Crushed coral

[catmel]

Well, after doing some reading ( which I should have done first after reading everything now! i bought it with the tank before reading the forum, do'h.) It seems like having crushed coral for a substrate is a bad idea. The guy that sold it to me at the LFS seemed to know what he was talking about, said it was successful in his tanks / looked natural. My question being should I get rid of it now before I have all the rock in or will it really be ok??? You think you have a good handle on things then... LOL, and this is why I'm in no rush to get fish and take as long as I can to learn

 

[tamra&steven]

i had crused coral in one of my reef tanks because i didnt know any better at the time and the fish guy said it was great. i had nothing but problems and changed it out right away. i went with live sand much better looks natural too. i dont know about a fish only tank if it is a good or bad idea or not i just dont use it at all.

 

[fijiwigi]

I too was suckered into buying crushed coral when I first set up my tank by the LFS guru. I think they just wanted to get rid of it and saw me as nothing but a $$ dollar sign. I changed to sand and am way happier and my tank looks much better as well IMO I don't care for the crushed coral look really.

 

[melosu58]

OK yes the sand would have been better and if you are up to it you can replace your CC with sand but you can stiil function with CC. Just vacuum it out when you do your PWC`s which will remove that trapped debris. If you have CC it is not the end of the world. Vacuuming will suffice till you are able to switch over.

 

[Innovator]

There are different particle sizes in CC nowadays with the smaller being similar to aragonite (CaribSea Super Reef) whereas back in the day I remember them as small bricks As long as you vacuum the substrate regularly, as Melosu suggested, there should not be excessive buildup of debris; however, it's still not my preference.

 

[loyalrogue]

Well, you only have a 55g tank and you don't have anything setup in it except the CC, so now would be the perfect time to change it out if that's your desire and it won't be too big a job.

You could either bag up your leftover CC and sell it on craigslist, or if you're an avid DIYer you could use it to make your own agrocrete rock sculptures for your tank.

Now allow me to go off on my doddering old man tangent about my own personal experience with CC...
I bought a fully stocked 125g that already had a mix of mainly gravel and CC for a substrate.
It took all day to break it down, move it to my house, set it all back up and get the fish and corals back in.
There's no way I could have completely changed out the substrate without causing a cycle, so I did the next best thing.

Gravel and CC leave pockets and crevices between the particles that trap uneaten food/detrius which your CUC can't reach and so it rots causing problems.
Also, I don't like the looks of it and I wanted to keep some sandsifting gobies as well.

So I took several bags of Caribsea aragonite LS and dry sand, mixed it in with the CC to fill the gaps, and then built up another two inch layer on top for a clean white sandbed.
It lasted for two years like that without a problem until the wife decided we needed to rearrange the furniture and the tank got moved to the other wall.
That's when I set her down with a spaghetti strainer and several rubbermaid tubs to sift out all the old gravel and CC before I reaquascaped.
Hey, she's the one who wanted the tank moved... not me.

 

[cmor1701d]

LOL. When are you re-arranging the furniture again, and what do get out of it this time?

 

[roka64]

I had to do the strainer thing too. I only did a 1/4 of my tank at a time to prevent a cycle. BOY was that fun!

 

[catmel]

Weeelll I'm a bit peeved at the LFS people now haha. I think I'll go elsewhere to buy sand I'm guessing the argonite fine grain is the best to get 10-20# be ok for the 55 or should I get more / less for a normal depth bed?

 

[melosu58]

I dont use the fine sand because if you have alot of flow in the tank the sand will be blowing around. I use the medium size grain.

 

[catmel]

Gotcha. So medium grain argonite based is what I should get?

after about 2 hours I got about 99% of the CC out.. pain in the butt if you ask me. Bleh!! I want to make sure I get the right stuff this time before I buy it lol.

A dumb queston - my tank is REALLY cloudy after getting out the CC. When I put it in yesterday, it was still quite cloudy this morning, even after rinsing it for a good hour. Do I need to be concerned about this or will it eventually settle?

thanks for all your help!

 

[melosu58]

It will settle in a few days. I would have some extra salt water laying around in case you have a ammonia spike show up. Test often and see.

 

[roka64]

Mine was really cloudy after I separated my cc from the sand and Mike is right, it will settle.

 

[catmel]

Thanks for the help tank is still a bit cloudy, but its only been about 24 hours. I went out and got some argonite medium grain sand.. hopfully all will be well.

I plan on ordering my live rock today / tomorrow. If the dust hasnt settled by the time I get the rock and add it it wont cause any problems, right? I have a filter running as well - keep it on? My boyfriend is now getting more worried about my tank than I am LOL I guess its good he cares about it / is concerned too

 

[cmor1701d]

As bacteria coat the sand particles they become heavy enough to settle. Adding the LR will get your cycle going so don't worry about. Once it settles and you can see the rock again, use a turkey baster (new and rinsed) to blow the sand off the rock.

I added about 300 pounds or aragonite sand to my 125 when I removed my cc. It took about a week to settle. I could not even see my LR for 3 or 4 days. Today a sand storm will clear in less than hour once the source of the storm has stopped (ph pointing at the sand bed )