sand and corals from the beach

[lechon]

my first post.. this forum is great... really informative.

iv had my betta in 1 gallon, with gravel at the bottom. i found some sand and dead corals i collected form a salt water beach in asia. are these safe for my betta?

my concern is that i read that dead corals dissolve and alter the pH of the water, making it bad for freshwater aquariums. does ay1 have any information concerning bettas specifically?

thanks.

[Osiris]

It will raise your ph levels in the water when it begins dissolving. The sand i would be more concerned about, if it was brought there from another location it could very well contain metals or other harmful things in it that will harm your fish.

[pyrofish]

I found some useful information on water conditions for betta:

http://www.healthybetta.com/Care/page%206-watertype.htm

It would not be such a good idea to add coral sand or decorations for two reasons:
1. It probably raise the pH to at least 8.0 (as it did in my tank). Betta's prefer neutral pH.

2. Every time you do a water change, the pH would change drastically (unless you added chemicals to keep it constant), which would stress out and possibly kill the betta.

[Andreeuh]

I put sea shells in my betta's tank and after a couple days he had some missing scales on his back. So I cleaned his tank and took the shells out.. now he's fine. I'm pretty sure the shells did it.

[MaryPa]

Most of the beaches contain lots of polution from the sea and from humans. I`d be afraid to add anything to one of my tanks found on a s**** line.

[aaa]

the coral and sand is not a good idea. the coral will raise the ph and hardness and it look totally out of place in my opinion because betta is fw, not sw. plus the potentially sharp edges is no good for betta's body and fin. the sand(and other grave) in my opinion is too hard to clean up in a 1 gallon tank.

[lechon]

its slowly approaching 2 monthes since i put my betta in with the sand and coral. i boiled the sand and corals before exposing it to him. today he seems to be perfectly healthy on content. he even likes to play in the sand.

compared to the aquarium gravel (purchased), the sand is much easier to maintain. the betta's poop just lies on top of the sand, which makes it easy to remove with a turkey baster. with the gravel, all his poop would fall between the rocks.

i therefore advocate the use of sand and corals from firsthand experience.

[ron v]

It's still a bad idea, regardless of your first hand experience.

[lechon]

Originally Posted by ron v

It's still a bad idea, regardless of your first hand experience.

how so?! i dont know what better indication there is other than firsthand experience.

i double checkd with my local pet stores (pet smart and petco) and both maintained it was ok. the worker @ pet smart happened to be using corals as well, for years, which is what ultimately gave me confidence to go ahead.

[Fishfirst]

well basically you are taking a fish and putting it in a much higher pH than its natural habitat... granted, it is a betta, so it can live through almost anything, but most of us believe that if you can keep a fish in its natural conditions, you should.

[Fishfirst]

Also, boiling sand doesn't get many of the contaminants out, I would have gone with store bought sand that doesn't alter the pH.