substrate question

So im gonna make a tanganyika tank and supposedly in rocklin the water is soft, like 6.8ph. anyone use like crushed coral, aragonite or oolitic sand as substrates? i need to buffer the water to 7.8+ and i heard coral only buffers to 7.6? anyone got any tips?
also anyone near sacramento or northward know of any gravel/rock suppliers with cheap aragonite or crushed coral sands?

what type of filter do u have because i would stick crushed coral in mine to buffer water but ph doesnt matter unless you are dealing with wild fish

u sure? i have an aquatop cf500uv. i can put crushed coral in the filter... was thinking coral or oystershell. coral may dissolve faster tho. i want to get them to breed as well so keeping parameters close to habitat would increase that likelyhood

i doubt about the bond thing because the fish out here are tank bred and raised

even then. i know you cant get apistos to breed in hard water http://www.dwarfcichlid.com/Apistogramma.php

you can use certain water tricks like putting peatmoss in your filter to soften it to buffer the water to the ph they require for breeding.

What kind of substrates do you use in your tanks?

I heard abalone shell ups PH and can double was a shelter for egg laying

abalone and oyster shells does the same. i would add crushed coral and if anything use some pH up.

sytfu wrote:abalone and oyster shells does the same. i would add crushed coral and if anything use some pH up.

thanks for the tips

IME I use a buffering substrate to keep it high .But does require some buffering agent to get it in the correct range,i need it. In my case I use ph up really easy to use and works. Also I add cichlid salt or regular aquarium .it helps keep my water ph from droppin. This way works really good for me when keeping africans

dan ray 14 wrote:IME I use a buffering substrate to keep it high .But does require some buffering agent to get it in the correct range,i need it. In my case I use ph up really easy to use and works. Also I add cichlid salt or regular aquarium .it helps keep my water ph from droppin. This way works really good for me when keeping africans

perfect. have you noticed a difference if you dont add salts or ph up to your water change water? my water here is super low in kh and gh so i suppose that means it can fluctuate easily? i figure with my crushed coral substrate my water change water should balance or change to the higher ph quickly due to the low kh/gh. i have been not adding anything and just letting the water/coral do its thing.

Yes actually if I do a large water change sometimes I will see the ph drop vry little tho.

ya thats what i figured. if the tangs arent f0-f1s they usually adapt to the water and when doing water changes it doesnt drop much for very long so mine seem to do fine but i only do 10% weekly changes.