Crushed coral

[k0olmini]

I’m going to add crushed coral to my 40 breeder. pH is 6.5-6.8, not ideal so I need to raise the pH and add buffer. Does anyone have any brands they like? Also it’s about 1lb per 10 gallons right? I’m planning on tossing it into the substrate 

[Biotope Biologist]

What fish are you keeping? 6.5-6.8 is a fine pH.

 

Also it’s all the same stuff so just get the cheapest and toss it in. Once the pH, Kh, and gh has stabilized the coral will drastically slow down in it’s dissolve rate.

 

personally I just toss in a wonder shell every few months to provide calcium carbonate for my snail friends.

[Pepere]

I didnt want the crushed coral mixed in my substrate due to aesthetics.

 

I place about an inch in bottom of my box filters to weigh them down.  Pot scrubbers on top followed by a bit of polyfill for mechanical filtration.

 

polyfill gets cleaned out about once a month in a bucket of tank water and replaced.  
 

 

[k0olmini]

On 9/9/2022 at 9:07 AM, Biotope Biologist said:

What fish are you keeping? 6.5-6.8 is a fine pH.

 

Also it’s all the same stuff so just get the cheapest and toss it in. Once the pH, Kh, and gh has stabilized the coral will drastically slow down in it’s dissolve rate.

 

personally I just toss in a wonder shell every few months to provide calcium carbonate for my snail friends.

Im trying to keep praecox rainbows but been having trouble. 

[K McZongo]

On 9/9/2022 at 12:56 PM, k0olmini said:

Im trying to keep praecox rainbows but been having trouble. 

It's possible it's something other than the pH. I have had praecox in 6.5 without any issues. What's been going on with the rainbows?

[Evan Baker]

I know crushed coral raised PH, GH etc....  I've heard Cory state aquarium coop has it in the holding tanks for plants at the warehouse.  Wondering what the benefit for plants is.  Could this be something that helps me with stem plants?  I cannot keep stem plants alive, at least bacopa, rotala, and ludwigia always die off on me, but things like pogostemon steallatus octopus, Mexican oak leaf, sag grass and valisneria all do pretty well for me.