Flicking against sand

[Cichlid_Boy]

Hi all, I realise it's common behaviour for cichlids, but I've noticed a few of my Africans doing this more than normal over the past couple of days. Am concerned there's may be an issue with water chemistry/hardness. I doubt parasite issue but of course can't rule it out. Fish seem healthy and are eating.

pH is sitting around 7.8, Ammonia is in the harmless range. I use bicarb on water change days, and I have some coral grit in my substrate.

Just did a GH test (using a Sera kit that is maybe 10 years old) but couldn't get the colour to change.. indicating either my dGH is off the scale (50+) or the reagent is bunk/expired. From my understanding a dGH of 10-20 would be satisfactory (equating to 170-340ppm, I think).

I'll probably grab a new kit in the next couple of days an retest but I was interested in your opinions please?

[FullyYellow]

How often are your water changes? Possibly try a fresh water change and see if that helps.

[Cichlid_Boy]

Hi mate, yes I did a 15% water change yesterday. Typically I do that weekly.

[intangcity]

id use 15% water changes if doing twice a week mayb try upping it a lil i usually do 25% weekly sometimes 40% mayb bi carb and epsom together.i also use rainwater to refill

.

[TimB]

1 teaspoon of bi carb soda, 1teaspoon of epsom salts, a few drops of prime per average bucket and you should be good.

Also, I have noticed my africans go through stages of flicking/scratching, a larger water change usually helps.

Cheers and good luck,

Tim