# 55 GALLON LAKE TANGANYIKA ph values and hardness



## DUSTIN323 (Sep 21, 2005)

As some of you might have read in the topic about frontosas I was going to starte me a Lake Taganyika tank. I was thinking of a 75g or 125g tank but I have a 55g on hand so I am going to use it for now get a few white calvus then in the future transfer them into a 125g and buy a frontosa which works out great because then they will big so the frontosa won't mess with them. But now I need to know about ph I am going to definetly get me some Texas holley rock aka chunks of limestone with holes so that it will keep the ph high and water hard but will one chunk say 12x12x12 be enough to keep the ph and hardness stabilized or should I get a chiclid substrate, crushed coral, aragonite that also makes it hard & increase ph or could I possibly overdo it because I could use regular gravel or sand and put in limestone and if the ph needs to be harder then I could put a bag of crushed coral in the filter correct? This question might sound kind of dumb but I've never kept fish that required an odd ph just around nuetral and I want to do things right the first time. :-?


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## IloveCichlids (Jul 11, 2005)

The pH should be anywhere from 8-9. I use "Holey" rock ( I have a lot) and sand crushed argonite mix for a substrate in my 55 and it works great. My pH is around 8.6 or so. With that set up you should be fine. You could use either sand or some sort of buffering substrate. I would keep an eye on the hardness. You can always get lake Tang. buffer also


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