Crushed coral

TheresaC

TheresaC

Joined
11 Mar 2013
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Hartbeespoort, North West
Hello,

I saw a lfs selling crushed corals and the use it in their tanks. Looks very nice but does anyone know what its like in the long run?

I'm in process of changing my substrate and I have already bought flamingo aragonite. Will it be a good idea to add both aragonite and a bot of crushed coral?
 
I would not add too much crushed coral as it tends to always end up on top when the substrate is stirred up. I have a 1:2 ratio of coral:aragonite and would have rather gone with 1:5. I like the blend as it look more natural to me, all the reefs I have dived have some larger bits in the sand but apart from this aesthetic effect mixing substrate has no real benefit.
 
It can become dentritus trap. If you don't siphon out the fish faeces and ubeaten food you will get an increase in nutrients.
 
We have obe tank with crushed coral and another with aragonite. .. I don't syphon the crushed coral and never had problems with high nitrate or phosphate. ..running orca bio cubes on both as well as phosguard...I like the crushed coral..looks very natural. . Also gets coralline growth on it which looks nice.. just keep in mind with crushed coral you won't be able to house most gobies..
 
Thanks for the great advice peeps. I changed my substrate tonight. It was a mission but I did it now and everything is doing fine.

I changed to flamingo aragonite from ugly black and white mix. Flamingo looks natural. After taking out the rest of the old substrate I added the flamingo. Once addedI re scaped the live rock and corals. Then I added about five hands full of crushed coral so I would say it's about a 10:1 ratio.

It looks very natural now. I hope it was a good idea? I think the ratio is good and I can always add more crushed coral later on.

What's your feel on it?
 
Zandy said:
We have obe tank with crushed coral and another with aragonite. .. I don't syphon the crushed coral and never had problems with high nitrate or phosphate. ..running orca bio cubes on both as well as phosguard...I like the crushed coral..looks very natural. . Also gets coralline growth on it which looks nice.. just keep in mind with crushed coral you won't be able to house most gobies..
Click to expand...

Yes Orca are the bomb. A note to remember that not cleaning out detritus will lead to more nutrients being added to your tank which will lead you on a path that will require more cubes to be required to keep your nutrients at a suitable level. Nitrates are easily controlled, but PO4 does build up slower which can lead to a skew red-field ratio. It is always advisable to remove as much detritus as possible. You could always filter the detritus out and still use the same tank water.
 
theresacloete said:
It looks very natural now. I hope it was a good idea?
Click to expand...

There is no good or bad idea when it comes to substrate, each one has a drawback. I think yours is looking great, if we could get a pic! :lol: :p
 
Here's the fts before and and after:thumbup:

Before:

image.jpg
 
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