# Florida Crushed Coral or Sand?



## billswin (Nov 9, 2009)

I was going to use play sand for my 75 Gal. tank, but just got back from the LFS and they talked me into this Florida Crushed Coral two 40 Ib bags. It looks really nice and raises the ph, I am going to do a African Cichlid tank. Here is the site that talks about it:

CaribSea Geo-Marine Florida Crushed Coral

I have seen a few reviews and they are pretty mixed, they told me its much easier to care for than a sand bottom and better for the ph and fish. After reading the reviews I am worried it might be harder to care for and some said that the stuff actually turns green? 

Anyone use this stuff and if so please give me some advice, stay with this or the sand I have both.


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## molliefan09 (Sep 21, 2009)

i was told to stay away from crushed coral as a substrate, im going to be doing an AC tank soon too, because the AC pick up the subratre and move it with their mouths and the crushed coral can cause injury


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## Byron (Mar 7, 2009)

Molliefan09 has a very good point. If you check the link to the site, you will see they even say "No" to sifter safe which I believe is what this means. It is also not recommend for bottom fish due to damage, obviously from sharp bits.

The water hardness/pH issue is fine, but not with these negatives. I would suggest going back to your sand idea, and using some of this crushed coral in the filter to raise hardness. Depends upon your tap water hardness, it may not take much to raise the pH to 8+ which is good for rift lake cichlids.

Byron.


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## cerianthus (Jul 13, 2008)

What happend? LOL!


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## cerianthus (Jul 13, 2008)

Although possible, I never experienced such mishap with AC due to CC. I do know that CC are very porous which will trap fine detritus which will cause nitrate problem down the road. Dolomite was used before but dont know if still avail.

Check CaribSea's website.

Should bre able to find substrate specifically made for AC. These are ugly and dull so I used to mix bag of shells from same Co.

Common/beach sand is not good idea for AC since will not boost/buffer the pH needed for AC as they are inert.

If really desire sand, look into sand by CaribSea used for salt water tank such as Pink Samoan, etc, etc which will assist in maintaining high pH/GH needed for AC.

Personally, would not use sand for mbunas since they can constantly dig causing Avalanche in the tank if one set up mbuna tank like I used to, piled of rocks and boulders.. 

Sand I used f was mostly for Tang specimens which must have sand to spawn or naturally found in sandy bottom such as Lamprichthys tanganicanus, C. furficer, Bentochromis tricoti (challenging fish I must say), etc, etc.


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