Cichlid water conditioner..

[jaymz]

Is there anything to those water conditioners that are supposed to make the water levels to what the cichlids prefer. Do they work? If you use it does it make it harder to raise the pH for breeding?

[jeffs99dime]

are you referring to african cichlids? need more details

[jaymz]

no, do they only make them for africans? that all i have ever really scene, i keep south americans. Just wondering if they worked or just another bottle of BS sitting on the shelf

[zackish]

Just use regular water conditioner. Anything that says it changes the PH or anything like that is bad, you want a stable PH rather than trying to use conditioners and such to get it to a certain level.

[Fishguy2727]

Conditioners are chemicals that usually remove/detoxify chlorine, chloramines, and heavy metals. It sounds like you are talking about buffers and trace additives. It depends on what fish you have and what your tap water's paramters are. If you have something that needs softer water and have extremely hard tap, or need to lower pH, you may need a buffer. If you have very soft tap and have Central American cichlids you may need to harden it. If you use a buffer I would recommend Proper pH, it is very good at getting the pH to a certain point and holding it there for a while. You need to monitor pH whenever you use adjusters. If the buffer does not hold the pH stable, don't use it, the pH going up and down is much worse than being wrong. Stability is important.

What types of fish exactly?
What pH does your tap hold at?

[jaymz]

I have cutteri, rams, and discus. I had no intention of using them unless it was going to be a huge help. I work at a lfs and have been asked questions about it and i always tell people i have never used them and wouldnt add anything to your water that isn't absolutely nessecary. BUT.. about the local water.. the water company here changes the what they use to treat the water several times a year depending on temperature and what kind of bacteria and other things they are battling. At the moment our water is so acidic it unreal. So many people are having problems and off the shelf products are not really helping for more than a day or two. Is there a good product or trick to nuertalize your water. I use jack whattley's $100 water filter and that is a hard sell to people with 10 and 29 gallon tanks.

Thanks