crushed coral or sand??

[tony]

For my 46 Gal BF i was thinking about using larger crushed coral, but after looking into it i found out that is not good. Now my question is which is better a deep sand bed or a crushed coral.
tony

 

[RLG2182]

DSB, IMO Most people here seem to prefer them as well.

 

[FynFysh818]

I am using crushed coral in my 37 gallon tank. I was told that it really doesnt matter which to use..sand or coral. With the coral, it will need a little more attention with cleaning. So for that you would need good bottom feeders and a gravel cleaner.

Crushed coral is also a little cheaper then buying Live Sand from an lfs. Thats why I got crushed coral. But from what I have seen on this site, most people use sand.

 

[Fluff]

DSB. Crush coral will need vacuumed and will harbor/trap waste causing nitrates to be higher in your tank.

 

[lando]

Either will do the job just fine. It really depends on how much work yo want to put into it. CC can trap detritus and casue nitrates to climb over time. It just requires weekly vacuuming to keep it clean. LS, on the other hand, is kept clean my sand-sifting critters and my clean up crew. It requires much less maintanance. IMO, I love LS.

 

[RMPD109]

A DSB will assist your setup in the denitrification within your tank. You would need a 4-6 inch bed to get these benefits. The CC substrate tends to produce high nitrates. The larger pieces of CC will trap detritus and the end product of that would be a higher nitrate reading. You can easily battle these nitrate readings in CC by regular vacuuming of it to reduce the detritus buildup. HTH

 

[Fluff]

You don't have to buy all live sand. You can buy dry play sand and use that. Then buy a cup of live sand to seed your dsb with.