Ph Question Poss Malawi

[stevek77]

hi everyone, i'll try and make this as short as poss, basically i've picked up a 4ft tank and i want to keep malawi's also i have been given about 30kg of brown lava rock from a previous tank, never used this rock before its very strange bit like pumice stone very airy and light, when i kept malaw'is about 10yrs ago i used ocean rock and coral sand to raise the ph slightly, anyway i have since moved location and i have very high tap water ph around 8 , so that brings up the questions that i been getting to

1, i dont want to use coral sand as it turns green, do i really NEED a sand subtrait with malawi's? ive been looking at black 2-3mm gravel can i use this? i certainly dont need to raise ph IF i still need sand is there a black sand you can buy?

2, has anyone used lava rock? sounds silly but do i need to weight it to keep it down? the previous owner used silicone to glue pieces together

3,and lastly is there any safe plants i can put with malawi's just to break it up a little i understand there natural habitat is pretty devoid of plants but there must be something that will survive?

any ideas guys & girls?

 

[KkAaNnEe]

You would get really good responses in the old world section but i think it you would be ok with black gravel or sand (yes there is black sand)

Anubias may be ok

 

[neil@northantsmalawis]

Most substrates are ok, the finer the better as they like to filter the substrate through their gills. Lava rock is ok just not very nice to look at in my opinion. If you wish to try some aquatic plants then try java fern, anubias or onion plant although even these sometime struggle to cope in malawi tanks.

Hope this helps