# Crushed Coral ?'s



## gatorsaver (Jan 3, 2010)

After 8 hours of washing off 20lbs of crushed coral I have come to the conclusion that it will never be clean, the water in the bucket is always clowdy. I have used almost 8,000 gallons  of water and it will not clear up. Someone must have some kind of trick on how to clean this stuff.


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## White Thunder (Jan 15, 2010)

put it in the tank....let the filters finish.....listen to what others say......


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## smellsfishy1 (May 29, 2008)

It will never run clean especially if you are aggressively stirring it.
Just let it settle in the tank and let the filters handle the rest.
It usually will clear up over night at the latest, but a water change will definitely help.


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## gatorsaver (Jan 3, 2010)

I was going to add it to the sump under my bio balls.


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## smellsfishy1 (May 29, 2008)

Is your pH far out of range for your fish?
Does your pH crash shortly after water changes due to low KH?


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## gatorsaver (Jan 3, 2010)

Tank was running a month with water from a cycled 55g, i add fish 4 days ago. this is what i have so far.
pH from city water is 7.2 in the tank it is running about 7.6-7.8
BF (before Fish) Ammonia 0, Nitrite 0, Nitrate 5
AF (after Fish) Ammonia 0.25, Nitrite .50, Nitrate 10


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## FlyHigh (Nov 15, 2009)

gatorsaver said:


> ... I have used almost 8,000 gallons  of water and it will not clear up.


8,001 gallons gets the cloudiness out :lol:


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## gatorsaver (Jan 3, 2010)

my luck I will have to start over


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## fishEH (Sep 15, 2008)

I just changed out my crushed coral for pool filter sand. The crushed coral never really got clean, even after rinsing and running in my takn for months. It would leave a white, almost powder like film on the tank glass. It came right off with the magnet cleaner but I still didn't like it. It was a pain to clean, too. Didn't work well with the python and I kept getting that cloudy water when I stirred it up. Wasn't worth the headache for me.


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## FlyHigh (Nov 15, 2009)

I rinsed two bags of crushed coral at a time in a 5 gallon bucket of water. I just filled the bucket with water, used my hands to thoroughly stir up the coral and dumped the water. I repeated this several times. The water never became crystal clear but when I saw a definite improvement I said enough is enough. I placed it in my tank and have never had a problem. I guess the filters have done their job. The finer material in the crushed coral is almost sand like. This sifts to the bottom. When vacuuming, this material gets vacuumed out. Over the three months I've been using it, the finer material is becoming less and less. Either way though, I've never noticed it to be a problem. To be fair though, I do have a SA Earth Eater in there along with my Africans and after feeding, he really goes to town sifting through the crushed coral. As he does this, the finer material that gets expelled out of his gills will float around before it settles back to the substrate and while it is visible for a short time, it by no means clouds the water. I would imagine this would be the same with sand right?


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## TangSteve (Sep 20, 2009)

Add it to the tank and then add Seachem's Clarity.

I use this product whenever I set up a new tank with aragonite sand and it is clean within 1 to 2 hours. Just as a baseline tanks with aragonite without clarity take 2 to 3 days to clear and over a week to become crystal clear.


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## gatorsaver (Jan 3, 2010)

I will be putting the coral in samll bags under the bio balls. I hope it will not make it too cloudy. My pH from the city water 7.2, 
Any clue as to how much 20lbs of coral will raise the pH?


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## smellsfishy1 (May 29, 2008)

It really won't do that much at least not as much as I was lead to believe.
The addition of coral substrate got my tank up to about 7.8 from about 7.6.
With it installed as a medium in my filter it did the same.


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## gatorsaver (Jan 3, 2010)

I found some small 6x10" bags at the LFS and i will try one and add more if needed.


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## okeefe4787 (Feb 22, 2010)

When I first set up my Malawi tank I stupidly forgot to wash the crushed coral before I dumped it into my tank. It took a few days to clear up but all was well after that. As I siphoned the tank I made sure to get all the way down to the glass on the bottom and little by little I got rid of the "silt" that settled below the substrate.

I just recently added 20 more lbs and I washed the crushed coral using a pasta strainer while I gently mixed it with my hands. I added to the tank using a pitcher that I lowered to the bottom and slowly scooped out the new substrate. This worked pretty well. Got a little clouds but it went away within an hour or so.


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## okeefe4787 (Feb 22, 2010)

When I first set up my Malawi tank I stupidly forgot to wash the crushed coral before I dumped it into my tank. It took a few days to clear up but all was well after that. As I siphoned the tank I made sure to get all the way down to the glass on the bottom and little by little I got rid of the "silt" that settled below the substrate.

I just recently added 20 more lbs and I washed the crushed coral using a pasta strainer while I gently mixed it with my hands. I added to the tank using a pitcher that I lowered to the bottom and slowly scooped out the new substrate. This worked pretty well. Got a little clouds but it went away within an hour or so.


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## greggb (Feb 4, 2010)

I ran into the same problems when I added coral sand to my tank.

6 or 7 water changes later and the water I'm dumping out is still milky white. I read somewhere that coral sand will continue to dissolve and erode in the water indefinitely. I'd tend to think it would be clean by now after washing it initially and 6 or 7 vacuumings, but each time the same amount seems to come out. So that would be my theory.

I also noticed that my filters had gotten really clogged from all the coral dust. It took more effort than I would put into a normal cleaning the get them unclogged.


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## gatorsaver (Jan 3, 2010)

My tank has finally cleared up only to get hit with Columnaris. Now it is bright green with antibiotics.


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## greggb (Feb 4, 2010)

Just to clarify, mine actually cleared up right way (probably within 1 day). It appeared to me that more of it settled than was filtered.

But to this day vacuumed water is milky white, which makes me think it's continuing to erode.

Sorry to hear about your other problem.


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