Nitrates/Crushed Coral

zibasue

I have been having trouble getting my nitrate level below 40 even right after a water change, but now I wonder if it is because I have the crushed coral instead of sand. I wonder how hard it would be to change out the coral bed for sand? I'd have to move everything to another place that I don't have.....

Tommy Gun

Hey zibasue - welcome to the forum!

While it isn't the end of the world or anything, I strongly suggest starting your own, brand new thread in order to ask questions like this. In short, this helps you stay more organized and able to track responses easier. Again, not really a cardinal sin or anything...and my comments are just an effort to help you maximize the benefits you gain from using this forum. Anyways....

Just to clarify things a little bit, the crushed coral (CC) itself isn't going to cause a nitrate problem but instead, it is the detritus that becomes trapped within the gravel that we should blame. In fact, this is an issue for any type of gravel; not just CC.

With that in mind, you may need to increase your vacuuming and/or consider removing some of the CC so that you can almost vacuum down to the glass.

I don't think it would be all that challenging. My suggestion would be to get ready for the change over the best you can so that you can keep the fish in a bucket/pail for a while. Based upon my experiences with doing the exact same thing, I do think you might be wise to cover the bucket with something so nothing can escape...just don't make it air tight. Otherwise...

This might be a very good time to pick up the ...... that you do not have yet. Trust me, they come in very very handy!

dawgfan1

3. crushed coral can lead to nitrate problems and is unadvisable[/quote]

Very true.[/quote]

What, the LFS said I would be doing myself a great service, by replacing my traditional filter media in my fluval with crushed coral and live rock. Would this cause the same nitrate problems, if it is in my filter?

Tommy Gun

Yes and no. The difference would be that the crushed coral would have a bunch of water running through it on a constant basis but on the other hand, anything the filter picks up could get trapped in it. I assume that you are adding the crushed coral to act as a buffering agent for the water and not primarily as biological filter media, so if you already have that area covered, I don't know why you couldn't just rinse it out every so often to remove anything that gets trapped.

Keep in mind that it isn't the gravel itself that causes nitrates, but the detritus that gets stuck in it and decays directly into the water column.

dawgfan1

The way that I understood it from the LFS was that crushed coral would grow bacteria, this was the LFS solution to my ich problem (Dawgfans first FTF post) I already had live rock in the filter. LFS said not to change it or rinse it. Detrius and other things accumulating in the crushed coral makes sense though, and if like you are saying I am using it as a buffer, than a good rinse would be benenficial to both water chemistry as well as filter efficiancy. I assume the bacteria colony is in the Live Rock and that would be what I wouldn't rinse. I need to rearrange my baskets I figured out though, because I have them in the wrong order, so while I am doing that I will rinse off the crushed coral. Thank TG, you da man!

zibasue

Tommy, thanks for the hint about starting a new thread. I am learning new things about this forum all the time! I did switch out the coral for sand and it was a fairly traumatic event. Mostly because I was not familiar with the fluval pump. Now, my emerald crab is acting very sick. I am seeing a light dusting of brown on top of the sand. Could this be the "diatomes" that I am reading about? I know that you will want to know parameters. I haven't had time to go to the store and get the other test kit, this weekend for sure! so, per strip

Nitrite 0
Nitrate 20
Alkalinity 300
between 7.8 and 8.4 (although the color looked closer to 7.8 this time)
sp gravity 1.021 (it was 1.025 and I added some water...looks like too much..still learning by discovery)

Tommy Gun

No problem. It takes us all a little bit of time to get used to how forums operate...and in fact, how one forum operates versus another. As I said, my advice is more to help than anything else. In fact, I will seperate this thread for you so that you can gain the attention of a few more people.

tangtang clown

Go ahead and get rid of that crushed coral. I changed all of my crushed coral to live bahama oolite sand. Nitrates are down to 20 now. Trying to get them lower.
Do water cahnges and use only live rock and protein skimmer to filter.
Good luck.
HOLLER

zibasue

I did change it out, I still have too many nitrates, but it's because I need that protein skimmer. I just got back from the fish store and they were out of them so, I may try another store....it will take them a week to get one at least.