Sand and Crushed shells together??

[phillyreefer]

does anyone have Sand and Crushed Shells together??

mixed together?
sand on top?
sand on bottom?

I have a redseamax and with only 2 inches of sand and I want to increase the depth of the bottom layer to 3-4 inches. A friend of mine gave me a bag of crushed shells that use to be in his old tank. And i want to use this bag of crushed shells instead of buying a bag of live sand. I will boil the crush first of course.

Does anyone have experiaces with this combo? and or concerns? Thanks

 

[Reefing102]

the only thing that would probably be that if you want the shells to stay on the bottom with sand on top - overtime the sand will slowly sink raising the shells to the top.

 

[phillyreefer]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=12358157#post12358157 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by reefing102
the only thing that would probably be that if you want the shells to stay on the bottom with sand on top - overtime the sand will slowly sink raising the shells to the top.

im not to worried about that....the most important concern I have is the chemistry for the water and for soft\hard corals, inverts and gobys.

 

[cloak]

I've got a small amout of "puca" shell over the top layer. Never been a problem. Seems like the pods, worms, etc seem to like it.

 

[Tang Salad]

Re: Sand and Crushed shells together??

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=12358030#post12358030 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by phillyreefer


I have a redseamax and with only 2 inches of sand and I want to increase the depth of the bottom layer to 3-4 inches.

It's better to stay with a shallow sand bed (1"-2") or else go with a full on DSB (5-6") than to have something in between. Just an FYI...

 

[jimwat]

Re: Re: Sand and Crushed shells together??

Re: Re: Sand and Crushed shells together??

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=12358902#post12358902 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Tang Salad
It's better to stay with a shallow sand bed (1"-2") or else go with a full on DSB (5-6") than to have something in between. Just an FYI...

+1

3"-4" will provide you with all of the mess of a DSB without any of the benefits.

I would not use the CC. Maybe just a thin decorative layer would be OK.

 

[LobsterOfJustice]

Don't do it if you are going for the typical clean white sandbed look. Coralline and other algae will grow on the larger grain sizes of the crushed coral/shells because flow and other sand sifters don't keep it turned over as well as finer sand.

A few weeks ago I went through with a sieve and sifted my entire sandbed because of this...