Crushed Coral/Aragonite in the Planted Tank

P

Panic

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Dec 3, 2002
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For those of you that use crushed coral or aragonite in your planted tanks...Did you have to breakdown and buy a whole 10-20 pound bag of the stuff? Are there places out there that will sell it by the pound? Thanks for the help.

Peter
 
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Either of these will raise the pH in the tank a lot--way above ideal for plants. I don't think many people use either of them in a planted tank. Laterite and flourite are common...I've only seen them sold in the larger bags--10 lbs or so.

I used most of 2 bags for my tank. You could ask around to see if anyone has a partial bag lying around they don't need. I save my leftovers because I know I will start up another tank--eventually.
 
I do not intend to use it as a substrate...My Kh is less than 2 and I need to raise it in order to safely inject diy co2 via a diy reactor...I need a little more buffering capacity but don't want to buy a huge bag of the stuff and then have nothing to do with it...
 
Gotcha'. If you don't want a bunch, look for some shells. I know our Hobby Lobby sells small packs of shells, fairly cheap. This would work well. Or, you could get a small peice of dead coral--lots of places sellit for decorations. Bit pricier, but you wouldn't end up with a bunch leftover.
 
I run cc in my filter for the same reason. iIjust broke down and got a 25lb bag. It is a lifetime supply. I think they also have a 10 or 15lb bag available some places.
 
I bought a 10 lb bag. I put 5 tblspns in a filter bag in the filter of my 30g and it did the trick. Quite a bit left over.

It didn't cost very much and it stores easily, but if you could find it by the pound you'd still have more than you need. If you could wrangle a little bit of broken coral from the lfs I'm sure the crushing part isn't that complicated :D
 
I went to my LFS and simply told them I needed a small amount of crushed coral to put in my filter to raise the kH. They had a whole bucketful in the back room that came out of a display tank.
They scooped out a couple of cupsful and put them in a bag for me...no charge. Check it out...most LFS will work with you if you explain the situation. You don't say how many gallons of tank water you're dealing with, but a little coral goes a long way. And IME it doesn't raise the kH overnight...takes a few days.
A word of caution: When you get it home either boil it for 15 minutes or spread it out on a cookie sheet and pop it in the oven at 350 degrees. That'll kill ANYTHING that may be living on it.
Len
 
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Thanks for all the replies...I will definitely see if my LFS can help me out and just give me a couple of cups...If not I may just buy some broken coral bits and then work out a little frustration on them...Anyways...Thanks
 
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