can i add african cichilid substrate to my dsb

[spacenyc]

setting up a dsb and the sugar size sand i have seems to pack up. anyone have an opinion on if i add african substrate mix will it allow more water to flow through. will it cause my nitrates to shoot up? is it ok just to use the sugar size sand alone, and finally if i use the ac with sugar size what is a good ratio, thanks in advance to all

 

[SevTT]

setting up a dsb and the sugar size sand i have seems to pack up. anyone have an opinion on if i add african substrate mix will it allow more water to flow through. will it cause my nitrates to shoot up? is it ok just to use the sugar size sand alone, and finally if i use the ac with sugar size what is a good ratio, thanks in advance to all

You want it to pack up. Extremely low water flow through the lower layers of sand is critical to a functioning DSB. Besides, it also keeps food and such on the top of the sand, where it can be picked off by your cleaning crew, as opposed to festering in some crevice somewhere.

 

[spacenyc]

ok

will do thanks for the advice

 

[SevTT]

setting up a dsb and the sugar size sand i have seems to pack up. anyone have an opinion on if i add african substrate mix will it allow more water to flow through. will it cause my nitrates to shoot up? is it ok just to use the sugar size sand alone, and finally if i use the ac with sugar size what is a good ratio, thanks in advance to all

That stuff is generally bark and such with high tannic acid content, no? If that's true, then you'll have a hell of a time managing pH and dKh. (I know ~nothing about cichlids but what I've managed to read by accident.)

 

[spacenyc]

thats south american cichlids

low ph acidic is for south american cichlids not africans but thanks for the input