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by swelker101 on December 7th, 2005

swelker101

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Can dead sea coral be used in a freshwater tank?

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  • by notmrjohn on December 13th, 2005

    notmrjohn

    As long as the coral is clean you should have no problems. There are two things to keep in mind that probably won't matter in 99% of situations. First most coral is very rough and the small edges are sharp, if you are keeping some particularly delecatly skinned fish you should reconsider, as you would before putting anything sharp or extremly rough into the tank. Second the coral is made of calcium, if you are trying to maintain a low pH you might have some problems keeping the balance, and over relatively long periods the coral will slowly disolve. I'm talking years here but you might notice a rapid disolving of the surface right at the beginning. Again you would have the same problems with any chemically active high pH object such as some sea shells. You'll notice that I said that the coral should be clean. If it has been laying around a while you can be sure it is it is dead. The animal is small, is around 99.99% water, and lives basically on the surface of the coral and in shallow holes on the surface. Chances are most of the organic material is long gone but you should clean it anyway, just as you should anything else you put in there.. Some people bleach objects, a couple of tablespoons of bleach to a cup of water is strong enough. Just soak it a few minutes then rinse real good with water. Careful with coral though, the bleach will disolve the calcium so just a few minutes. Most dead coral is relativly colorless but I wouldn't use bleach on it if there is any tint you don't want to lose. Boiling the coral or using the oven might be better for coral and other objects that can take the heat. Boiling is especially good for shells that might still have some bits of critter inside or coral with deep crevices. Don't drop it into boiling water it could break. Put it in a pan with cool water and then put it on a medium stove till it boils then boil about five more minutes, turn off the heat and let the entire pot cool down naturally.. The boiling action will help clean out any debris as well as killing any bacteria, algae,spores, or other life. Raise the temp in the oven gradually too if you use it. Put the objects on a cookie sheet or even better some old aluminum foil pie pans or similar through away pan. Put it in a cold oven and set the oven to abou 250 once the oven reaches that temp leave it in for 10 minutes or so then turn off the oven and let it cool slowly inthere so a sudden shock of cool air doesn't crack it. Once the coral is cooled from boiling or baking kive it a good scrub with a toothbrush and clean water, rinse it and you are ready to use it.
    BTW add a little salt and cayenne to that water after removing the coral and you'll have an absolutly disgusting gumbo stock.

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