Crushed Coral

[Tobigara]

My tap water has a pH of 7 and a kh of 0. as you can imagine, my pH swings were terrible. i was advised to try crushed coral. i did but i still had some pretty nasty pH swings. I was told that a bio-film formed on the coral and stopped it from working the way it should and i should try using baking soda. i've been using baking soda for about 6 months now and it works well but i would like to try crushed coral again in one of my tanks to see if it'll work this time. one less worry during water changes would be welcome.

My question: how would you switch from weekly doses of baking soda to crushed coral without causing too many problems?

Any and all opinions and options welcome

 

[Miss Wiggle]

what fish do you have?

if you've any which are sensitive to pH swings then you need to be careful, however for the majority of community trops it won't be too big an issue if the pH swings once and then stabilises again. It's the constant change that's not good for them generally. While it's obviously best to avoid any change in reality that would be very difficult for you to do the change over.

I would just stick some crushed coral into your filter, do a water change and don't add any baking soda. Don't make it a massive water change, just a normal 25% one. Monitor pH and KH over the next week or so, then keep making adjustments to the amount of coral used to get it right.

 

[waterdrop]

I have read that it is true that crushed corel in a filter gets bacteria and debris on it pretty rapidly and so if you have it in a mesh bag, it is easier when your pull your filter tray out to then take separate actions: If there is other media in the same tray, give that a rinse in tank water. Take the crushed corel in the mesh bag and give it a forceful rinse under the tap - you won't care if the chlorinated tap water kills some of that bacteria because you want the corel surface free and clear to give off carbonates. Even though this is a bit more cleaning hassle, it is still probably the preferred location for your corel because of the constant water flow.

(others out there may have even more experience to relate..)

~~waterdrop~~

 

[pauly]

The crushed coral takes a while to kick in and builds up your Kh slowly. I would use both for a while.