Coral Rock In Freshwater?

[mazzyread]

Hi, I have just set up my freshwater tropical tank (pic below hopefully!).
 
Without thinking, I have used dead coral rock, I have since come across people on the net saying that it will raise the PH levels and fish will not survive in it.
 
I have also heard that driftwood reduces the PH levels.
 
Do you think that by having these two massive chunks of driftwood it will counteract the coral rock?
 
The coral rock has been dry for some time and the previous owner bleached it and rinsed it several times.  It came free with my tank, I wasn't originally going to use it but thought it would actually look quite nice (which it does!) and would be a good hiding place for young fish.
 
It's a 260 litre tank, I have two large pieces of rock, 6 small bits and two large pieces of driftwood.
 
I'm about to test the PH so will hopefully be able to post the result in a bit.
 
Many thanks  

 

[KittyKat]

Reef bones are used in Rift Lake cichlid setups to buffer the water to a high pH and hardness. If you want to keep soft water fish, that's a really bad idea. If you want to keep Rift Lake cichlids, then it's a great idea.
 
The tannins from the bogwood are unlikely to be enough to counteract the reef bones.
 
Why don't you just get a KH and GH test kit set and test the water hardness?

 

[mazzyread]

my PH was 7.4.  Everything has been in there for 24 hours

 

[fluttermoth]

You really need to be able to test the hardness.
 
Although in natural water hardness and high pH go together, this isn't true of 'man made' water and you can't guess the hardness from the pH.

 

[KittyKat]

What fluttermoth said, and…
 

my PH was 7.4.  Everything has been in there for 24 hours

 
It will keep leaching carbonates into your water for as long as it's in there, so the hardness is likely to increase over the next few months.