using crushed coral

Crushed coral can dissolve and help to raise or buffer pH. So if your pH is too low or not stable for your fish, the answer is...maybe.

The problem is it cannot dissolve fast enough to make a significant difference with the weekly 50% water changes we make when keeping cichlids.

What is your pH? What pH is needed by each of your fish?

i use crushed coral. I have for years. you can see it in my sig line link. i agree with DJRansome about its ability to raise and buffer your PH. i don't know about how long it takes to dissolve though. All i know is that my water always has PH reading of 8. the water coming out of my sink isn't that much different so the coral doesn't have to do much.

You can always put the coral in the filter, which is what I did. That way I was able to use sand in the tank.

Britnick said:

You can always put the coral in the filter, which is what I did. That way I was able to use sand in the tank.

Click to expand...

Years ago I did that as well but it made little difference to the pH. -It may have if it was in larger quantities but I have to agree that it didn't dissolve quick enough to make a significant difference.

However for purely aesthetic purposes, crushed coral looks nice.

My tap PH is 8.2. I have one tank with crushed coral as 50% of the substrate. My other tank is a planted tank with sand substrate and a piece of driftwood. Both tanks settle and stay at a PH of 8.0. I'm not convinced crushed coral does much. It certainly doesn't do much for me.

Tap is 7.8, and I tried putting crushed coral in my filter. Reading after 3 months was still about 7.8, maybe 7.9, but still slightly lighter than the 8.0 mark. It really dosen't make much of a difference. At least it didn't for me.