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Hey folks,

I'm setting up a cichlid tank, it's along term project, so I'm pretty far away from getting any fish. I went with a sand substrate as was suggested to me, but now I'm looking at my PH and it's just not high enough for cichlids. My PH is around 7.0.

So now do I need to add crushed coral to raise the PH? Is there anything else that will do?

What Cichlids are you going to keep if they are rift lake cichlids then by adding the approiate cichlid salts should bring the ph up to about 8 which is the ph for salt.

Budda

Hi SJinNJ, just a suggestion, if you use calcium carbonate as substrate, it will save you heaps of time and money and heartache, and just add 1 teaspoon of carbonate hardness generator per 100lts (approx 220gals US)and 1 tablespoon of Aquarium salt per 10 lts (2 gals US ) will keep most African Cichlids a good quality Dechlorinator and Amtrite Down and your in business. Don't muck about with all the chemicals and powders etc, as most Africans can handle a bit of poor water.Thats the way we do it every day and no problems. To many chemicals and additives, up, down, salts, etc, its all to much work, go the easy way. Good luck. Muss

SJinNJ,

I used 1/2 a teaspoon to 100litres of Sodium Bi Carb, the stuff we use for cooking, to raise my pH in my community tank. Works good. I also have a sock with crushed shell grit hanging in the tank to maintain the pH. Due to driftwood the pH drops to about 6.4 over several weeks and I have yet to be able to get the mix right to keep it at 7.

In my new cichlid tank I used a Limestone rock, (white rock) and I put a stocking of shellgrit into the top of my cannister filter. The pH sits at 7.6 and has so for two weeks or so.