Michigan Cichlid Association

General Category => General Discussion => Topic started by: Motorcity7.3 on February 04, 2014, 10:02:07 AM

Title: Crushed coral
Post by: Motorcity7.3 on February 04, 2014, 10:02:07 AM: I have set up a new 150 and used crushed coral for a substrate. I rinsed and rinsed and rinsed,lol, i thought i had rinsed well enough! i added it to the tank and filled the tank up,well it looked VERY cloudy. After 24 hours i can see the back of the tank but it is still very cloudy, is this normal? What should be my next course of action.
Filter is a new fx6 with one powerhead directing flow to intake. Thanks in advance!
Title: Re: Crushed coral
Post by: Sean on February 04, 2014, 10:06:42 AM: yep. aragonite makes thewater cloudy for a couple days. in my tanks, i did small water changes every other day until it cleared. im pretty sure that the cloudiness is just the calcium being released
Title: Re: Crushed coral
Post by: Motorcity7.3 on February 04, 2014, 10:15:27 AM: Crazy, Thank you for the quick reply. Will do water changes and report back as i go! Thanks again.
Title: Re: Crushed coral
Post by: Sean on February 04, 2014, 10:16:56 AM: no problem.
Title: Re: Crushed coral
Post by: linuxrulesusa on February 04, 2014, 10:47:50 AM: Quote from: CrazyCoolPeacocks on February 04, 2014, 10:06:42 AM
yep. aragonite makes thewater cloudy for a couple days. in my tanks, i did small water changes every other day until it cleared. im pretty sure that the cloudiness is just the calcium being released

I think it's actually dust, but I don't know for sure. Net effect is the same. Might be a good idea to put a sponge over the end of the canister intake tube to catch some of the crud and rinse it out daily. That way you don't wear down the impeller with grit if there are larger chunks getting sucked up into the filter. Sand has killed several impellers/impeller shafts for me on my AquaClear HOB filters.
Title: Re: Crushed coral
Post by: Motorcity7.3 on February 05, 2014, 08:47:01 AM: After a few water changes and the concern of damaging my filtration system,I drained the tank and took out all of the cc and replaced with river stone. All this started at 9pm last night!lol big thanks to my wife for helping with the rebuild! Will post pics soon. Thanks guys.
Title: Re: Crushed coral
Post by: Maize-N-Blue-D on February 05, 2014, 08:49:03 AM: Quote from: Motorcity7.3 on February 05, 2014, 08:47:01 AM
After a few water changes and the concern of damaging my filtration system,I drained the tank and took out all of the cc and replaced with river stone. All this started at 9pm last night!lol big thanks to my wife for helping with the rebuild! Will post pics soon. Thanks guys.

If you wanted to use the CC as a buffer in the tank, you could always place it in the bottom of your HOB filters.
Title: Re: Crushed coral
Post by: rcombs on February 05, 2014, 09:02:24 AM: I used crushed puka shell in my 40B. I love it. It was worth the extra work of cleaning and re-cleaning the filters. Fish appear to love it to.
Title: Re: Crushed coral
Post by: Motorcity7.3 on February 07, 2014, 09:36:07 AM: After the rebuild.
Title: Re: Crushed coral
Post by: Ron on February 07, 2014, 11:10:52 AM: Nice tank!

What about some tall plants along the back to hide the heaters, filter, etc?
Title: Re: Crushed coral
Post by: Motorcity7.3 on February 07, 2014, 02:59:37 PM: That's in the works! Going to add some more drift wood to help hide them as well,kind of like swamp knees.