Crushed Coral vs Sand?

[Santa69]

Hi,

How is everyone doing tonight? I need some help/guidence. I have had my tank (75 Gal) for about 6 weeks, and am in the process of turning it into a reef tank . I have 118 lbs of various live rock 75% cured if not more. I have 1 Radford Gobie, 2 clowns, 1 domino damsel and 1 horeshow crab and about 35 various snails. Ok, now my question. The local pet store where I purchased my tank also set it up. They put about 50 lbs of crushed coral for the bottom with no sand at all. My son who has some experiance says that I should remove some of the coral and replace it with sand. The crab digs thru ok but the gobie just picks at it and does not "shovel" thur it. Any advice would be a great help...Thanks in advance.

Side note...who you picking in the Final Four?

Jim

 

[reefnetworth]

i agree with your son. i would go with Fiji Pink, arag-alive sand, about 2-3" deep. the size of the sand provides more coverage per square inch for benifecial bacteria to live. along with pods, certain snails, worms, and something your Goby can fit in its mouth to feed and clean. have a great night!
JDM......

 

[Gary Majchrzak]

Sugar fine sand is used to create an anaerobic zone for anaerobic bacteria to process nitrates. You would not want something like a Horseshoe crab in such a DSB situation.
The LFS set you up with a shallow sandbed (SSB) which can benefit from the stirring actions of the horseshoe crab. (Those things get very large, BTW. Not really a good choice for a reef aquarium.)
You can run either sand or CC in a SSB situation. Personally, I have experience with SSB's and DSB's and I've chosen to run my aquarium 1/2 SSB and 1/2 barebotton (BB).
If all of this sounds confusing, it's OK to run your aquarium with CC and no sand but I would not mix the two.

BTW: A 'Radford' Goby is actually a Rainsfords Goby.

 

[joejoe1055]

i'veseen a few tanks with food getting stuck down in the crush coral i'd would put some sand in there u could sprinkle some crush coral in there with it if u wanted

 

[Aliie]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=9601565#post9601565 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by reefnetworth
i agree with your son. i would go with Fiji Pink, arag-alive sand, about 2-3" deep. the size of the sand provides more coverage per square inch for benifecial bacteria to live. along with pods, certain snails, worms, and something your Goby can fit in its mouth to feed and clean. have a great night!
JDM......

I'm going to have to agree with this in every way. :eek1:

 

[Gary Majchrzak]

Since the Horse shoe crab will keep the sand bed void of life and free of edible detritus, this is a case where a SSB of CC is a better choice. You'll need to stir or vacuum the bed occasionally. If you have a sand sifting Goby it will compete with the Horse shoe crab so you'll need to make sure it regularly gets something to eat.
The other option is to use sand to create a deep sand bed. If you install a DSB the Horse shoe crab will prevent it from functioning properly.

 

[Gary Majchrzak]

follow this link and save it. You'll especially want to read the articles regarding live sand and DSB's. Pay special attention to the article on substrate choices:

http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=1031074

 

[drummereef]

Just do the dry Caribsea products if you end up changing out the substrate. Don't mess with the 'live' stuff, its just a bag of ammonia mess. You'll have a cycle if you do. Once you get the crushed coral out you'll be able to add about 1/2" of sand every couple days until you get the depth you want. You shouldn't have any cycles then.

 

[BurntOutReefer]

good advice Gary.......