Topic: Homemade cichlid salts

[Adam]

Has anyone ever tried this....?  I found this recipe online, and with the price of cichlid salts in the LFS I could make about 20x's as much for about 75% the cost.

Rift Lake salts & buffers

Brichard in his book on Lake Tang published a chemical analysis of Lake Tang water based upon a Belgium expedition of 1948. From this analysis, one can generate a chemical mixture which is much cheaper than the commercially available preparations and which closely approximates the composition of Lake Tang water (which contains very little chloride).  

The following products are purchased form either a supermarket or hardware store:  

Sodium bicarbonate (NaHCO3) - baking soda  

Potassium chloride (KCl) - (a salt substitute)  

Magnesium sulphate (MgSO4) - epsom salts  

calcium chloride (CaCl2) - (a pool water hardener)  

Assuming a level teaspoon is about 5g mix:  

3 teaspoons NaHCO3  

1 teaspoon KCl  

3 teaspoons MgSO4  

1 teaspoon CaCl2  

Ths will treat around 50 litres of water and will give total hardness of around 350ppm, calcium hardness of around 150ppm and a pH of around 8.5.  

[Chris]

No I've never heard of anyone mixing that together, but I have heard of using baking soda and epsom salt to raise the ph and hardness.  I used baking soda myself to raise the ph from 7.0 to 8.2 on my 120 african and it worked well.  Took me about a week to get it done because I only added 1-2tsps at a time so I wouldnt' show my fish.

[toxey_haas]

Hi, lots of people use alternatives rather than buying the cichlid buffers. That is quite interesting and broken down very well. I'd say try it and report back. Sounds good to me.

I know lots of people who use Instant Ocean to add trace elements, baking soda to control their KH and epsom salts to control their GH.  Using crushed coral or limestone in your filters will also buffer the water so that you can maintain a high PH.

If you try the recipe that you posted, be sure to report your findings to us first!!! Good luck with it, it sounds legit to me.

 Mike

[Adam]

Does anyone know for sure where to get potassium chloride?  Or do you think that instant ocean would work just as well cause I got tons of that sitting around for the salt tank.

[Tony]

Its used commonly in fertlisers and is available from farm produce stores in bulk or by the kilo (or pounds in your case). Its commonly called muriate of potash.
Also if you know of a sheep or any animal skin tannery factory, they may be able help you as its used to preseve the skin after removel from the sheep or cow body so it doesant rot before being processed.

[Adam]

Thanks Tony... I think I will just substitute instant ocean marine salt so I can get all the trace elements as well, plus I have it on hand, but I will keep my eye out for it.

[v_isa]

not sure about the quantities, but those ingredients are usually also contained in pre produced aquarium products like those blocks that dissolve and remove ammonia.  ammonia blocks or neutraliser blocks....
a good idea to make your own cichlid buffers if you are using heaps tho too!! good idea adam

[SGypsyMermaid]

i got tired of mixing and measuring those rift lake salts--so i filled my tanks with calcareous rocks and substrate: tufa, limestone holey rock, reef rock and rift lake substrate--voila! stable ph 8.3.

[Adam]

Well I am resurrecting this one... its a big time old post... I think one of the first posts on this new forum lol...

I bought all the ingredients to this mixture and added it to my peacock tank (their my guinea pigs because I only paid 25 bucks for the group of 10).  Anyway here are the results so far.

ph:8.4
Kh:34-35
Gh:13-14

I think the Gh test or the Kh test might be inaccurate I need to buy some new kits to test accuracy, I would have expected the Gh to be closer to 20-22 based on the article.  But it may be that my Gh was very very low and so thats why its registering that number.

Anyway it seems the buffer works great, and I bought about 3 years worth of supplies for under 25 bucks... which is less then one big tub of the standard prefab product off the shelf that would last a month or two....

[fnesr]

excellent.....im no chemist but i might have to have a crack at this one...thanks for posting the recipe.

[SquarePants]

I thought Lake Tang was of a more neutral PH???
That's a top idea though!
Adam, did that $25 include all of the Instant Ocean marine salt? Or did you end up finding the Potassium Chloride? And if so, where?
 

[Adam]

Nope Tanganyika cichlids prefer a Ph of between 8.2 and 9.0 so definately no where near neutral.  I got the potassium chloride from Home Depot.  Its used as a substitute for water softener salt.  Here is what I got where I got it and what the products were called.

2 lbs-sodium bicarbonate(Arm and Hammer baking soda) - $1.30 -  Safeway supermarket
40 lbs - potassium chloride(water softener alternative) - $8.00 - Home Depot
4 lbs - magnesium sulphate(Safeway brand Epsom salt) - $3-4.00 - Safeway supermarket
4 lbs - calcium chloride(Leslie's brand Hardness Plus) - $6.00 - Leslie's pool supplies
Total spent - $18-19.30

Also on a side note the Hardness Plus is exactly the same product as Kent's Turbo Calcium for any of you salt water reef people.  Try picking up 4 lbs of Turbo Calcium for 6 bucks.... I dont think so, you get a 1/2 lb for about 10 bucks in the stores.  Also Leslie's pool supply website claims this product is 94-97% pure... which I have to assume is pretty close or exactly the same as Kent's product.

[Adam]

not to keep beating a dead dog but I just finished mixing this salt for easier use.  I filled up an old "Proper PH 8.2" container I have laying around the 10.9 oz size or the big bottle.  I bought it for $11.99, I refilled it with a better grade buffer for less then a dollar worth of combined products.  

So far this mixture has brought out better color and seemingly happier fish.  I would never go back to store bought buffers after I found out how easy it is.  The only "draw back" to this buffer is that because it raises both carbonate hardness, general hardness and calcium, it has to be dosed in two seperate container pre-desolved and not at the same time.  But this is a pretty minor price to pay for superior product at a super cheap price....

(btw if you try and dose carbonate hardness-ie baking soda, and calcium ie calcium chloride at the same time you will end up with a glass of milk as the calcium and the carbonate combine into you guessed it calcium carbonate this precipitation is why you have to dose them seperately, and at differant times!)

[SquarePants]

Thanks, that would have been a pain in the butt!