlids is to vent them... look it up... and for proof that females can have extremely dark fins and males can even have very light if not any black, here is the best site in the world for cichlids.. [Only Registered Users Can See Links.] .. use the drop box underneath the picture to look at other pictures, they have females in there with all black fins
Zzz.....zzz.....zzz

[kaybee]

The nimbochromis livingstonii will be the quickest growing cichlid you currently have. What type of fish does your friend with the 90gal have?

Hardness of 60ppm is kind of low for lake malawi cichlids, however stable lower parameters (pH, gH, kH) are as good as ideal levels.

What type of "blue cichlid" do you have, can you post a pic?

[Fishguy2727]

Yes, black on all the fins of a yellow lab does not mean anything about the sex, it is just a slight color morph.

The tank is way too small. As stated the livingstonii will need a massive tank. In that size tank you could do all males and have four or so, or do a small breeding group of one species and have one male and three or so females.

Crushed coral in the filter can help with the pH a lot. Some use plaster and make it into small cubes and put that in the filter. This is supposed to be more effective than the crushed coral method. Adding certain salts and baking soda is another good option. A big pH change is fine as long as it is in the direction of ideal, not away from it.

You may want to check out the article on mbunas (and maybe the one on peacocks) which is in my blog and a sticky at the top of this forum.

[smcurry83]

I use kent cichlid buffer and kent cichlid chemistry to keep my pH around 7.8-8.0. It's really easy to use. Add chemistry each water change and buffer every two weeks or so.

[Dixie]

Hey Fishguy, I didn't know that about pH. I thought a big pH swing no matter which way was a bad thing. That's good to know. Thanks.

[Fishguy2727]

I used to think the same thing, but after seeing so many big swings in the systems at my work I just thought about it and it does make sense that quickly going toward ideal is not that bad. There obviously may be some limitaitons to this, but in general it holds true. I don't hesitate to jump the small koi pond at work from 6.8 to 7.8 in one day (probably more like an hour or so for the baking soda to do it), and they don't seem bothered at all (FEWER deaths (as in 0-1) the day after the swing than before).