Salt and/or chemicals?

[tonybwill]

Do you use cichlid salt and chemicals in a peacock tank?

 

[chriscoli]

It depends on what my starting water is like. Are you using tap water? what's its hardness?

 

[tonybwill]

I'm using reverse osmosis water. ph 7.7

 

[tonybwill]

Do I need trace elements?

 

[chriscoli]

Why use RO water? Peacock cichlids like hard water, so you'll probably do better starting with tap water and going from there.

 

[tonybwill]

Lol. I installed the RO system when I had my reef setup. Thought I'd use it. I'll use tap water on the next water change.

 

[chriscoli]

Yeah, why take the salts out of the water just to put them back in (and more) for rift lake cichlids. In fact, I have the waste from my RO go into one of my rift lake cichlid tanks. They love it.

But if you want to put your RO to work, you should do some research on the soft water apistos and west african cichlids....I mix 50:50 RO and Tap water for them.

 

[mchambers]

Yes, RO water is great for most West African and South American fish, but not needed for Lake Africans or Central American fish.

 

[tonybwill]

Awesome, this is why I joined the Capital Cichlid Association! Should I use trace elements or salt?

 

[mchambers]

If you're using RO water for soft water fish, I'd first mix it with tap, maybe a 50/50 mix. You need some buffering capacity or you'll get a pH crash.