CRUSHED OYSTER SHELLS

[squareferrin]

I AM SETTING UP MY FIRST TANK, AND A LOCAL STORE SAID I COULD USE CRUSHED OYSTER SHELLS WHICH I HAVE A LARGE SUPPLY OF. COULD SOMEONE LET ME KNOW IF THIS IS EXCEPTABLE AS I WOULD HATE TO KILL THE FIRST STARTUP OF FISH, OR FUTURE FISH I WOULD LIKE TO ADD.

 

[fshhub]

welcome to the board and the hobby, your gonna love it
and as for the crushed shell, no it would nto kill hte tank, but it is a long way from the best choice you have, a dep sand bed of 4 to 6 inches is actually best, crushed coral and or crushed shells will work, but provides none of the benefits of sand, a deep sand bed actually acts as a natural biological filter an dgoes a long way towards the removal of nitrates(naturally) and a healthy hapy tank, where as cc or cs does not, well could if you had about 12 to 16 inches of it
HTH

 

[ruaround]

The shells are fine, just keep the vacuumed well, atleast weekly. The shells will trap detritus (fish poop) and will eventually make your nitrates go up. The DSB is a great substrate but is spendy. There are ways to do it fairly cheap by using south down or quikcrete play sand and "seeding" it with live sand.

 

[rockster]

I have been pondering about crushed oyster shells to add in my sump. I think they will provide a little more calcium in the system. For now I'm using Oscal tablets, these are made of oyster shells, very water soluble. I just remove the green coating and drop it in my sump once a week. It worked for me...so far no problem yet.