I NEED HELP!!!

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lazarusthefishboy10

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So, I have a piece of coral lying around that we found on the beach years a go. It's just been sitting on the deck, all dried up. If I rinse it down, will it be safe to put in my freshwater aquarium? And I was told coral is meant to keep the water nice and steadily hard. Is that true? And will the coral I found do that? Please let me know. It's just an ordinary white piece, and would look cool in my tank as well. Thanks for the help guys,
Lazarus :)
 
So, I have a piece of coral lying around that we found on the beach years a go. It's just been sitting on the deck, all dried up. If I rinse it down, will it be safe to put in my freshwater aquarium? And I was told coral is meant to keep the water nice and steadily hard. Is that true? And will the coral I found do that? Please let me know. It's just an ordinary white piece, and would look cool in my tank as well. Thanks for the help guys,
Lazarus :)
About 10 years ago when I had no clue about fish or anything. I used to put coral in my fishtank. I had no problems with it personally but I had some pretty hardy fish. I was literally just a kid throwing everything I thought looked cool into the tank. I assume it would increase the ph a little Now and looking back itā€™s probably not the safest of things however it really depends on the fish I think. Iā€™ve actually still got the coral in with my same fish 10 years later and they are doing great, so I assume if you soak it long enough, it should be all good. Iā€™d also make sure u give it a nice good scrub! Sorry I canā€™t give you a straight answer but should give u a rough idea until someone actually smart can reply. Haha.
 
Coral is made from calcium carbonate and will cause the pH to go up a bit. A single small piece of coral is unlikely to change the pH much but a lot of coral will definitely raise the pH to about 8.5. As long as you keep fish that like a pH above 7.0, then a piece of dead coral skeleton will be fine. Just rinse it off and put it in.

If you have fast moving fish and the coral has sharp edges, the fish might scratch themselves on the coral. You can use some fine sandpaper to go over the coral and remove the sharp edges. Use a wooden sanding block to hold the sandpaper so you don't cut your hands. Then rinse the coral before putting it in the tank.
 
Would it be worth getting the API GH & KH kit to test his water? @Brendanpat did you get your water hardness reading from a year strip or from Irish Water website?
 
Would it be worth getting the API GH & KH kit to test his water? @Brendanpat did you get your water hardness reading from a year strip or from Irish Water website?
My water comes from a local scheme. It's not on the website. So I rang the lady that runs the office . It comes from a mix of a lakes and wells . She said it varies between 100 and 150 ppm. So I test it with the strips and it usually reads 120
 
With one big change you'll get those levels down to 0 and nice healthy tank for the fish. I'd say you're through the worst of it now
 
Thank you all for your help! Means so much!!! I won't take the risk and won't add the coral. Plus I have a lot of tetras that love that lower pH. Cheers,
Lazarus :)

Think that is the right decision as itā€™s so hard to tell if any pieces of coral is safe to use as no idea if itā€™s been contaminated with anything or not from being in the sea.

Likely probably not but one never truly knows until itā€™s in the aquarium and by then once you see anything amiss, well, pot luck if it affects your tank, plants or worse the livestock.

It is very true that coral will increase the pH of aquarium water parameter but by how much, no real idea until itā€™s actually in the water column after a while.

But with tetras, who prefer the lower end of pH scale, itā€™s the best choice, imho, not to add coral as itā€™s likely to raise the pH and the affects of that raised pH wonā€™t be known on the tetras until itā€™s too late really.
 

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