Buffering with crushed coral

[enrgizerbunny]

How do most of you use it? I put it in my filter. How much per gallon for a certain PH?

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[Brookster123]

What size tank?

 

[enrgizerbunny]

What size tank?

55 gallon. Fairly soft water out of the tap, limited buffering capacity. I'd like to hold it at 6.9. It's running 7.4 right now, which is at the top of my ideal range for the community.

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[Brookster123]

I experimented with crushed coral, my tap sounds about identical to yours, I added about 2 cups to my 2 filters In my 29 gal, not much difference, i used about 1 cup mixed in the substrate of a 5 gal and it put the ph at 7.8-8 for 2 months until I tore it down. So for a 55... You'd prob need a good amount under the substrate to reach your desired ph.

 

[Erod714]

What about argonite.. U can use it as a subtrate to balance ur tank out .. What u guys think ?

 

[henningc]

I use it to add hardness and calcium.

 

[enrgizerbunny]

Well right now I have about a cup in my filter and my PH rose from 6.4 to 7.4 over about 3 days now it's pretty steady there, but a little high. My theory is if I reduce the coral, the cycle will slowly drop the PH and then I just dose accordingly each month when I do filter maintenance.

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[Brookster123]

Well right now I have about a cup in my filter and my PH rose from 6.4 to 7.4 over about 3 days now it's pretty steady there, but a little high. My theory is if I reduce the coral, the cycle will slowly drop the PH and then I just dose accordingly each month when I do filter maintenance. Sent from my SCH-I435 using Aquarium Advice mobile app

slow and steady never hurts. I actually ditched the coral in my filter so I could stuff more sponge in there but I did add limestone in the tank and it seems to be doing the trick.

 

[Delapool]

What about argonite.. U can use it as a subtrate to balance ur tank out .. What u guys think ?

I tried that with cuttlefish bone as it should react faster. It didn't make much difference for me as I was hoping to increase kh. Not sure what went wrong.

My ph was already at 7.3 so it seemed the reaction was slow - I guess ph was too high. Or it was getting used up just as quick.

 

[mrvincent]

You can keep hardness by adding bicarbonate sodium or carbonate calcium, they both raise KH.

Crushed dead corals/shells are made of carbonate calcium, so it slowly raise KH overtime.

 

[Delapool]

Do you know what ph crushed coral is most effective? I was guessing under 7?

 

[mrvincent]

In low PH they'll dissolve faster, it can make the water reach PH 8.0 overtime.

Don't play with the PH. It depends on the KH hardness, if the hardness is very low, it will dissolve faster. But your objective by adding crushed corals is to raise KH, so the PH too.

 

[enrgizerbunny]

My PH was falling from 7 to 6.5 in a week, so I needed a buffer of some sort. I used seachem neutral regulator to get me through before, but I don't like chemicals, so that's why I added crushed coral to the filter, now the PH went up. It is stable so far, but a little high.

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[Brookster123]

Good thing about cc is stability, just tinker with amounts until you hit your number..