Addition Of A Lovely Piece Of Coral

[Wend]

Hi, today I was given and beautiful peice of coral for decorating my tank. It came out of the sea many many decades ago and has been an ornament in my Gran's house ever since so it will be contaminated with god knows what - dust etc.

What should I do to it other than a good rinse and soak - or should I throw it away!

 

[waterdrop]

Sorry but this is not at all a good idea unless you happen to have zero carbonate hardness and are looking to radically change your water chemisry to have special fish that like really hard water or something like that! Coral is a prime example of the stuff that makes the "hardness" world go around! It will up your hardness and probably take your pH along with it. Little small bits of crushed coral and crushed shell are what we use as the method of choice for raising pH and hardness if we have determined (usually against our wills) that these need raising.

Obviously you might think about using the coral in some sort of display exterior to your tanks if it has sentimental value.

~~waterdrop~~

 

[Wend]

Wow, glad I asked! And Im glad I waited for advise before plopping it in there. Many thanks.

 

[waterdrop]

You're welcome. Boring as it may sound in repeated hobby discussions, significantly sized stone and wood "hardscape" is the basis of aquascaping that meets the eye and immediately reinforces the impression that one is seeing a natural underwater scene. This in turn subconciously allows live plantings to both shield and reveal the fish and other animal occupants as the living things to be focused on. Thus, focus on the fish is enhanced rather than distracted.

Being careful about tank additions that can raise mineral content (whether things directly from the sea such as coral or shells, or indirectly from the sea, for example limestone or other sedimentary minerals created by coral and shells crushed by eons of movement of the earth's crust) is all a part of protecting the tank's chemistry from moving too far away from one's tap water chemistry.

~~waterdrop~~