silly question

[Bunny]

silly question maybe....

I've got a tank with crushed coral but want to add live sand. I can just pour the sand right in over it? Im not going to get poison gas bubbles or fish that cant tolerate a mix of crushed coral and sand?

[mike3epanda]

I have heard of people doing that.. but some has told me that CC will find its way up.. I took all my CC out and just put sand.

[melosu58]

Eventually over time the CC will come back to the top as the sand works it way to the bottom. I`m also thinking it might be better to remove the CC and add sand.

[Bunny]

Sand is better?

[melosu58]

Sand is smaller and wont trap as much fish waste under it as CC will. Dont get me wrong CC will work but you`ll have to do more dilligent work to keep it clean. Sand is also easier for some fish that need it sift or hide in. BTW there is no such thing as a silly question if you are trying to learn.

[DanD]

That's just the way of things - if you have materials like that with two different sizes of particles, the smaller will gradually filter down through the larger if it's on top. Read an article in SciAM on that once, but b-o-o-o-o-ring

[Bunny]

Oh I figured the sand would go to the bottom. I actually hate using sand, because I find it a pain to clean with my python...but, having 30lbs of dead liverock I need something else to get my tank going. I will get a bit more rock, but the sand seems like a benefit to the tank overall.

[melosu58]

You dont need to clean the sand that way. Get a sand sifting goby or narsirus snails. I have a bullet goby that all he does is sift sand. You can actually see him sifting the sand.

[Ziggy953]

I agree...the narsirus snails will do a great job of keeping the sand stirred up. I would not recommend vacuuming the sand unless you are planning to remove some of it.

[roka64]

I had both CC and sand. The CC ended up on the top and started to be a pain. I removed the CC and now just have a sand substrate, of course, this is just my personal preference.