cichlids and coral

[jlariviere]

Hi all,

This after-noon I did stop to a petshop to get some coral. I was not sure how much I need it for my 27 gallons rusty tank. Anyway the saler suggest me to buy the big coral rock unstead of the small pieces. He told me that small pieces of coral need to be change every 3 mouth and the coral rock last longer. So here my question:

1) do we really need to change coral every 3 mouth or so ? It's kind of becoming extensive on a long run !

2) any way to calculate how much coral you need for your tank ? ( I want my ph at 7.8 )

3) If my memory is good you can get the same thing with epson salt and ...baking soda...I think. What is the exact recipe for that ?
God ! I just realize I bought my coral stone for nothing lol. :roll:  OK..can someone explaine my exactly the salk/soda thing too.

Thx a lot

Julie

[ambushman2j]

personally I just used crushed coral substrate instead of gravel or sand and everytime I do a waterchange I dump in a little epsom salt and baking soda..this keeps my pH stable at 8.0, I have never used coral chunks in any of my tanks

[Eirikre]

It doesn't make any sense to say that larger pieces of coral work better than small pieces.  The smaller the pieces the more surface area to mass ratio the more minerals etc will be absorbed into the water.  

I also don't see why you should need to replace the coral.  It doesn't make any sense to me either.  I also have been using crushed coral substrate and have had non loss of it's effectiveness in my tank.  Although I would like to replace the coral substrate for something darder and more natural looking.  I will probably just bag some crushed coral and put it in my canister filter.  Should make a good filter media and provide the ph buffer I need.

[gvv]

Large piece of coral in freshwater aquarium? :?

Another question is how often should you change stones in the aquarium?

I'm using crushed coral as substarte. PH is quite stable as well as hardness.  Yes with time the color is changing. It will never be bright white again, but what can you expect?

[ambushman2j]

you could use a large peice, but you don't really have to ..for the cost it's not really worth it considering you can get the same effects for much cheaper

[lcoates]

Eric that's a great idea. I was buying a small bag  of the crushed Coral at Big Al's every 3 or 4 months. It sucked , over time my natural river rock gravel is now mostly white. not the look I was going for.
I just tried Art's formula 1 tsp Baking soda and 1 tsp Epson salts for every 5 gallons, it really works well. That's what I am going to use from now on , it's much more cost effective as well.

[Eirikre]

I still don't understand why you have to continually buy more coral.  Can anyone confirm and or explain this?

[cichlid_girl]

how often should you be adding the baking soda and epsin salts??

[saltydog]

What reason was given to you for changing (or adding) the coral & what was the source?

I use both coral substrate & coral rock in an African tank. PH has been stable at 7.8 for 2 years.

Marine tanks also use this sand & rock. I have never read in any book that it is adviseable to swap out or add coral.

Perhaps if one is using coral material as a filter media it may eventually become clogged & coated with bacteria & lose its effectiveness? If so, I would think that washing (or boiling) it would rejuvenate it.

[jlariviere]

They just told me that after 3 mouth or so the coral loose his effectiveness...sound like it was a saller argument   Thx for the information  :wink:

Julie

[lcoates]

For my tank, I had added some driftwood, that  lowered my PH. I religiously do my 25% water changes weekly.
In speaking with Art and Drew ,  please correct me if I'm wrong , but they add it when they pperform water changes.
As for myself, I  have a water softener system , therefore I need to watch my Ph more often.

[Marc]

how often should you be adding the baking soda and epsin salts??

At water change time is the best time.  If you take 10 gallons of water in your tank then you'll need to put in enough baking soda and epsom salts for 10 gallons of water.   You'll have to experiment to find out what the right amount is for your tank to keep your pH and water hardness where you want it.

They just told me that after 3 mouth or so the coral loose his effectiveness...sound like it was a saller argument  

I think the coral will lose it's effectiveness gradually over time since the calcium in the coral will eventually run out.

However I would think that when used as a substrate it would last quite a lot longer than 3 months, probably more like years.

For a while I was putting crushed coral in a filter and found that it would lose it's effectiveness in a few months.  I think it's because in a filter the coral is subject to high water flow and loses is calcium faster.

[Eirikre]

I can see why the coral might lose it's affectiveness over a number of months if used in a filter as I am thinking of doing.  I expected that.  However I will have to use a lot less coral in my tank to get the same affect since the water will be moving over the coral at a far greater rate also increasing the rate at which the calcium disolves into the water.  I will also keep a few large pieces of coral in the rock piles, probably out of sight as an extra buffer and as a great fry condo.