The Puffer Forum

You mean dead coral rubble, right? I suggest crushed coral as substrate or a bag in your filter, instead.

Pufferpunk wrote:You mean dead coral rubble, right? I suggest crushed coral as substrate or a bag in your filter, instead.

Sorry if i have caused some confusion as i am not good with names. LOL

I mean those bagged white colored corals that are for external filters as one of the substrate besides the bio rings.

Am i right?

White crushed coral is generally used as a substrate for BW tanks, to keep the pH stable, around 8.

Coral rubble used to be available bagged commercially, plus many years ago I gathered such on dive trips. It is storm, anchor, ship, etc. destroyed coral scattered around reef edges or washed up on certain beaches. It is larger than gravel and still shows some (but generally eroded) of its original structure. The coarser nature of the material guarantees excellent water flow through it. Although it has significantly lower surface area for solution than does even the coarsest grave or crushed coral, the improved flow seems to balance out in favor of the coarser material in my use. I use dedicated small Eheims with the material in mesh bags taking up much of the space in the smallest Eheim externals. Thankfully, those have come back on the market in the USA..

Guys thanks for the time taken to reply here.

I have FINALLY resolved the problem and i am for certain that corals DO increase the pH.

I am really grateful that you guys have helped me out in this issue.

From a pH of 4.01 to 6.40 (and still increasing) is really of a GREAT help!

As my time zone is different from you peeps, please do bear with the differences. LOL

This is what happen...

As of 21/06/10 at about 1900 hours, i threw in a bag of corals which you guys recommended, (i cleaned my external filter and put a bag in it) i IMMEDIATELY notice a change in pH.
From a constant 5.9pH it went up to 6.2 in just few hours.

As i got back today to check on it, it went up to 6.40pH. All in all, it took just about 12hours from 5.9 to 6.4.
The scary part is if i hadn't introduced the bag of corals the pH will drop much further. Luckily i put it in when the pH was at 5.9.

I have many tanks for my plecos too as iam a pleco fanatic too. I just put in corals in my pleco tank with no knowledge in what it will do as i was advised to put it in.

My pleco tank need not much of water change as i know the reason why now. It must have been the corals.
I took some time out to attached some pictures here.

Once again peeps if anyone has any decreasing pH issues, PLEASE DO USE CORALS. !!!!

Once again thanks for the help.

ONE MORE OTHER ISSUE...............
I notice that my tank is more "brownish" in color after putting in the bag of corals.
My 2 piece of DW had been in this tank since day one but it has not tarnish the water as bad as now.
Both the DW had been boiled for many hours before.
But only recently is has tarnish the water much more.
Weird it sound but i think it has something to do with the new bag of corals.
Thanks for reading and taking the time out to reply once again!


The corals i bought. I cut the bag open and dump all the corals into my external filter.





Some of my pics of my plecos....

You have beautiful catfishes!

Your cories need sand, BTW. Cories are not to be kept on gravel substrate.

I like putting crushed coral or some kind of sand or substrate that manages my ph. But I dont know what you have in this tank.

Beautiful plecos? Hmmm, an all pleco tank, not bad idea..

I love your plecos!!! I collect a few myself:





I have lots more too! I keep a blue-spotted pleco I have never seen since adding it. Most $$$ one too.

I am wondering, why your pH continues to drop? What is the pH of your tap water? There is really no reason the pH of your tank should keep dropping that far.

Pufferpunk wrote:I love your plecos!!! I collect a few myself:

I didn't know you had plecos!

I have lots more too! I keep a blue-spotted pleco I have never seen since adding it. Most $$$ one too.

Do you know the scientific name (or number) of this one?

LOL, I don't even remember what it looked like! Many years ago, we had to replace the carpet, so I had to remove all the decor & drain very low to move the tank. I was like, "Wow, I totally forgot I bought that fish!"

Checking the pH of the tap is OK, but if you want to really know what is going on with the pH of the tank, monitor the KH of the tap water and the tank. The KH (carbonate/bicarbonate hardness) controls the pH of water.

HTH

Edit: I cannot imagine NOT having plecos. I have always been a bit of a catfish/pleco nut, but cannot keep any big ones at the moment, as i have only mid-sized tanks operating now.

Troender wrote:You have beautiful catfishes!

Your cories need sand, BTW. Cories are not to be kept on gravel substrate.

Thanks.

Plecos are more costly to obtain.

The most expensive i ever purchased was the "chubby" at SGD$500++.

I had a L-90A once. To those who keeps plecos L-90A is like a one in a million kind.
Lost that poor soul.

But my puffy is much more affectionate.

Miller535 wrote:I like putting crushed coral or some kind of sand or substrate that manages my ph. But I dont know what you have in this tank.

If you mean my pleco tank, i have "Level 2" gravel (that's what they call it here) and some corals.
You can see in the picture those small little white stuff... Those are the corals.

Lil' Swimz$ wrote:Beautiful plecos? Hmmm, an all pleco tank, not bad idea..

I however would not recommend putting your puffer into the pleco tank as some of the more territorial ones will "head butt" the puffer if they get to close and close to the bottom of he tank.