NEED HELP FAST...Substrate Question

[coalcut]

Anyone ever use this stuff before:

"Florida Crushed Coral" ....claimes "it's the only crushed coral with aragonite, which provides up to 25 times the buffering power of other crushed corals, dolomite, or oyster shell"

Can i use this alone as a substrate? Comes in 40lbs bags. How much do you think I need for a 340gal tank 78"x30" footprint.

I'm about to place an order but thought I'd check with you all first.
Thanks

 

[Mogurako]

Way more than you'll want to spend, go to home depot buy some quikrete all purpose sand get 50lb bags for $4-5 bucks. I would go for 100-150 lbs. If you're concerned about buffering the water add crushed coral to your filter.

Aragonite forms naturally in almost all mollusk shells, and as the calcareous endoskeleton of warm- and cold-water corals so by that logic doesn't all crushed coral contains aragonite?!

 

[coalcut]

Thanks for the quick response. What about pool filter sand?. I hear really good things about it as well and also that it's better than play sand or general purpose sand?

 

[christine2012]

Thanks for the quick response. What about pool filter sand?. I hear really good things about it as well and also that it's better than play sand or general purpose sand?

It looks better than play sand. I'm pretty sure that's the only difference. Its more like that white beachy sand look

 

[jetajockey]

PFS also tends to have a larger and more uniform grain size.

 

[Mogurako]

The all purpose sand has allot of different grain sizes for it looks really nice and natural and is allot simpler to rinse than play sand. Pool filter sand is also really nice, however the color tends to vary allot.

 

[coalcut]

So, is cost the only issue with crushed coral? Any issues with sand and canister filters?

 

[Mogurako]

So, is cost the only issue with crushed coral? Any issues with sand and canister filters?

Crushed coral is rather expensive to coat a tank that big. Fish will often pile all the coral into big mounds exposing glass which to me looks tacky. With sand they are not able to do this as easily. I have used crushed coral as substrate in a 55, the bright white seemed to wash out my fishes colors.

The only time I have ever had any problems with sand is when I used that super fine black moon sand that would stay suspended in the water column long enough to get sucked into the filter. Pool filter sand and All purpose sand does not get sucked up into the filter since the grain size is large enough that it sinks faster if a fish kicks it up.