Coral in my African tank

[cichlidman2010]

I've just set up a 3ft tank as I have 100 odd fry I needed to find a bigger tank for. I have coral sand as substrate and I added a good few pieces of small coral (which i've used before) to make some caves to get them used to that sort of environment, etc.

Of course, the coral has already started to raise the ammonia levels in the tank (as well as the pH). How long is it going to take for the ammonia levels to settle ? I have added ammonia remover to the HOB filter already so that should start to help and I will also be performing regular water changes.

How often should I be doing those water changes and how long should I be expecting to wait until I can add all of the fry ?

Also, if anyone has a spare canister filter I can borrow for a while, that'd be great

Cheers.

[MarkLB]

Of course, the coral has already started to raise the ammonia levels in the tank

Hi Why would coral raise the ammonia level? Surely it is dead coral? I have two tanks full of the stuff and the only ammonia I encountered was during the cycle period.

[Fruju]

Doesn't raise ammonia unless there is dead stuff rotting on the coral?

[ryanjury]

I agree with the others here, maybe if you took it straight from a marine tank and it was filled with all sorts of gredlies then it might end up causing ammonia spikes as this stuff dies etc, but if it has been used in a freshwater tank then should be fine. I usually just add coral water and then chuck the fish in with a bit of cycled media in the filter and good to go with normal weekly water changes.