crushed coral from ----..

wembleey

wembleey

New Member
I had bought some crushed coral from an ebayer..I recently recieved it. I went to smell it and it has a funky oder almost like cat pee..LOL Umm I don't know if this is normal, I would think not. Or is it just that his cats got to it thinking it was cat litterLOL
Need some help
Thanks Nikki
Gosh I feel stupid!
 
dmjordan

dmjordan

Active Member
I don't care for CC. From what I hear it is hard to get your nitrates down with it. Use LS instead.

As far as the litter theory :thinking: I wouldn't put it in my tank.
 
T

tampausmc

Guest
the smell probably isn't a good thing, but if you read on here most people would tell you that the crushed coral itself is never a good thing.....if you're starting a new tank you should consider some really nice looking live sand.....i think it usually comes down to appearance and also the space between the larger crushed coral rocks allows stuff to build up in there......so you in turn put more work into keeping it clean and algae free
not an expert.....just thought i might be able to help
 
salt phish

salt phish

Member
nothing wrong with CC just dont have a deep bed of it..... I had CC for years with a UGF that was very sucessful for years but when I decided to swich to sand it was a VERY hard task and you risk amonia pikes as well as your tank crashing....It took me 8 weeks to change it out slowly.... good luck and welcome to the hobby
 
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thomas712

Guest
Welcome to the board

Most likely you were sold used crushed coral, I'm sure it wasn't rinsed or anything and with something that was wet, bagged and sold, I would think that whatever was still there was decaying and creating ammonia.
I could if you like give you pros and cons of crushed coral vs. sand if you want me to.
Thomas
 
crustymonk

crustymonk

Member
I have about 60lbs of new cc that I removed from my tank and went with LS due to all the advice on here(Glad I took it too). If I knew people were buying it I would of posted it for sale.
 
wembleey

wembleey

New Member
Originally Posted by Thomas712
Welcome to the board

Most likely you were sold used crushed coral, I'm sure it wasn't rinsed or anything and with something that was wet, bagged and sold, I would think that whatever was still there was decaying and creating ammonia.
I could if you like give you pros and cons of crushed coral vs. sand if you want me to.
Thomas
That would be great..if you could
And also I would like to know what power head I should use foe a 30G
Thanks so much
Nikki
 
T

tampausmc

Guest
that's a great article.....i also started with CC and then attempted the mix.....and before you know it the CC is sitting on top......
I have LS now
 
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thomas712

Guest
Typically you want a 10x turnover rate or more, so a 29 gallon tank would need at least a 290 gallon per hour moving in there.
Take what you have for filtration or pumps now and figure the gph.
A maxi jet 900 has a 230 gph, so if you also have a HOB filter (hang on back) you would add that gph to it.
As a starting point 1 MJ900 would be 230 gph for a 29 gallon tank or a 7.9 x turnover rate.
2- MJ 900's would give you 460 gph or a 15.86 x turnover rate.
Get it?
*Sorry I based that on a 29 gallon tank not a 30.
 
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