Huh?!!

[Cristy Keister]

This goes against everything I've been told for the last 5 years! Is it really possible?

http://www.aquariumadvice.com/photopost ... 15&cat=532

[Ghazanfar Ghori]

What African cichlids with plants?
As long as you dont keep the vegetarian kind - they won't bother the plants.
Water chemistry is a different story.

[Cristy Keister]

The Labidichromis are herbivorous. Also, the tank is full of soft water plants and hard water fish.

[Jeff120]

I actually have a planted cichlid tank setup. It isnt easy, the fish dont seem to mind the PH of 6.8-6.6 I was worried about it a first so I very slowly lower the PH via CO2, I think they care more about GH then anything. The labs still breed, I just can never catch the feamle and she spits her fry or eggs and they get eaten. They sure have torn up their share of plants and I am thinking of getting rid of them. Here is a photo it is from August



2 weeks later

[DelawareJim]

Cristy;

As "Bigstick" shows in his pics, the trick is to select plants that can outgrow the Cichlids work. Extensive root systems are very helpful.
Cheers.
Jim

[Cristy Keister]

Thanks for sharing! Wow this rocks my world!

[RTRJR]

Christy - The Africans, like other fish, do not read pH, they read TDS/osmolarity. Tanks where CO2 pushes the pH down do not adversely affect the fish at all. "Soft water" or "blackwater" fish do not need low pH as such, they may need low Ca++/Mg++ for their eggs. The hard-water fish such as Rift Lake critters prefer high-GH water (which is where the hard water soft water dichotomy comes from, not really pH), but CO2 pH suppression does not affect the TDS or GH significantly if at all.

HTH

[SCMurphy]

Can't pH suppression from CO2 dissolution increase GH or osmolarity by increasing the amount of material dissolved in solution? The pH would read low but the solutes would be high. I didn't have any coffee this morning so I might be out to lunch on this.

[RTRJR]

Certainly the CO2 pH suppression can speed the solution of any added buffer reservoirs such as aragonite or crushed coral - which is why their use has to be monitored via KH tests and the material volume/flow levels juggled to whatever "stable" (with a non-trivial +/-) KH you are trying to achieve. When that material dissolves, both GH and KH rise as does TDS and the osmolarity, but those changes, however real, are slow, not sudden or shocking as adding sodium bicarbonate can be, so are innocuous to the fish.

If you ran an aragonite substrate over RFUG as I did for my mbuna tank, high-light levels of CO2 could run the TDS/GH/KH through the roof. Then you would be likely to hit CO2 issues - how much can you/would you have to pump in with super hard water? The feedback mechanisms working against each other there make me need another cup of coffee.

[Cristy Keister]

How about the plants - do they mind the high Ca/Mg levels? esp. fast growing stem plants?