Is too much Sodium bad for cichlid health?

[emartin]

I'm adding Sodium bicarbonate to some of my african cichlid tanks to raise the pH to the 8-9 range and was wondering if I should use a different buffer instead, like Lime (used on lawns but sold as 100% pure pulverized limestone, which is either Calcium carbonate or Calcium bicarbonate) or is baking soda perfectly fine?

[Bas Pels]

Although sodium will not hurt your fishes, lime would be better - as lime dissolves slowly, you can easily put half a bucket or more into your filter, without any negative affects, and as long as this supply is around, it works buffering your pH

Sodium(bi)carbonate dissolves immediately, resulting in the possibility of over doing its work