Sand or Crushed Coral Substrate. Help!

[Smoke Reefer]

Hey guys. I set up a 20 gallon with 20lbs of live sand and it is doing great. I am now wanting to set up a 55 gallon. I have everything bought except for the substrate BUT I just received 40lbs of new crushed coral from a friend. Can I use this? I don't know if I can drop another 150 for live sand. I don't mind having problems in 5 years, I can switch by then. I just hear such negative things I wanted to ask yalls opinion! And I know someone will say "cc is a nitrate factory" and that's it but will it be that bad in just the first 2 years? I also have one of those Eheim gravel vacs that are battery operated and I think will help a lot with the cc.
<a title="" href="http://i.imgur.com/eQrMhuZ.jpg?1"><img alt="" src="//i.imgur.com/eQrMhuZ.jpg?1"></a>
Thanks a bunch!!

 

[Xavibear]

Set up your tank correctly from the beginning. Use dry sand.

 

[Smoke Reefer]

What kind of problems am I going to have? Is it really that bad? Maintenance is not an issue for me I love working on my aquarium. And I like the look. I guess my post made it seem that I was only using cc because of money issues which is not the case. Will cc hurt my livestock?

 

[bundybear1981]

It tends to accumlate detris much worse n is nearly impossible to keep clean. IMO set up right from the start n save money down the track. Crushed coral is hardly used anymore as there are better options.

 

[Xavibear]

Sand sifters probably wouldn't like it much. Check out Caribs special grade or Tropic Eden reef flakes.

 

[E46Twist]

Or go BB

 

[Zer0.]

Sand sifters probably wouldn't like it much. Check out Caribs special grade or Tropic Eden reef flakes.

I used Caribs special grade. Very happy with it.

And yeah, no need to use live sand. Save alot of money and just get dry sand
Cost you more like $42. I have plenty in my 180 gallon tank from just 80 pounds which only cost $84 with free shipping...

 

[cloak]

As long as you stir the substrate up or vacuum it on a regular basis, I don't see a problem using the CC. You don't need that much of it either. One inch should suffice. GL.

 

[Smoke Reefer]

Thanks for all the replies everyone...
Zer0. thanks for the help and suggestion. Do you remember what site you ordered from?
Cloak awesome advise thanks for the encouragement

 

[ichthyogeek]

Buy mostly dry sand, and inoculate with some of the live sand from your other tank. Cheap, but you get a lot of the benefits of the original live sand you bought.