Rift Lake Recipe Problems

[fishwatcher]

I found the rift lake recipe from cichlid forum dot com. I tried it, but am having big problems. So far I've used 1 tablespoon of epsom salts, 1 teaspoon of marine salt and 2 tsp of baking soda. I think the epsom salt was too much, so I'm going to cut it back to 1/2 tbs (the gh was 32). The ph so far is only 8.0, while the kh is 17. Something seems wrong here.
This is for my shelly tank I'm setting up. I'm trying to get the water right before they come in this week.
Can anyone help???
Thanks!!! unsure.gif

 

[jollysue]

These are Tang shellies you are preparing for?

I have wild caught Tanganyikan Rift (fronties and compressecepts.) I don't add salt I only have used coral substrate to harden the water. The fish are fine after 1.5 years. At first they didn't even have the coral substrate, just some shells. Of course I have not tried to breed.

 

[fishwatcher]

Yep ... some multis (and julies).
My tap water is 7.0 and soft, so I have to add some buffers to keep it up a bit. I think the ones I'm getting are tank bred, so they should more accustomed to the lower ph, somewhere around 8-8.5 I think.
Hopefully they'll be fine as long as I keep it stable, as nothing else seems to be working.

 

[dthoffsett]

What substrate are you using? I switched over to aragonite sand and have found it's doing a great job buffering. Plus the fish like it, which is always a bonus.

 

[fishwatcher]

It's that Eco-Complete Live Cichlid substrate... it's black and white looking sand.

 

[MojoDex]

no need to mix up anything like that baking soda will buffer the water perfectly and never take the ph over 8.2 no matter how much you use

 

[jollysue]

I am using Eco-complete Cichlid sand also and have four varieties of wild caught Tanganyikans. They have been just fine, as I say, some as long 1.5 years. My tap water ph is much higher though.

 

[WaterBender1995]

mojo, many many Tanganyikans thrive in ph over 8.2. even up into the 9's