# Frontosas and 50% water change



## Johnnyfishtanks (Apr 21, 2010)

Frontosas and 50% water change is this ok once a week for them ????
let me know guys what you think?


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## Mferko (Jun 8, 2010)

i do 30-50% 2x a week for my tanganyikans, and they like the water really hard if its not hard enough youl see them "itching" against rocks and stuff


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## Johnnyfishtanks (Apr 21, 2010)

why do they itc


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## Cichlid2010 (Apr 21, 2010)

I think they should be fine as long as you keep the new water at the same temperature and probably add some prime or salt. I change 40%-50% for my cichlid tank every week.


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## mrmarcu (Apr 21, 2010)

I used to do 75% with my WC colony of Kitumba and they did just fine. Your fronts should be fine.


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## Johnnyfishtanks (Apr 21, 2010)

i do like 60% to 70% water change with my mbu with no problems . but ive read some stuff that fronts are sensitive. And very sensitive to water temperature change which mine can be off like four degrees our so sometimes


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## joker1535 (May 23, 2010)

Is it necessary to add salt for frontosas? Mine seem to do fine without it.


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## Johnnyfishtanks (Apr 21, 2010)

joker1535 said:


> Is it necessary to add salt for frontosas? Mine seem to do fine without it.


how big of water changes do you do any tips joker


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## Mferko (Jun 8, 2010)

they like high GH and KH like in the 15-20 degree range
i use Seachem Cichlid Lake Salt 1.4kg - Pets & Ponds
and Seachem Tanganyika Buffer 1kg - Pets & Ponds

if you see them scraping on rocks, shells, substrate, anything that seems like theyre "itching" your water needs to be harder. my shellies were doing it the other day so i tested the water it was down to 12 degrees KH, got it back up to 18 and now theyre happy again.
since mbu is also from lake tang it should be fine with these products


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## Johnnyfishtanks (Apr 21, 2010)

i dont know if the mbu would like high GH KH


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## Mferko (Jun 8, 2010)

cant mbu be found in lake tanganyika? ask charles i guess hes the tang expert
a quick google search about mbu's most say they can take 10-15 degrees hardness

have you noticed your fronts do the itching thing i described?


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## Johnnyfishtanks (Apr 21, 2010)

Mferko said:


> cant mbu be found in lake tanganyika? ask charles i guess hes the tang expert
> a quick google search about mbu's most say they can take 10-15 degrees hardness
> 
> have you noticed your fronts do the itching thing i described?


i just read DH 10 15 degrees whats DH?


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## Mferko (Jun 8, 2010)

DH is degrees hardness, most test kits its 1 drop per degree, u can get the api test kits really cheap at JL i think theyre <10 bucks each remember to get both gh and kh
on your test kit instead of saying degree it might have the little circle same as the circle in front of degrees celcius on your themometer


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## Johnnyfishtanks (Apr 21, 2010)

i have kh test kit


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## Mferko (Jun 8, 2010)

the tanganyika buffer would increase kh, the lake salts would increase gh

you can also try to use aragonite substrate to buffer kh for you but from my experience if you do alot of water changes it cant do it fast enough and you end up having to add buffers (i have aragonite substrate), it will likely just serve to reduce how much buffer you need to use.


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## Johnnyfishtanks (Apr 21, 2010)

i have 50% aragonite right now


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## Mferko (Jun 8, 2010)

mines all aragonite and doesnt buffer fast enough, i even have a powerhead in there for more water movement :/


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## mrmarcu (Apr 21, 2010)

With my experience with my WC Kitumbas I kept it as simple as possible. Golf ball sized coral in my filter as media and buffer. I found that consistency with my water was more important than having the right kh and gh. The fronts did really well and I got a couple batches of fry from them. I've used the same setup for all the tangs I've kept in the past from tropheus to fronts.


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## Mferko (Jun 8, 2010)

i heard even oyster shells can help with that but i find the seachem products easy to use, whatever works
as long as theyre not smashing themselves against things in the tank trying to itch, (a batch of shelly fry came out the same day i noticed the shellies trying to itch themselves on their shells, doesnt seem to hurt the breeding)


a coworker of mine keeps them with silaca sand and uses no buffer or even prime just straight tapwater, his fronts have bred but they also do the itching thing i described.. also the acei fry i gave him grew extremely slow but i think thats mostly cuz he feeds very little to try and keep bioload down so he doesnt have to WC often


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## mrmarcu (Apr 21, 2010)

I agree, whatever works works. That's what worked for me and I had no itching problems.


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