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I have a 55 gallon tank. My KH is 16 and my GH is 14. Is the water to hard for Mbuna cichlids? All I have is to small yellow labs at the moment. My KH out of the tap is 16 my GH was 2 I added 4 TSP of Epsom salt and went up to 14. And holding steady for a week now. MY pH is 8.2 or 8.5 the blue test chat is kind of hard to tell . I do know it’s not over 8.5 I want every thing just right be for I add any more Mbuna to the tank…….Thanks

Hi,
Personally, I'd remove the Epsom salt..
You do not want to artificially increase the water
chemistry. It will create a balancing act that drive
you nutz and be a constant drain on your $$$.

If you create the environment that the fish come from
you will have lots of rock work, and a few plants
(that prefer the harder water) and the pH/GH will
reach what you want automatically.

Use limestone for your rocks and use crushed limestone,
or crushed dolomite for your substrate.
Alternatively, use crushed coral with some crushed oyster
shells for substrate.
The water will naturally increase in pH/GH and you don't
have to "mess" with anything. Also, when doing water
changes, try to stay within the 10-20% range of water
change. That way the overall tank will not drop
appreciably in pH/GH, and recover rapidly.

Frank


-->>> The Confidence of Amateurs, is the Envy of Professionals <<<--

I don't think it's possible through normal means to make water too hard for those cichlids. Your ph is just right and even up to 8.6 would be within the normal range for most. Getting a ph over 8.6 is quite difficult since your kh has to be up in the 20s and the fish still aren't likely to mind.

Your gh is probably low due to a water softener which removes the calcium and magnesium by replacing it with salt. The water is probably harder than your gh test says since it only tests the magnesium and calcium concentration which is specifically removed by the water softener. There will still be other minerals in the water that you aren't testing. If you can get water before it reaches your water softener it would be better but isn't necessary. Decorate the tank with lots of limestone aka texas holy rock and it also helps(again not necessary) to use a substrate that buffers the water. Either a marine substrate like argonite or crushed coral or else a substrate sold specifically for hardwater cichlid tanks. That will help raise your gh some as well as keep the kh stable.

Epsom salt is only replacing the magnesium in the water which is not harmful but not really helpful either. Even though the gh goes up your still lacking calcium and not increasing any other minerals in the water. Epsom salt can be useful sometimes but mostly just gives you a false gh reading that doesn't really improve the water much for hardwater fish.

thanks....... my ph is 8.2 out of the tap. i have about 60 LBS of larg rocks that i have made some caves with.There is some limestone mixed in. frank i don't think I want to increase my pH anymore then what it allready is.

Hi,
The thing is, it won't get much, if any higher than it
already is - it will stay there. That is the point.
The rocks are carbonates, and will help maintain the
pH and GH and KH of the water that the African fish are
"used to." As our tanks age, and the fish and food waste
decay, organic acids are formed that lower the pH of the
tank. The limestone and carbonate gravel will buffer that
pH decrease and hold the tank stable at the pH necessary
for the fish, no matter how many years you keep those fish
in that tank.

Frank


-->>> The Confidence of Amateurs, is the Envy of Professionals <<<--