Few Noobish Questions

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matchstickman47

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im planning on having a little 3 ft long african cichlid tank

its about 26 gallons?

so shell dwellers are probably the ones to go with.... dont know much about african cichlids

anyway... i was told to raise pH with ocean rock... so i bought a couple of rock n move acouple... nd theres about 13 kg of it in there... sorry i cant get a pic but its an accurate guess acording to my dad.. tank is about 3ft long 30 cms across and about 45 cms up ... so will that be enough to raise it?

what if i water change... wont the water i use be about neutral so it will ajust the ph in the tank :S:S:S:S:S

should i change to coral sand... if so how do i change it?

the tank is currently home too
4 x synodontis multipuntatus (2 very young ones)
1 x Bn pleco ( about 3 inches )

what cichlids could i have in this tank


and how the hell do i get shells for shell dwellers??

are shell dwellers colourfull . i saw some little mini yellow cichlids that i thought were shellers but im not sure??

help is greatly apriciated as ive nevr kept any thing from africa, other that the syno cats!!!
ps. sorry to bombard wit questions randomly spaced and odd but im sure you can deall with it :)

thanks!
 
I think that the amount of fish with the multies and pleco is about the limit for your tank if you want your shellies to breed,you might need to take a male or two out to maintain a proper ratio of males to females,if you can get two colonies 1 m to 2 f or one colony 1m to 5f it realy depends on the dementions of your tanks lenght,sand is the perfered substrate for shellies and most tangs,alot of keepers use play sand or pool filter sand,but you can use coral sand it should help with maintaing your ph some i'm useing pool filter sand it is a little coarser just make sure to rinse it before you put it in,you need to measure your water source for its ph level then you can adjust it from there but as long as it is above 7 you should be all right for the short term,I have read that instead of changing the water to suite the fish you should gradualy condition the fish to suit your water this was said by a breeder of multies but i'm sure others have differnt opinions on this issue and will give you advice in raising and maintaining the ph you are looking for.now don't take what I say as "gosple "because i'm just starting out with my first tank of shellies but I have been doing ALOT of reading on the subject for the last week or so.gl
 
The ocean rock will raishe your pH. But with adding neutral water, the pH will probally be lowered. I would just use a buffer. The one that is most favored is 1 teablespoon of Epson salts, 1 teaspoon of baking soda, and 1 teaspoon of aquarium salt per every 5 gallons. But you have to add this after every waterchange, if you changed 5 gallons, then you would add 5 gallons worth of this recipe. I'm not sure about the fish you have. I am getting multies fro my 16 gallon.
 
wow thats awesome....

the water come out at pH 7.7

Then you should be fine. Don't worry about the pH being too high or low when you do a water change, if it was .1 higher, I would tell you that you don't need a buffer. But you need one, just to stay on the safe side.
 
wow thats awesome....

the water come out at pH 7.7

Then you should be fine. Don't worry about the pH being too high or low when you do a water change, if it was .1 higher, I would tell you that you don't need a buffer. But you need one, just to stay on the safe side.
thats on average... just tested the tap... it come out like 7.8-9
 
wow thats awesome....

the water come out at pH 7.7

Then you should be fine. Don't worry about the pH being too high or low when you do a water change, if it was .1 higher, I would tell you that you don't need a buffer. But you need one, just to stay on the safe side.
thats on average... just tested the tap... it come out like 7.8-9

So your pH fluctuates? It might not have enought kH to support it. If the pH gets too high without a kH to support it, you might end up with a pH crash.
 

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