is it possible to have your KH too high for malawi's ???

EDIT : also, i just thought, how high levels of nirate will malawi's tolerate ?

This post has been edited by darrel69: Nov 22 2007, 08:50 PM

How high are you thinking, in my experience the harder the water, the happier they are. Mbuna like other fish won't tolerate high nitrates over a period of time, as long as it's under 50ppm I wouldn't worry about it.

well, i use baking soda to raise the KH and keep my PH of 8.3 stable when needed, i just happened to do a KH liquid test yesterday, you know were you keep adding a drop till it changes colour?, i must have add about 54 drops before i saw any change in colour !! so im wondering wether too high of a KH mignt do any damage to my fish ?

also, my nitrates are usually no higher than 20ppm, but lately i been seeing it creeping up to 40ppm. but thats fine then ? what about if it did go above 50ppm ? is there any other way of removing nirates other than water changes ?

Well, how old is your KH test, any chance you could take a sample of water to the LFS and have them test it to see if it matches what you are getting? Perhaps you could cut back a bit on the baking soda, I don't think extremely hard water will hurt them, though I can't say for sure.

High nitrates don't harm fish immediately, but consistently high levels over a long period of time will lead to disease, and a shortened life span. There are some products on the market that say they will reduce nitrates, but I've never used any. The most effective way to reduce them are water changes.

i got the test kit a cppl months ago. i think ill just cut back on the baking soda a little and for the nitrates, up my water change % a little bit, see how things go. thanks