new tank setup question

[Spindoctor]

Currently setting up my first cichlid tank - a juwel rio 180 (180
lites capacity) and want to go for Malawi fish.

I've picked up a couple of bags of coral sand and one bag of Aragonite
for the base and will be using green slate for the rock formation, the
water where i live is naturally hard (Bristol UK). Also intent to put
in a spare fluval 4 filter to overfilter the tank,

My biggest concern is getting the ph right, I bought something called
Proper PH 8.2 to stabalise the tank, but the instructions talk about
adding an African cyclid salt mix to the tanks as well, something I've
not seen mentioned anywhere else

Can someone elaborate on this please

Thanks

Brian .

[gizmo]

I'd simply go for your local tap water.
Your coral and Aragonite bags can keep the water quite hard as long as with
the tap water.
Malawi water are hard as well - maintaining a PH of 8.2 with the think you
bought - would be a hard task, usually those
PH things contains bad chemicals for the water. As for the salts you should
really check them out from the same reasons - stick to more natural
solutions ;-)
What is your tap water PH ? after knowing that you can be much smarter.
I'd stick to the coral stuff.....
Also a great article you can find useful -
http://faq.thekrib.com/begin-chem.html#altering

gizmo



"Spindoctor" > wrote in message
...
> Currently setting up my first cichlid tank - a juwel rio 180 (180
> lites capacity) and want to go for Malawi fish.
>
> I've picked up a couple of bags of coral sand and one bag of Aragonite
> for the base and will be using green slate for the rock formation, the
> water where i live is naturally hard (Bristol UK). Also intent to put
> in a spare fluval 4 filter to overfilter the tank,
>
> My biggest concern is getting the ph right, I bought something called
> Proper PH 8.2 to stabalise the tank, but the instructions talk about
> adding an African cyclid salt mix to the tanks as well, something I've
> not seen mentioned anywhere else
>
> Can someone elaborate on this please
>
> Thanks
>
> Brian .
>
>
>
>