Crushed Coral

I have read numerous things on the net about cc being the worst thing for your tank.... can hold deterious, nitrates, silicates etc....

does any one have sucess with it? I have already had it in my system for about a month now and im getting destoyed by this dark green thick slime algae. Apparently cc can be a condributor of this.....

Help!

 

I doubt it's the contributor after only a month... it takes a while for this to build up in CC...

I've had CC setup since last October and I do not have algae problems (as of now).

 

ya i wasn't assuming that but i was wondering if it was as bad as "everyone" says.

I have a phosphate reading of 0.5ppm, 0 ppm on nitrate and nitrite... and i am running a fuge. I also don't have a huge amount of algae in there but it is nasty looking.

 

are you using tap water?

 

no ro/di water

 

Because I use CC, I make a better effort to not overfeed, overstock and to keep my hands out of the tank as much as possible (AMAP). Things that would exasperate the CC potential problems...

Just keeping these things in mind should go a long way ... at least, IMO.

 

It's hardly the "worst thing for your tank." I can think of a dozen other things that I would want much less than crushed coral. While it's not the preferred substrate for reef tanks, it's definitely not awful if you keep it clean.

 

by clean do you mean syphon it? Right now there is some mean looking brown slime on it. once again back to the fact that my tank is very young.

 

You don't necessarily have to siphon it but if you are able to, go for it. If I had crushed coral, I would simply stir it up from time to time while running either filter floss or a diatom filter.

 

I have cc for a sub and it has been in saltwater for about maybe 6 weeks and is purple and has been stirred many times and turned purple and green now...(not long hair or anyhting bad) the only thing cc aids in will be to help with ph I havent had any bad affects from it but then again it hasnt been under water to long,,,,,good luck aragonite would be better from what i hear. maybe get a 20 lbs bag and cover the cc....