What does coral do

[troy]

Hi all

Can some one please explain what crushed coral does to the water for discus, does it increase the hardness.
If so is it best uesd in holding barrel filter or the tank filter.

[Carol_Roberts]

increases hardness and stabilizes pH

[Wahter]

coral is calcium carbonate, so it will increase the general hardness (could increase the pH if your kH/ carbonate hardness isn't very high, or just stabilize it as Carol mentioned). ;D

Some more info about water hardness:

http://faq.thekrib.com/begin-chem.html

[Nightowl]

Sorry, but I don't think you can assume that all calcium in water from coral is calcium carbonate. Not too long ago I had coral skeletons in a 15 gal tank w/ Tang. cichlids...the GH of the water was 27 degrees(over 400 ppm), the KH, which would measure calcium carbonate and other carbonates and bicarbonates that were present was only 4 degrees, or around 70 ppm. If the calcium from the coral was present as calcium carbonate the KH would have been much higher. hth J.T.

[CanadianGuy]

I don't think that Wahter said anything about calcium...he was just saying what calcium carbonate will do to your water...


Or are you saying that coral isn't calcium carbonate? If so, I'm afraid that you're wrong.

[troy]

Thanks all
Will add it to my grow out tank water.

[CanadianGuy]

Why do you want to add it to your water anyways? I've never heard of anyone using it for discus before.

[Carol_Roberts]

Folks with really soft water (GH or KH less than 3) use it to stabliize the pH.

[CanadianGuy]

Ahhh ok...thanks Carol.

I've only used it in my cichlid tanks to buffer the water a bit.