Does the vinegar test work with crushed coral?

[tmcpeek]

I bought a used aquarium the other day and it came with 2 white bags of substrate. Hand written on the bag is as-1. The peson I bought it from said it was crushed coral but it looks like sand to me. I did the vinegar test and it foamed so I am assuming it may be aragonite sand but want to make sure. Any ideas?

 

[RogerMcAllen]

Crushed coral would also foam with vinegar.

 

[tmcpeek]

Thanks for the info. So is the sugar sized crushed coral the same as aragonite sand?

 

[scuba_steve]

yes

 

[tmcpeek]

Cool that was a bonus then. The bags are 50lbs each wo it will save me a few$ since I cannot get Southdown in California.

Can I asked why aragonite is so much more preferred over crushed coral? Is it just the grain size? I guess the courser it is the more nitrates it holds in?

 

[indy]

What you have is coral sand. It's the same thing as CC, but much finer. Actual CC is generally gravel sized chunks with shells mixed in with it. Sand is prefered over CC because it doesn't provide large cavaties for detritus to settle into and rot.

 

[scuba_steve]

yep ya could run the bag of cc over with your car a few thousand times and have some good sand lmao

 

[tmcpeek]

So assuming it is all the same grain size as the live sand at the LFS I can use it as a base?