sand or crushed coral

[Landshark18]

What are the advantages and disadvantages of both sand and crushed coral?

 

[Avi]

Crushed coral is a good buffer. That's about it as far as benefits are concerned. There are more downsides, the biggest of which is that it serves as a trap for detritus and can cause elevated nitrate levels. Also, crushed coral is not a good substrate if you want to keep certain fish like some wrasses that "dive" into the sand at night, some sand sifting fish like Diamond Gobies and Sandsifting Starfish.

Sand, on the other hand, can be kept very clean by having sandsifters in the tank. If you want to, sand, if deep enough, can compose a deep sand bed with it's nitrate reducing potential.

 

[Landshark18]

I have a CC bed right now in my 35 gal and cannot seem to get nitrates in check. They have always been way too high with all the small ammonia spikes. I'm talking maxed out! I think im going to start the tank over with sand. How deep should the sand bed be?

 

[zoltetov]

read up. it's a personal call. I like my 5-6" deep sand bed. (if you are going for a dsb, it should be 5-6".) Other people use it only for decoration, if at all. Anyway, liek Avi said and apparently you realize, your nitrates are in your cc. Good idea to change the substrate.

 

[Landshark18]

thanks! everyone on RC has been very helpful since my startup.

 

[pnosko]

Check out this forum sticky.

* An Introduction to Substrate Choices

 

[meco65]

I had cc at first also and had the same problem. So i got me some araganite sand and changed them out. You can take some nylon stockings and put some of your old cc into them and lay it on the sand bed to jump start the bacteria.