I have heard people talk about coral not working in a freshwater tank. I have a piece about the size of your fist that has been laying around for about 10 years. If I boil it real good and put it in my 30 gallon tank will it be alright. It has a few tiger barbs and plecos and tetras now. It is the bright white piece and It would really look good in there. What does it actually do to harm the tank. If it is dead and that old isn't it just calcium.
coral in freshwater
- Thread starter topfuel7
- Start date
Even if you boil it pretty good, coral or sea shells are not good for freshwater tropical community aquariums unless your fish require a high pH and hardness level in their water. In other words, the only freshwater fish that should have coral (or any other calcium based rock such as limestone or dolomite) in their tank would be African cichlids and marine fish. The calcium dissolves in the water regardless of how old the stone and affects the water chemistries. High pH and hardness levels can really physiologically stress out fish that require lower pH's (like South American Cichlids, and your regular community fish) and cause them to meet an early demise.
~~Colesea
~~Colesea
I do agree it may/will alter your water....but then again maybe your water could use it. I would also take a hardness and PH test...water can be too soft with out buffers as well as hard.
My poor fishys....my ph is 8.0 and my water is hard as rock.
I honestly can say any fish that required soft water and lower phs always did well and lived long lives.
Now there are some fish that might not do well in my water..probebly why I haven't purchased them. But I always was told ANgels are required to have soft, acidic water..and have seen many people have success in similar water.
I guess what I am saying is fish can adapt and live healthy , long lives in different water. They may even breed..but probebly won't. But I don't think it is unhealthy or stressful to keep these fish in different waters except in situations like a discus. Even there I don't know..cause I never kept them.
There is my opinion.
My poor fishys....my ph is 8.0 and my water is hard as rock.
I honestly can say any fish that required soft water and lower phs always did well and lived long lives.
Now there are some fish that might not do well in my water..probebly why I haven't purchased them. But I always was told ANgels are required to have soft, acidic water..and have seen many people have success in similar water.
I guess what I am saying is fish can adapt and live healthy , long lives in different water. They may even breed..but probebly won't. But I don't think it is unhealthy or stressful to keep these fish in different waters except in situations like a discus. Even there I don't know..cause I never kept them.
There is my opinion.
Acclimation is the key.
The tap water in my region is 7.8 and hard naturally. The fish are fine in it, even the angels (but they won't breed). I've even heard that discus will be fine at that pH, but they sure as hell won't breed and they certainly won't have the pretty colors that they are known for.
But the fish are already acclimated to the high pH, so going from the pet shop to the home aquarium is not such a big shock to them. Then you get the people who freak out about the pH being 7.8 when all the books and everybody has told them the pH should be 7.0. They go out and buy that pH down crap. WARNING! pH DOWN IS STRAIT HYDROCHLORIC ACID (HCl)! You add strait HCl to your skin, it hurts like hell, trust me. You add strait HCl to your tank improperly, you hurt your fishies. Also, because the water is hard, it has a buffering capacity. You might add the reccommended amount of pH down, but the actual pH of your tank won't go down because the hardness of the water absorbs the acid and neutralizes it, preventing a pH change. THIS IS GOOD! Fish aren't so much concerned with what their pH is (so long as it is not extreamly out of their physicological needs) as much as they are with stability.
The pH scale is expodential. A drop, or rise, in one point of pH, say from 7.1 to 7.2 may not seem like a huge increase to us, but it is in fact a 10x increase to physicological function. So going from 7.0 to say, 8.0 is a 100 fold increase. Ouch!
But you keep adding pH down, keep adding pH down, getting fustrated with why the pH is not 7.0. Then, one day, all of a sudden, the HCl reaches the buffering threashold, and you have a pH crash down to 6.0 or 5.0, because you've used up all the hardness in your water to neurtalize all the pH down that it no longer keeps pH stable. Stressed fishies result. Desperate water change methods also knock around the pH stability, thus stressing out fishies still more.
If topfuel7's -tap water- already has a really a high pH and hard water naturally, I would not add the piece of coral. Why upset an already "not proper" water chemistry? If topfuel7's -tap water- is very soft with a low pH, then adding a small chuck of coral could definately help with the buffering capacity of that water. =BUT= the pH should not be increased more than 2 points (aka 7.0 to 7.2) within a 24hr period to make sure his fish have time to acclimate. This is assuming that topfuel7 is using dechlorinated tap water in his tank.
So, the moral of the story is: topfuel7 needs to test the pH, carbonate hardness, and general hardness of his fish tank before deciding to add coral. Then, if he does add the coral, he will have to monitor the above to make sure of stability.
~~Colesea
The tap water in my region is 7.8 and hard naturally. The fish are fine in it, even the angels (but they won't breed). I've even heard that discus will be fine at that pH, but they sure as hell won't breed and they certainly won't have the pretty colors that they are known for.
But the fish are already acclimated to the high pH, so going from the pet shop to the home aquarium is not such a big shock to them. Then you get the people who freak out about the pH being 7.8 when all the books and everybody has told them the pH should be 7.0. They go out and buy that pH down crap. WARNING! pH DOWN IS STRAIT HYDROCHLORIC ACID (HCl)! You add strait HCl to your skin, it hurts like hell, trust me. You add strait HCl to your tank improperly, you hurt your fishies. Also, because the water is hard, it has a buffering capacity. You might add the reccommended amount of pH down, but the actual pH of your tank won't go down because the hardness of the water absorbs the acid and neutralizes it, preventing a pH change. THIS IS GOOD! Fish aren't so much concerned with what their pH is (so long as it is not extreamly out of their physicological needs) as much as they are with stability.
The pH scale is expodential. A drop, or rise, in one point of pH, say from 7.1 to 7.2 may not seem like a huge increase to us, but it is in fact a 10x increase to physicological function. So going from 7.0 to say, 8.0 is a 100 fold increase. Ouch!
But you keep adding pH down, keep adding pH down, getting fustrated with why the pH is not 7.0. Then, one day, all of a sudden, the HCl reaches the buffering threashold, and you have a pH crash down to 6.0 or 5.0, because you've used up all the hardness in your water to neurtalize all the pH down that it no longer keeps pH stable. Stressed fishies result. Desperate water change methods also knock around the pH stability, thus stressing out fishies still more.
If topfuel7's -tap water- already has a really a high pH and hard water naturally, I would not add the piece of coral. Why upset an already "not proper" water chemistry? If topfuel7's -tap water- is very soft with a low pH, then adding a small chuck of coral could definately help with the buffering capacity of that water. =BUT= the pH should not be increased more than 2 points (aka 7.0 to 7.2) within a 24hr period to make sure his fish have time to acclimate. This is assuming that topfuel7 is using dechlorinated tap water in his tank.
So, the moral of the story is: topfuel7 needs to test the pH, carbonate hardness, and general hardness of his fish tank before deciding to add coral. Then, if he does add the coral, he will have to monitor the above to make sure of stability.
~~Colesea