Substrate

[Sharkbait430]

Ok everyone, here's my first posting for my new tank. I have the Oceanic BioCube 29g tank and bought a 15lb bag of crushed coral/aragonite substrate. I also wanted to put some sand in there. Should I put livesand or just some aquarium sand, or should I put in any sand at all?

 

[mandown123]

i would say what you should do is NOT put in crushed coral. It goes fine for a year or two then you have a bad nitrate problem and you can't figure out why. It's because the detritus gets trapped in the little holes and crevices of CC substrate. Get sand - your fish (especially wrasse kinds) will like it way better and it is better for your nitrates.

Use aragonite reef sand, i use caribsea fiji pink, loving it.

 

[thominil]

I agree with mandown123, don't use cc. Just use plain old dry aragonite. Don't buy live sand, Imo it's not live after sitting on a shelf for the better part of the year.

 

[mtlion]

Same here, use dry argonite, it will turn live soon enough.

 

[mtlion]

Also only use one substrate, I would still recommend argonite. If you mix them the CC will eventually rise to the top anyway.

 

[thincat]

All good points. live sand is a selling point. Regular aragonite is a much better option.

 

[roka64]

I agree, try getting CC out of a tank mixed with sand and we can compare war stories!

 

[Sharkbait430]

Well I have good news, reading everyone's postings regarding the CC and how I should get rid of it, when I got home last night, I said to myself let me just check the package of the substrate I bought and I did and it doesn't have CC! I for some reason thought it did but it doesn't, it's just pure aragonite and it says that it reduces nitrite levels so that makes me happy!

 

[thincat]

I'm happy to. That's great news. I have read to many bad stories about tanks with CC or worst CC mixed with sand.