crushed coral & plants

[nosepuff]

okay, i had one of these stupid moments. i have a 28 gallon brackish tank at 1.002, and i want to get real plants for it. i set up a 10gallon tank to quarantine plants, and i couldn't find the right gravel at the local petstore. i bought crushed coral because i read somewhere that it was good for the f8's, so now i have a 10gallon freshwater tank with crushed coral, some hornwart, moneywort, an anubias nana, and this other plant. i did some more searching and found that crushed coral might not be good for the plants. so will the crush coral stop the plants from growing? should i take out the crushed coral? i feel really silly now, since i won't have any use for it if it is going to kill the plants.

[crazedpuffer]

I don;t think it will kill the plants. I think it's mainly because the crushed coral raises the ph.

[nosepuff]

will raising the pH be a bad idea for growing plants? my regular tap water is about 7.4.

[taureandragon76]

When you get the brackish setup to the proper SG your ph will go up anyways, my F8 tank sits around 8.2. If anything the crushed coral will start getting the plants acclimatized to brackish water, the only thing I think you should worry about really is very very slowly raise the sg in that 10g tank so the plants get used to the salt. I didn't do this in my tank and all my java fern is melting away and there was some nice healthy bunches of it in there

[Pufferoni]

The crushed coral will be fine, it just won`t help the plants.

I also suggest you try some java moss and java fern. Both works well in my brackish planted tank. If you look for my thread on brackish plants it has some pics and discussion on types of plants and acclimation.

http://www.thepufferforum.com/forum/vie ... f=8&t=7379

[nosepuff]

ohhh ok, thanks for the advice. i'm happy as long as the plants won't die. i wanted to get java fern, but they always look terrible at the stores. and i don't have driftwood to tie the plants to. wouldn't it rot?

[dumpythepuffer]

you dont need to tie it to drift wood. it actually works better on large rocks. u can also grow it on ornaments. as long as it doesnt grow in the subtrate.