For african cichlids, how many tablespoons per gallon of aquarium salt should I add?
by Aquaboy on Friday, March 12th, 2010 | 4 Comments
I want to make my 16 gallon tank brackish for some baby african cichlids. I need a specific gravity of 1.014. I’m at 1.005 now. I’ve added 1 1/2 tablespoons/gallon of aquarium salt and got that reading. But in general how many tablespoons per gallon should I be adding to reach that s.g.?
Other articles you might like;
- Is These Pellets Healthy + More Qs-?
- Would This Hurt The Guppy Fry?
- 90g Reef Aquarium Setup Day 5
- Ideas On Fish For Freshwater Community Aquarium?
- Work Experience Melbourne 2011?
African cichlids are not brackish and adding salt won’t give the HARD water they need.
The only cichlids that do need brackish water are Etroplus sp which are not African. Please check the requirements of the fish you have and don’t add any more salt.
If you are talking about Rift Lake cichlids (those from Lake Tanganyika, Lake Malawi, and other East African lakes), you should not add aquarium salt at all. They are NOT brackish-water fish. The lakes they come from contain a lot of dissolved minerals, but very little sodium. Therefore, ordinary aquarium salt (sodium chloride) is not an appropriate water amendment. The minerals in the lake water are mostly mineral salts like calcium carbonate, potassium chloride, magnesium salts, etc. You can buy “Cichlid Salts” (there are numerous different brands) that contain these minerals and will make the water appropriate for Rift Lake cichlids (“appropriate” for these fish means hard and alkaline (pH 8.0 or above) water– NOT salty water). Follow the directions on the Cichlid Salt package.
If you want to do some chemistry experiments, you can also find do-it-yourself recipes online for “rift lake salts” or “cichlid salts.” (Plug these terms into your Internet search engine.)
add about 1 tablespoon per 15 gallons. thats what i add and i have many cichlids in a 55, 30, and 10 gallon grow out tank. they do grea in this environment and breed from time to time. so dont add anymore salt, they will be fine with whats in there never add unless making a 50% or greater water change because salt doesnt just leave the tank
1- african cichlids do not live in brackish water
2- you can target 1.014 with tablespoons of salt but you won’t get the gravity you want. You need better tool that that.
If you want to make your water hard (salt won’t do that), use crushed coral to make your substrate. this will take care of the water chemistry.
Good luck