Moving to my first large tank upgrading to a 125 I have had both sand and crushed coral and only dealt with a small amount of soft corals. I am planning on trying some harder corals and such is there any benefit to either substrate other than personal preference. Thanks for the info in advance.
Substrate? Sand or Crushed Coral
- Thread starter kwalls
- Start date
atlantisaquari
New member
crushed coral would definitely have to be gravel vacuumed at least monthly. although i believe a shallow bed of sand should be as well. sand is a detritus trap as well. if you have ever vacuumed it , you get buckets of the nastiest brown stuff you have ever seen. the stuff will slow and eventually stop coraline growth if not removed. so crushed coral isnt so bad in my opinion but again. definitely have to vacuumed regularly. second thought i always thought that second to sand was a mixed bed of rubble, sand and various particle size crushed coral and sand.
Tomoko Schum
New member
I recommend a shallow sand bed highly.
In my limited experience, it works great without any vacuuming. I have a herd of Nassarius snails that keep my sand bed clean.
When I moved all my livestock and live rocks from my 120 to 180 last summer, I left my sand bed in the 120 with just one inch of water above it for almost a month without any water movement. When I finally cleared the sand out from the 120, I found the sand bed to be fine and both my Alpheus pistol shrimp alive and well in it. The sand did not seem to be dirty for being in the tank for four and a half years without vacuuming. Additionally, I have a 7 years old shallow sand bed in my 15. No vacuuming here, either. Rocks and corals in this tank have been rearranged a few times, but I left the sand bed in tact every time. The tank has been very stable and things thrived in it despite all the disturbances that numerous re-aquascaping caused.
In my limited experience, it works great without any vacuuming. I have a herd of Nassarius snails that keep my sand bed clean.
When I moved all my livestock and live rocks from my 120 to 180 last summer, I left my sand bed in the 120 with just one inch of water above it for almost a month without any water movement. When I finally cleared the sand out from the 120, I found the sand bed to be fine and both my Alpheus pistol shrimp alive and well in it. The sand did not seem to be dirty for being in the tank for four and a half years without vacuuming. Additionally, I have a 7 years old shallow sand bed in my 15. No vacuuming here, either. Rocks and corals in this tank have been rearranged a few times, but I left the sand bed in tact every time. The tank has been very stable and things thrived in it despite all the disturbances that numerous re-aquascaping caused.
tangsrbest
New member
sand will def help reduce nitrate
Tomoko Schum
New member
A sand bed is a great part of biological filtration because of a huge total area for nitrifying bacteria to colonize. It mainly converts the ammonia to nitrite and then to nitrate with the help of the bacteria, though. I doubt that a sand bed will do much to reduce nitrate unless it's deep enough (more than 6 inches deep) to have a large anaerobic zone.
atlantisaquari
New member
in addition to what tomoko said. i believe that the amount of detritus that collects in the sandbed will produce nitrates faster than the inefficient anaerobic bacteria can process it.
above i should have said "have the potential to slow or stop coraline growth" not "will"
like i say though, i have seen several occasions where detritus removal from the sand was key in bringing back coraline growth and overall health. and each time buckets of thick brown stuff was removed from the sand.
above i should have said "have the potential to slow or stop coraline growth" not "will"
like i say though, i have seen several occasions where detritus removal from the sand was key in bringing back coraline growth and overall health. and each time buckets of thick brown stuff was removed from the sand.
Tomoko Schum
New member
My shallow sand beds stay pretty clean, thanks to my nassarius snails and a huge fighting conch (so big that I dropped my jaw when John Newby handed it to me :eek1: - I am not complaining. The conch is such a hard worker and a great help. ) I also have a very low bio load as compared to a lot of people and do a 20% or more water change every two weeks in my tanks. Keeping the water clean really helps IMHO.
jasontammy
New member
Sand all the way, plus a Diamond Goby to keep it lightly stirred. They're a blast to watch - such industrious little builders. We try to keep one in every tank.
wareagle35031
New member
sand sand only sand. I did the crushed coral and then I did the change over OMG what a mess
atlantisaquari
New member
engineer gobies are pretty good at keeping sand moved and also out from under and behind rockwork. they also dont rely on food in the sand like sifter gobies do. so they dont starve as easy
Tomoko Schum
New member
Hope you have your rocks placed on the glass bottom securely with engineer gobies around. They can rearrange your rock work by causing a landslide :eek2:
