Setting up 4x2x2.5

[swifto]

Hi all,I'm a newbie to these fish,but in the past have kept discus & needed a change.So I need a lot of help,my Q? Is what is the best substrate for keeping fronts & electric yellows to start with.I was thinking crush coral/sand along with holey rock & how high will this make the ph.

[cooder]

It will probably buffer neutral water up to around 7.8 or so, i cant be sure without doing tests myself.

I suggest you dont go frontosa in this sized tank as they will outgrow this. I also suggest not mixing lake tanganyika fish (frontosa) with lake malawi fish (elec yellow)

Try to keep the lakes seperate, there are many good communities to chose from, from these different lakes.

Do some extra research on Google on lake tanganyika or lake malawi biotype settings, this should give you some knowledge to ask more specific questions from.

[Ged]

You can use crush coral or coral sand to buffer and maintain your pH. As Cooder said it should sit around 7.8. You can also use Eco Complete African Cichlid Sand or Gravel which contains aragonite and your pH should be fairly stable at 8.2. AOA one of our sponsors stock Eco Complete.

I have used crushed oyster shell put in a bag and placed in a sump.

[noxious_nasties]

You could use normal gravel if you don't want to get crushed coral. I'd advise adding some buffers either way as they will ensure you have ample kh to maintain a stable pH and will also raise the pH up to around 8-9 depending on which buffers you use and how much of them you add. I'd go with aquasonic due to price, effectiveness and it's Australian. AOA also stocks it.

I think a 4x2x2 is small for fronts (you can get away with it for awhile if you plan on changing). As soon as you have other fish though you could suffer aggression from them towards the other fish. In saying that though, no tank is the same and if you think your layout is suitable you can always try adding different fish and going for a community tank. I wouldn't risk it with anything valuable though. If you put them in a 6 footer then you can mix many different types. One key method that can help is to overstock.

Cheers,

John