How long will crushed coral take to adjust pH?

[Jdills1347]

I know this is probably a hard question to answer but I am trying to setup my tank for African cichlids and I am trying to adjust my water parameters. I added crushed coral to my media baskets on my HOB's to harden the water and raise the pH. I added the crushed coral to one of the HOB's a couple of days ago and the other one I did today.

My readings before were:
pH~7.4
gH<5
kH~1

My readings as of now
pH~7.8
gH~5
kH~3

Not much of a difference so I'm a little worried. I realize it might take a while. I also have a 40lb Texas Limestone rock coming in that I hope my rasie the hardness a little. So am I maxing out or are the changes still to come?

 

[cdawson]

Adding a little bit of crushed coral into your media isn't going to be enough to fully buffer your ph, you should definately decorate the tank with a calcium based rock such as you'd see in most cichlid tanks.

 

[Menagerie]

From another post, it was decided that using CC as substrate would not bring up your numbers enough. secure1347--was that your other thread? From the numbers, I would say you are doing fine. You don't want these numbers to crank up over night! Adding the THR will help raise your numbers, you just need some patience

 

[Jdills1347]

Oh I thought that most people said the CC in the filter should do the job. Maybe I am wrong. I was thinking in the back of my mind that I would probably need some more rocks with limestone and calcium to adjust the parameters further. You're right though I need more patience, but in the meantime just wanted to know what to expect. I'm going to go to some local landscapers and see what type of rock they have because I have the THR coming in and I have some slate too but I would really like some of the nice smooth rounded rock I see in some of the tank photos here.

 

[Menagerie]

Oh I thought that most people said the CC in the filter should do the job.

That's what I thought