Sand or crushed coral ?

[Laura22]

So I'm upgrading my tank from a 30 gallon to a 75 and before I go buy a new substrate I wanted to hear some opinions on what would be the better choice, sand or crushed coral ? Which is the most popular? I currently have crushed coral in my 30 because that's all my local store had at that time.

 

[Imaexpat2]

Depends on what you want to accomplish and how much you "vacuum the gravel bed.

I recently went to a BB in my 20 gallon and despite no fish and almost no feeding of my corals I was BLOWN AWAY at how much crap accumulated on the floor of my tank! So I dont use substrate anymore except in certain situations in my frag tanks and then I use Crushed Coral. From an asthetic point of view I prefer "oolitic sand", especially if I have sand sifting critters in my tank.

 

[Silly clownfish]

Hi Laura,

I made the upgrade from a 30 to 75g myself about 4 years ago. I too always had crushed coral in my 30g, but reading up at the time everyone was saying how terrible crushed coral was and how much better sand or B.B. was. Hmm, the crushed coral worked fine in the 30g for 16 yrs. I hate the look of B.B. and could not imagine it would be fun needing to scrape coralline algae off the bottom instead of just the walls. So I went with sand, it was something like reef special grade. I hated it. It was hard to vacuum (which is part of most of my water charges), if it did get any algae growing on it, it clumped up. After a year or so I gave up and slowly removed the sand (it was coming out when I vacuumed anyhow) and replaced with my standby crushed coral.

I only use a ~1” layer regardless of substrate. I tried a deep sand bed in another tank back in the early 2000’s and did not like that either.

Just my experience. I don’t think that there is a single best choice for everyone.

 

[mcgyvr]

sand hands down..

It provides far greater surface area for bacterial and other microfauna, etc... vs crushed coral substrates.

As far as my personal preference sand is also more visually appealing and doesn't become visually clogged with loads of detritus,etc...

It will also allow you to properly support sand sifting critters/fish if you want..

I recommend Carib Sea special reef grade and nothing "finer" than that to allow decent flow rates.. Slightly larger if you intend on a "high" flow tank over something like 50x flow rates..

 

[oldhead]

Also if you need high flow rates, you could put a courser sand layer over top the fine sand. It is how I have my tank set up, mainly because I wanted a watchman and wanted to make sure he had what was needed.

 

[juanfdezdc]

I have sand in my tank and like to see how the little critters are in it. Also to me, it looks more natural

 

[hkgar]

Sand. Oh, and in 15+ years of reefing, I have never vacuumed the sand bed.

So the best thing for you to do? Don't ask our opinion as we all have one and can justify it strongly. See Silly Clownfish's and Mcgyvr's. Do some research and make your own decision.

 

[liverock]

Real live sand=happy tank

http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2144250&highlight=tbs+live+sand&page=13

 

[goodman770]

Pink reef sand, with a conch to stir things up...it's great.

 

[albano]

Sand... threw out the crushed coral over 30 yrs ago!

 

[j.falk]

Sand. No doubt about it. I'll never go back to crushed coral.

 

[Laura22]

Thanks for all your advice. I've listened to what you all said and did a bit of research and I think I'm gonna go with sand ..sounds like the better option...Im just nervous about making a mistake that's not easy to fix...my real deciding factor was the fact that I want sand sifting gobies and critters and I want them to be as happy as little fish & critters can be ☺

 

[ReefJak]

Thanks for the info I am also trying to decide substrate for my new tank

 

[DougSupreme]

[MENTION=38412]mcgyvr[/MENTION]
How big would you say is too big/coarse of grains for a sand sifting goby? I want "some" sand, but the rest will likely be rubble

 

[liverock]

Why not just get the real thing??

 

[mcgyvr]

[MENTION=38412]mcgyvr[/MENTION]
How big would you say is too big/coarse of grains for a sand sifting goby? I want "some" sand, but the rest will likely be rubble

I wouldnt go any larger than like 4mm for a goby..and 2mm is best IMO..

 

[DougSupreme]

Use both, You're gobies will be fine.

my main concern is the fact that I should have about 5000gph of flow in the tank and i don't want it blowing all over.

 

[mcgyvr]

my main concern is the fact that I should have about 5000gph of flow in the tank and i don't want it blowing all over.

You most certainly do not need "rubble" to avoid sandstorms in a tank..
Stick with the 2mm-4mm range of sand and you should be fine.

I'm probably at or above 5000GPH of flow in my 80G tank and just use caribsea special grade reef sand.. Its only 1-2mm in size..

Look into Tropic Eden Reefflakes which are like 3mm

 

[DougSupreme]

You most certainly do not need "rubble" to avoid sandstorms in a tank..
Stick with the 2mm-4mm range of sand and you should be fine.

I'm probably at or above 5000GPH of flow in my 80G tank and just use caribsea special grade reef sand.. Its only 1-2mm in size..

Look into Tropic Eden Reefflakes which are like 3mm

How much vacuuming do you have to do of the sand bed? I don't want to have an issue with detritus. I think it's an important part of the ecosystem. I just don't want to have to vacuum too often. The rubble will go around my rock work and the sand will be between the two structures

Sent from my SM-G930V using Tapatalk

 

[albano]

The rubble will go around my rock work and the sand will be between the two structures

Hopefully, it will stay like that for at least a day or 2.