Substrate questions (coral/sand mix and reusing DSB?)

[SkinnyPete]

Anyone use crushed coral at ALL anymore? Breaking down my 110g, probably upgrading to a 180 and moving my seahorses to a 30g. I have a little Southdown sand left but I have 2 big bags of Crushed Coral from "back in the day". This stuff must be like 12 years old. I have some dolomite too (showing my age).

Anyway, besides the hassle of keeping this stuff clean, any downside to this for a simple small seahorse tank? Does anyone use dolomite or cc? Does anyone use a mix of cc/sand? Just trying to stretch some of my left-overs.

Also, will I have to wash my 4" sandbed in the 110g to reuse in the 180? I'm thinking after 2 1/2 years I won't be able to just move it?

Thanks, all

- Skins

 

[Ziggy953]

I have CC in my 10gal tank only because I had to set it up in a rush..I don't like the stuff traps debris and all kinds of crap. As for reusing your DSB out of the 110g I would scrap that idea and just get new sand. It's cheap and you can just simply seed your new sand with a couple cups of the old stuff. There are so many nasties in old sand that you don't want to put into setup!

HTH

 

[melosu58]

I agree, just replace the sand. Too much chance of fouling tank up with the other sand. I would save a little to seed the new sand. Just too much of the nasties in that old sand. JMO

 

[ellisz]

I have always re-used my sand. When I went from the 75 to the 180, put mostly new sand in though. I took the old sand out and washed it as best I could and it is now my 6-8" DSB in my refugium. It did cycle but that was to be expected with the washing. I moved that sand 2x before with no problems. I did notice that it was pretty dirty when I tore it down this last time though. I usually try to keep a lot of nassarious snail to keep the sand stirred up a bit.

If you can afford it go new. If not, clean it up and don't be in a hurry ...

 

[lando]

I have some dolomite too (showing my age).

I used this stuff to start my first SW tank...at the time it was latest and greatest substrate out there.
I have always resued my sand as well. When I have upgraded, I did not even rinse it. I just moved it from the old tank to the new one and added additional sand as needed. I would not use the CC

 

[artoledo]

Tomorrow I will be filling my tank with the new sand and was thinking about washing out my old sand and mixing it with the new. I am getting mixed signals here. Should i stay with the new sand and discard the old, or mix the old with the new (with or without washing?) or just seed the new with some of the old? If i seed with the old will it cause a cycle in my tank?

 

[melosu58]

I never have used old sand except to seed a few cups of it with the new but that is me. There are several good and experienced people on this thread that have said they have reused theirs. You`ll just have to decide which way to go. This is just one of those questions that there is just not one way of doing things. Everybody has their own experiences and you cannot discount that. Good Luck.