Cichlid salts added to livebearer tank

[Lovemybabyfish]

Hi there,

Just curious if any of you have added cichlid salts to raise the gh and kh? When I use my tap and ro water the kh and gh are low and to stabalize the ph as well as keep the water suitable(hard water) for the livebearers I was told to add the cichlid salts. Is this ok or creating poor water conditions?

Thanks,
Rhonda

 

[Tokis-Phoenix]

I have never heard of cichlid salts but the majority of common livebearers can live in a very varied ph range happily, what is your current ph? Boosting/lowering the ph can cause fish alot of stress and is difficult to maintain constant once changed and is often unesarsary.

 

[Lovemybabyfish]

Well I certainly have heard that before and I do agree that it is stressful to mess with the ph. My ph usually is in 7.8-8.0 range. When I use r/o water the ph is 7.0 and I heard that livebearers prefer 7.5-8.4 and hard water. When I use tap water the ph is in the mid to upper 8.0. I have heard mixed thoughts on using tap water and because of the kh and gh I have had a tough time lowering the ph due to the buffering capacity.

Maybe you can all tell me what water you use, wether you have used ro or tap and what ph, kh and gh you have. Maybe I am overanalyzing but I just want them to be as comfortable and as at home as possible.

I am worried what is in my tap water because I have well water.

Thanks,
Rhonda

 

[Tokis-Phoenix]

I use tap water which is fine as long as you dechlorinate it properly, if you just have guppys/swordtails/mollys/platys or some other type of reasonably common livebearer, they will more than happily live with your current tank stats, ph altering only becomes nesarsary when you are trying to breed some form of rare cichlid or betta for example which require exact stats but this is not the case with livebearers.
The most important stats to moniter in your water quality is ammonia, nitrates and nitrites; ammonia and nitrites should be 0, any more and it is not acceptable and should be sorted out via water changes or correcting tank stocking/tank cleaning regime, nitrates are fine for livebearers as long as they are no higher than 40-50. Somtimes tap water can have very high nitrates so if you have a nitrate problem, test your tap water to see if its the issue- live plants take up nitrates so adding lots of live plants can lower them, but for your average mature tank you should at least have some nitrates showing as they are an indicator that your bacterial cycle in yoru tank is working properly.

Gh/kh is only realy useful to know when you are trying to to alter/lower your ph as it reflects your waters ability to be done so, it is good to check ph once in a while as there are various things that can naturally alter it and have bad consequences for your fish- certain things like sea shells, bogwood, limestone and sandstone and other materials can alter ph naturally so should be added with care if you want them in your tank as mentioned before, altering ph is stressful for the fish.
If you are buying fish from a far away lfs(local fish store), it is useful to know their ph as it can vary alot from town to town and if there is a significant ph difference, you will have to acclimatise your new fish much longer and carefully as ph shock can kill them in a day or a week/s, but should be avoided at all costs.