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Water quality and diet are the two keys to keeping healthy African cichlids. Whether your aquarium is replicating the waters of Lake Malawi, Tanganyika or Victoria; you must maintain the proper pH and hardness over time. If the water changes are not done properly, these can migrate to dangerous levels over time.

I have always changed 20% or more of the tanks water on a weekly basis. This may be a little more than is needed. I have found that to properly clean the crushed coral in my 55 gallon tanks, this is how much is removed by the gravel vacuum.

I generally keep my cichlids in 55 gallon tanks and do water changes in increments of 5 gallons. I do the water changes in increments of 5 gallons for ease of adding the salts back when refilling after cleaning the tank. I also have little marks on the side of my tanks to show me when I have gotten down to 10, 15 or 20 gallons of water removed.

To do these water changes you will need a gravel vacuum. I use mine with an attachment that hooks to the faucet to create the suction needed. This can be used without the faucet attachment if you are close enough to a door or use a large bucket. I find hooking it to the faucet to be the easiest.

Before you can start with the water change, you may need to first add water to the aquarium. This is very important so that you remove the same proportion of the original salt content as you do water. If you have lost an inch or two of water since the last time the water was changed, the salt is now more concentrated than it was initially. If every week the salt concentration changes by a percent or two, your cichlids will start looking ragged and eventually die. To avoid this, refill the tank to its ‘full’ state with tap water before every water change. If this is more than a few gallons you might want to add a little dechlorinator. At this point let the tank acclimate for a few minutes so that the salt concentration is constant throughout the fish tank.

After the tank is refilled and the water has had a few minutes to mix, it is time to start your water change. I begin on one end of the tank and start vacuuming the crushed coral I use as a substrate in my African cichlid tanks. Make sure that you get around and under everything that you can. I am not suggesting that you dismantle a large rock formation that you may have in your cichlid tank, but if rocks or caves are easily moved it is best to clean under them. You should be able to vacuum the gravel in the time that it takes to get to one your marks on the side of the aquarium. This will depend on how long it has been since the last cleaning, how many fish you keep, the size of those fish and the feeding habits of those fish.

Once you have removed a known amount of water from your aquarium and have cleaned the substrate pretty well it is time to start refilling the tank. First you must adjust the faucet’s water temperature pretty close to water in the tank. You can just do this by feel. It does not need to be exact, but within 5 or 10 degrees of the temperature that you keep your tank set.

I run the tap water directly into the aquarium and add the dechlorinator and cichlid salts as I am filling the tank. Add enough dechlorinator for the total volume of the tank, not just what you have removed. All of the water must be dechlorinated. After adding the dechlorinator, add the cichlid salts as the tank fills. If I have removed 20 gallons from a 55 gallon tank, I let a few gallons fill up and then add the salts for 5 gallons and repeat this as the tank fills. You can get away with adding it in 10 gallon increments as well.

By doing water changes in this manner, you will find that the pH and water hardness remain constant over time. I used to check these things after every water change but learned that I only needed to do that on a monthly basis. By removing water of the same hardness as that being added, your tanks pH and hardness will be stable.

Author's Resource:

Tim Montey has kept and bred fish as a hobby off and on for more than 30 years. This hobby as ranged from keeping tropical tanks with guppies and swordtails as a child to keeping and breeding African cichlids the last 7 years. Tim has his African cichlid pictures posted on his website HardWaterFish.com. You can view his regal peacock pictures here.

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