Crushed Coral in Freshwater Tank?

[debbieg]

Hi,

My daughter just purchased a 30 gal tank from her neighbor. It has crushed coral as the substrate. She likes the way it looks and would like to use it to set up a freshwater community tank. Would the coral be ok to use, or should she toss it. She plans on primarily angels with a couple of goldfish (I know, I know) in the new tank.

Thanks a bunch,
Debbie

[TankGirl]

Crushed coral is appropriate for African cichlids, as it will buffer the water and raise the pH. Angels prefer softer, more acidic water, though I have kept them in my moderately hard water with no problems. I'm not gonna comment on the goldfish....

[trenac]

I would toss the coral and start over with a gravel. Try to convince your daughter not the mix Angels & Goldfish. Goldfish should be kept in species only tanks and besides they produce a lot of waste.

[deli_conker]

She plans on primarily angels with a couple of goldfish (I know, I know) in the new tank.

I think she needs to change her plan. Let her know that angels are also tropical whereas goldfish are not. They have very different water temperature needs. One of the fish would be in either way to cold water or way too hot (depending on what temperature you keep the tank).

Also with either angels or goldfish you should plan for about 10 gals per fish.

[Muppeholic]

My daughter had a goldfish for a while. (It's what got us started. ::sigh: The average ammonia in the tank with the goldfish was around 2.0 (even after the tank cycled). I was told this is common symptom with goldfish because they're "messy". (Boy are they! Speaking from experience here. And they git BIG ours reached about 7 inches in length in less than a year.) Other tropicals (like angels) I was told cannot tolerate this variance in ammonia and this is why it wasn't suggested to us.

I'm no expert but that's just my experience and what I was told by LFS.

[krap101]

i just changed my 10 gallon to aragnite. im planing on doing a water change every 4 days to keep the ph/hardness down. because it looks really good. plus my loaches/corys'll probally luv it.

[TankGirl]

Goldfish are heavy waste producers, no doubt about it, but if there was any ammonia, the tank was not cycled. There are several factors that would keep a tank from cycling, but it is possible and desirable to keep goldfish (or any other fish, for that matter) without any ammonia present in the water. If she has adequate filtration in the 30 and decides to go with goldfish, she can do a fishless cycle beforehand to get the bacterial colonies built up before the fish - so there won't be an ammonia problem.