Breeding, Buffer, Substrate Help

[BriannesFishFam]

I need to buffer my water for some fish I am getting from an aquarium shop local. I was told to use crushed coral or aragonite sand. But I only have african cichlid sand on hand. I assume it does the same thing, caribsea african cichlid mix white sand. It buffers KH and Ph. But I also have to buffer the Gh. Hmm

[AnimalNerd98]

Hey there, 

I cannot speak to the effectiveness about the African Cichlid sand since I’ve never used it, so I hope someone else can weigh in on that.

For raising GH specifically, I know that a lot of people use WonderShell or Seachem Equilibrium. @Irene talks about it near the end of this video:

If you want to make your own DIY Cichlid Buffer, @Zenzo uses three ingredients: Baking soda, Epsom salts, and Marine salt. Video link below:

Hopefully this helped and maybe someone else can chime in. Good luck!