I have for a number of years always added crushed coral to my hatching trays,
even when I lived with liquid rock water. The factor I haven't been able to
sort out is is it the Calcium from the the coral or shell grit or is it the
fact that as the calcium source dissolves it is buffering the water (making a
bicornonate buffer). The reason I think that the buffering is a significant
factor is the fact that I grew up fry in the 550+ ppm water (of which 75% was
due to Ca++ and 24% due to Mg++) with and with out crucshed coral in the
water. The results were more fry grew up in the crushed coral tank and they
have almost no fin deformities while in the non-coral treated water there
less fry grew up and there were about 30% fin deformities. As another note
the ratio of male to female was significantly different. I did this with
three species one of which were P. siginfer and the other two species I can't
remember as my notes are missing from my many relocations.
These experiments are about as controlled as I will ever do at home. I do
not have any assay data on the water as I do assays at work and don't have a
desire to do them at home!
Scott Buckel (RSG)
--------------------------------------
Date: 5/26/96 3:08 PM
To: Scott Buckel
From: rainbowfish at pcug.org.au
Peter and Cary have added their 10 cents worth, how about the rest of you
guys?
Do you use calcium/shellgrit and why? Is it because your water is soft to
start with? Is it because Ron Bowman said to? Is it because you believe it
will save you from running into trouble with buffering problems due to
organic acid overload?. Did you ever try no calcium and got problems? There
are lots of these questions that could be validated to some extent by survey
of opinion and reasons for that opinion.
I for one wouldn't be bothered with multiple measurement of calcium levels
etc and I'm sure that if I had to it would detract from my enjoyment of the
hobby. Spouting the opinions and enjoying the banter to and fro is part of
the charm of the hobby ( and of this list for that matter) for me.
Bruce Hansen