Steve C
Omono
Cool nice start there. Just a couple suggestions if you are open to them. One, get rid of the under gravel filter asap. I know the guy at the store told you he used it for years but the truth is they are nothing but nitrate producers. I don't want to come across as a know it all or sound like I'm putting down the guy with the store you talked to, but from what he told you I personally question his knowledge of fish keeping to be brutally honest. I know he runs a fish store or said he takes care of the tank at Cabelas.... but to tell you the truth I have meet many a fish store owner that when it gets right down to it does not know the proper way to care of fish. Mainly because they are in the business of selling and not keeping so with the high turn over rate their fish in their stores don't spend a large amount of time in their tanks. If he told you keeping the alkalinity up will keep you from doing water changes that is something I have never heard anyone come up with in my life lol. If he does in fact take care of the tank at Cabelas then the filtration on that tank is probably a huge sandfilter same on on most public aquariums. So perhaps he knows about sandfilters, but undergravel filters are simply a very poor design. Water changes are to keep nitrates from getting to dangerous levels (from fish waste/poop, not urine) and the alkalinity of the water has zero affect on the nitrate levels. Safe levels for nitrates are normally 40ppm and below. You can get as high as 80ppm without health issues (mine get to 80ppm while I am away on vacation for 2 weeks each year) but normally once they get to 40ppm you want to do at least a 50% WC to get them back down. I personally do 75% WC's in each of my tanks weekly because of stocking levels with the exception of my 75g Jaguar tank which I do 75% every 20 days because he is the only fish in that tank so needs less WC's.
The under gravel filter...They way they work is they suck waste down under your substrate and trap it there. Over time the waste just keep raising your nitrates till you end up with constantly high nitrates and having to do water changes every few days to keep them down. . Out of the few hundred fish keepers in my cichlid club not a single one of them use under gravel filters these days. Get yourself either a good canister or a good HOB like a AC110 and you will be way better off.
The other thing I would advise is to not add anything to raise the PH, GH or KH of the water. That is a mistake a lot of new cichlid keepers make when they first get into keeping them. While cichlids in the wild in Lake Malawi, Tanganyika and the other Rift lakes are use to higher PH, KH & GB, you have to remember the fish we keep in our aquariums are tank raised and breed. Meaning they are accustomed to your local water supply parameters in your area where you live. Only exception to that are WC (Wild caught) but most fish you will buy are not going to be WC or even F1 or F2. They will have been breed multiple generations from WC and use to your local water parameters. With cichlids the more important thing to their health are consistent water parameters. When you start trying to raise the PH/KH/GH to a level the tank raised fish are not use to, then it starts fluctuation because of water changes and such then that is something they will not like and will effect them. Long as your local water supply does not have some unusually low levels then the only thing you need to add to the water is a good chlorine/chloramine water treatment every water change such as Prime.
Don't take anything I said as a slam or anything, just trying to give some solid advice based on experience is all to help you avoid fish illness down the road
The under gravel filter...They way they work is they suck waste down under your substrate and trap it there. Over time the waste just keep raising your nitrates till you end up with constantly high nitrates and having to do water changes every few days to keep them down. . Out of the few hundred fish keepers in my cichlid club not a single one of them use under gravel filters these days. Get yourself either a good canister or a good HOB like a AC110 and you will be way better off.
The other thing I would advise is to not add anything to raise the PH, GH or KH of the water. That is a mistake a lot of new cichlid keepers make when they first get into keeping them. While cichlids in the wild in Lake Malawi, Tanganyika and the other Rift lakes are use to higher PH, KH & GB, you have to remember the fish we keep in our aquariums are tank raised and breed. Meaning they are accustomed to your local water supply parameters in your area where you live. Only exception to that are WC (Wild caught) but most fish you will buy are not going to be WC or even F1 or F2. They will have been breed multiple generations from WC and use to your local water parameters. With cichlids the more important thing to their health are consistent water parameters. When you start trying to raise the PH/KH/GH to a level the tank raised fish are not use to, then it starts fluctuation because of water changes and such then that is something they will not like and will effect them. Long as your local water supply does not have some unusually low levels then the only thing you need to add to the water is a good chlorine/chloramine water treatment every water change such as Prime.
Don't take anything I said as a slam or anything, just trying to give some solid advice based on experience is all to help you avoid fish illness down the road
