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Home      Reply		Viewed: 320 -- Replies: 12
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Posted	malawi in a 6x2x2
05-10-2006 13:28 by Cichlid Fury	am considering this an option as have naturally hard and alkaline water, but whats this about sea salt in a malawi tank? they are freshwater fish of course. I understand salt can act as a tonic or anti parasite help but would you advise putting salt in on a regular basis and if so how do you monitor effectively. I know marine keepers use an item called hydrometer. someone on a thread commented they add salt "as and when needed" to malawi tank, so how will you know when your malawi fish "need" the salt???????? i only thought these special "tonic malawi salts" were for people in softer water areas to get water parameters proper? am i just behind the times here??????? also people are bound to state that there malawi like salt, but how do we know they like it? do we know the longer term consequences of keeping malawi in salt water(even if it is very low salt)
05-10-2006 13:36 by keith t	I keep mbuna malawi, never uses salt, i also have hard alkaline water. If i was you i wouldnt waste your money on something you dont really need. Just regular water changes does my malawis just fine.
05-10-2006 13:38 by Cichlid Fury	agree keith t really think this salt business and malawi is another example of the fish shops milking us for every penny they can.
05-10-2006 13:41 by keith t	im down south r u the same mate as the water here is hard and alkaline
05-10-2006 13:47 by Cichlid Fury	yes mate just outside Reading now. as for salt required to make the water hard and alkaline i dont agree with that as if you havent got hard and alkaline water to begin with i think you better off getting another species of fish rather than malawi and then having to play around with water parameters although i know its easier to make water harder and higher pH than the other way round.
05-10-2006 13:54 by PaddyD	In my experience, malawis require hard alkaline water, you can use rift lake buffers (malawi 'salt') to do this (or epsom salts). Or if you live in a hard water area you should not need to. Many many people do this and keep and breed malawi's successfully. I would start with this. and see how you get on. if you have issues with excessive flicking etc, then you may wish to look into ways of solving this - a low level of salt may be useful. Long term it does not seem to affect malawis, but it should not be required. long term is difficult to measure of course as species lifetimes vary and can be over 10 years. One thing though, try to avoid using coral sand and rough rocks like tufa to excess as this can cause irritation to the fish, the small particles can work away at the fish and the rocks can cause abrsions that then cause the malawis to flick against the rocks and sand, agrivating the problems. I have kept them with coral sand and tuffa in many set ups and it is ok, but they seem to flick more than using standard gravel and smoother rocks. It may also semake the water harder than you actually want.
05-10-2006 13:55 by keith t	I live in hedge end nr soton, my water is hard which is ideal for my malawis but ive added a load of ocean rock as a ph buffer, this keeps my water very stable, water changes on my 400ltr is a piece of cake, the only thing i need to keep an eye on is my phosphates and silicates in my water but i do this by using rowaphos
05-10-2006 14:07 by keith t	good point made paddy about coral sand and tufa rock, another rock most commonly used is lava, both tufa and lava can damage the mouths of malawis that graze on the rocks for algae. though not natural to there enviroment in the wild ive used ocean rock for the benefits it brings to the water and the hiding places it can provide. As for sand i use silversand, i wouldnt use coral,silicate or builders sand but no doubt others will disagree
05-10-2006 14:57 by Alan	The only salts to consider adding to a rift lake tank are specially formulated mineral salts that are designed to make tap water mimick rift lake water. However, if you live in an area with hardwater and the ph is right you shouldn't need to add anything unless keeping wild caught tangs or something like that. Some wild caught tang will not survive in water with a ph less than 9. As an alternative to using aragonite sand as a substrate which is totally unnatural I would advocate oputting some in a mesh bag in a canister filter as the last stage it will act as a medium for bacteria to grow on (its not a great media though) but it will also slowly disolve naturally buffering the water. I agree with keith t as far as substrate goes silver sand every time for virtually every set up I do its so easy to keep clean. As far as decor if going for mbuna then yes ocean rock is the way to go but with haps (open water swimmers) decor is not so critical as the open water space. Also don't mix haps and mbuna their diets are incompatible.
05-10-2006 17:56 by Cichlid Fury	so really no need / point for people adding sea salt to their malawi set up it would appear
05-10-2006 22:46 by jonie	not really cf
05-10-2006 23:36 by kevinfish	dont think it is required ... but mbunas will tear fins off each other ( especially lots males ) ...a little bit of salt will help heal quicker and it does not have a negative effect ... so if your mbunas are aggresive add a lttle salt
06-10-2006 09:08 by PaddyD	If your mbuna are being aggressive - increase your stock level, should solve the problem.

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