Crushed coral is turning green. what can i get to clean it.

[gabrielsmom08]

I have hermit crabs, some small snails, a turbo snail and an emerld green crab and my crushed corals are still turning green. what can i get to fix this?

 

[DrHank]

This is an excellent question. Cerith snails may help as well as serpent stars. Most folks have gone away from crushed coral and turned to sand for this reason. Sand is much easier to get critters to clean. Detritus also tends to build up more in crushed coral than in sand. Finally there are many more inverts and some fish that will do an excellent job in cleaning sand. Unfortunately the same can't be said for crushed coral.

 

[gabrielsmom08]

This is an excellent question. Cerith snails may help as well as serpent stars. Most folks have gone away from crushed coral and turned to sand for this reason. Sand is much easier to get critters to clean. Detritus also tends to build up more in crushed coral than in sand. Finally there are many more inverts and some fish that will do an excellent job in cleaning sand. Unfortunately the same can't be said for crushed coral.

I do have some Cerith snails in my tank and I did notice that the green is only on the crushed coral. Should I try to remove it? I have sand but was told to add some crushed coral b/c it was good for my tank. after 2 months I am seeing differently. I just did a partial water change and stirred up the sand before hand so maybe i caught some of it and my filter will pick up more. i am going to my local fish store to get some more snails today. my nitrates are a little high and I was told this could have caused it.