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Ok, I have a dillemma. I'm setting up a 20 gallon long tank for my aunt. I set it up to be a planted SA community, with mostly corys and tetras. but THEN! I tested the PH and her natural PH from the tap is 8.2! rather than tamper with it or risk killing the SA fish, should I just select some small african cichlids? what could I put in there besides shelldwellers (which are very hard to find here!)... She likes colorful and would probably like some yellow labs or something like that, but is the tank too small?

btw, we have already started planting the tank and she LOVES the plants, so its too late to rip it all out and put in just rocks.

edit: I meant lemon yellows not yellow labs. we will see what the fish store has today.

Last edited by devon7 at 28-Dec-2004 13:03

Last edited by devon7 at 28-Dec-2004 15:21

Ph can be lowerd with peat inserts you can get @the LFS for the filter, driftwood and co2 will also help lower it. Did you test for Kh? If she really wants SA, you may still be able to do it for her.

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Yeah... the only problem is once we get the PH right I dont think she would bother to maintain it... and she lives halfway across the country so I cant exactly do it for her i'm visiting her until new years.

The fish will become accustomed to the high pH of the tap water. They may not breed but they will survive, grow and possibly thrive.

You may want to educate your family on the importance of required housekeeping. That is, water changes, tank maintenance and filter maintenance. If they learn the importance of water changes and cleanliness, they should do well with the fish.

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"To steal ideas from one person is plagiarism; to steal from many is research."
researched from Steven Wright

You may be able to squeeze some africans in there, but thats just a thought. But, not to many of course.

yeah... we got her 3 otos and a betta for now and we will see how they do and if I can convince her to maintain a slightly lower PH, maybe like 7.6 or so, at least until the tank is fully stocked and settled.

Changing ph is more trouble than it's worth. Unless you are trying to breed some sensitive fish it really doesn't matter too much. I've got otos breeding in ph 8.6 water. I also have rams, panda cory, congo tetras, farlowellas, a gold nugget pleco... Most of those prefering ph around 7 or sometimes lower. If you do want to lower ph the safest and most effective way is just to mix in some lower ph water. You can generally buy bottled water with a ph around 6.8-7. It required 2g of bottled to 1g of my water to dilute it down to 7ph so was too expensive for all my tanks. Peat moss just gave me solid brown water even with carbon filtration and changed the ph .5

And if you later move the otos and betta out, yes, Lemon Yellows would work beautifully in there - you could buy six and let them pair off. That's the stock of the 20 I set up for one of my sisters, actually.

-Molly
Visit shelldwellers.com!

If you add some shells to the tank, you could put a pair of Calvus or Compressiceps in there. They would do nicely in that size tank, and would not mess the plants up either. They would go great in that water as well. The shells will be needed for the female to hide and breed in. No worries about the fry though, they will most likely get eaten by the male. Some Kribs would work well too, as I have several breeding pairs of common kribs, Pelvicachromis pulcher, that all breed in higher ph than that. There are many fish you can put in there, that will do fine, and there are many that will do great.

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There is always a bigger fish...

You should not think in terms of changing the tank pH. You should change the recipe for making water changing water. Try half rain water half tap water. Other options are to substitute distilled or reverse osmosis water for rain water in my recipe. You may have to change the ratio to get the hardness and pH right. I bet your water is hard. The chemistry has to be right for the plants as well.

max