I was using a aragonite crushed coral mix in my tank for the last year.I wanted to go down to a smaller grain size but the fine grain size of aragonite at my lfs comes in 50 lb bags for $50.
In the end Im sure you guys can guess what I did,I got a few bags of pool filter sand,rinsed it for a good 24 hours, and switched out my coral for the sand.I tried mixing the first bag of sand and the coral at first but I didnt like the way it looked so I took it all out and dumped the second batch in.
anyway I like how it looks but my ph is about 7.4 out of the tap.I know having a steady ph is better than trying to have a perfect ph and having it fluctuate so Im not sure what to do.I say this because my ph was fluctuating before with the arag and cc mix.After a water change It took about a week to buffer it from 7.4ish to 8.2 ish and by that time I was ready to do another waterchange (so I moved my water changes to every two weeks).
what do you guys suggest?I was thinking about maybe adding another small HOB and using a media bag to fill it with some of my old crushed coral like some people suggest.The thing I question is how will 2 handfulls or so of crushed coral in a HOB compare to the buffering power of 2 inches of crushed coral all along the bottom(as substrate)?
A little off subject but also when my eel buries in this new sand he comes up with it stuck all over him is this hurting him?Is the sand sticking to his slime coat or is it sharp and actually sticking the eel itself?(i know eels dont have scales thus my concern....I figured the sand would be easier on his skin than the crushed coral.)
In the end Im sure you guys can guess what I did,I got a few bags of pool filter sand,rinsed it for a good 24 hours, and switched out my coral for the sand.I tried mixing the first bag of sand and the coral at first but I didnt like the way it looked so I took it all out and dumped the second batch in.
anyway I like how it looks but my ph is about 7.4 out of the tap.I know having a steady ph is better than trying to have a perfect ph and having it fluctuate so Im not sure what to do.I say this because my ph was fluctuating before with the arag and cc mix.After a water change It took about a week to buffer it from 7.4ish to 8.2 ish and by that time I was ready to do another waterchange (so I moved my water changes to every two weeks).
what do you guys suggest?I was thinking about maybe adding another small HOB and using a media bag to fill it with some of my old crushed coral like some people suggest.The thing I question is how will 2 handfulls or so of crushed coral in a HOB compare to the buffering power of 2 inches of crushed coral all along the bottom(as substrate)?
A little off subject but also when my eel buries in this new sand he comes up with it stuck all over him is this hurting him?Is the sand sticking to his slime coat or is it sharp and actually sticking the eel itself?(i know eels dont have scales thus my concern....I figured the sand would be easier on his skin than the crushed coral.)
