Ok Now What?

[Hydro08]

Ok my friend just left Canada and is on his way to met some other friends in New Zeland.So he pretty much gave me his tank witch is 77 gallons 48x24x24.Now he has African Cichlids in it but i'm not really the fish expert.Ihave 5 blue fish with the 1 orange female.(sorry but i don't know the names).I put the female in my 10 gallon for now as she was getting beat up pretty bad by the 5 males.I also have 1 electric blue and a yellow lab(i think).So my friend left it in pretty bad shape so i cleaned it up and now it looks ok.I've been looking around the forums on taking care and stuff but most of it i don't understand.To start of what is KH?What should I have inside my filter?It's a fluval 404 by the way.Please help me start this great adventure.Oh yes i've had fish in the past but only tetras and goldfish.

 

[nukeonekitty]

KH is carbonate hardness. The higher the KH the more alkalinity there is in the water... the lower there is, the more acidity there is in the water. Get a good test kit to check your tap. For your filter I would use filter pad and carbon as well as sand, gravel or coral to buffer the water.

 

[Hydro08]

think these are the fish i'm talking about.The females that is

http/www.fishforums.net/index.php?showtopic=161378

 

[nukeonekitty]

Some helpful websites... malawimayhem.com cichlidforum.com live aquaria.com they have very helpful profiles!

 

[Hydro08]

Ok thanks i'll check them out.

 

[Hydro08]

Ok here it is.



http/www.malawimayhem.com/articles_saulosi.shtml

5 males and 1 female.

 

[Hydro08]

Do i put the female back with the males?

 

[nukeonekitty]

I would go get some more females or get rid of the female (ratio of 3+ females for everyone male)... most fish shops will take a fish if you bring it in

 

[jayjay]

KH is carbonate hardness. The higher the KH the more alkalinity there is in the water... the lower there is, the more acidity there is in the water. Get a good test kit to check your tap. For your filter I would use filter pad and carbon as well as sand, gravel or coral to buffer the water.

I'm pretty sure it is carbonic hardness, it's just the hardness of the water, it doesn't effect pH so shouldn't change the alkalinity or acidity of the water. Though in general the more alkali the water the harder it is, you can get soft high pH water in some cases though I can't think of why you'd need or want those conditions.

 

[Xebadir]

Sorry Jay Jay, but nukeone is bang on the money.

KH is carbonate hardness, and also is the alkalinity measure: It controls the buffering capacity of the water, naturally the greater KH: the more buffered the water is. It also adds to the general hardness. In general
GH=KH + other hardness types. For cichlids KH of 12+ is a necessity, as is a GH of around 18 or so.

Hope this helps.

 

[Druchii]

Harder water tends to have a higher ph

Softer water tends to have a lower pH - this is probably the slight confusion in the above post but i agree with nukeonekitty

 

[jayjay]

Exactly it 'tends' to work like that, you can muck about with it though and get it the other way round.

Taken from - Dr. Axelrod's Mini-Atlas or freshwater aquarium fishes.

It will be noticed that soft water is usually acid and hard water is usually alkaline, but it is possible to have alkaline soft water or acid hard water by purposeful manipulation or sometimes even in nature.

 

[Mr. Convict]

if its 77 galls.. i would guess you have space for some females.. maybe carry back two or 3 of the males and replace with 4-6 females?? i dont have any experience with salousi so i dont know their temperment etc.. but i think that would work..

Cichlids are really nice.. and i hope everything works out.. keep me posted on what you do

Good luck