Re: Rift lake salts

[George and Carol Richter <richter@erols.com>]

I guess this can be a real problem.  I am lucky that my tap water is pretty
constant so I just go with about 3/4 RO to 1/4 tap.  I also have several Rift
Lake varieties.  I use Seachem PH Buffer but agree that I would not use that on
my dwarf Cichlids.  What I do use for salt in my Rift Lake tanks is a mixture of
Epsom Salts and a little Instant Ocean.  I really do not have a recipe but Epsom
Salt is a Magnesium Chloride as opposed to Sodium Chloride.  This is much closer
to what the Rift Lake salts actually are and I suspect would be better for our
Dwarfs.  I would not use much and strongly suggest the use of a good 6.5 or so
buffer of some sort.  I know lots of us like one sort or another because of
Phosphate contents and various other things.  Actually some of those commercial
Rift lake mixtures are actually mostly Epsom salt, a bit of plain Sodium
Chloride, and a shot of Sodium Bicarb (baking powder I think).  All pretty cheap
compared to the price of some of the commercial products too.  Plus you can soak
in the Epsom salt and think about the good time we're going to have in
Cleveland.  Some of the Rift Lake web sites have the exact recipe these guys use.

"IDMiamiBob@aol.com wrote:

> Would Rift Lake Cichlid salts be a suitable base for Ro/Di reconstitution?  I
> know Instant OCean has too much Na and Cl, and the regular "Doc Wellfish"
> aquarium salt is basically just rock salt.  What about cichlid salt.  Anyone
> know what's in it.  Would it be not only acceptable, but also cheaper than RO
> Right?"
>
>



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