Crushed Coral to Live Sand

[nicreef]

I have a 1yr old 72 gal bowfront tank with aragonite, crushed coral substrate. I am thinking of switching to sand I as move my tank from one house to another. How should I proceed? Does the crushed coral have essential nutrients seeing that its been in the tank for a year that the sand won't have? Would live sand have the same nutrients and bacteria? Any help would be great. Thanks

 

[Anonymous]

I would go with a 4" plus live sand bed, use Southdown sand if you can get it and then add some live sand from a friends tank. If you do a google search on Southdown and live sand you will get links to quite a few ideas.

Have fun

Bryan

 

[nicreef]

Hey, thanks for the info...

i have an aragonite, crushed coral substrate right now that is 1 year old and 1" - 1.5" deep, what should i do about it? would it be ok to simply get rid of it?

or, since its only about 1.5" of substrate, should i put this new sand over it so i can keep whateve has been growing in there?
thanks

 

[Anonymous]

CC is not good for a reef. I have it in my 90 gal FO. I am going to move in 2 weeks and I am going to change over to sand. I would only put 1-2 " of sand. Some say more. I have never had any problems. But I guess that would make a difference if you had some good premium rock.

 

[Tremelle]

I would start with a new DSB, and seed it with a couple of cups from your old substrate. If you place new sand, Southdown, over the old substrate of CC and Agronite you will eventually have the Southdown on the bottom and the CC on top. I have seen this happen first hand to a friend.

 

[nicreef]

thanks for all the info everyone,

there are two good LFS, i was thinking about buying a couple cups of their live sand and putting it in with the new southdown sand. is that a good idea?

also, i've seen at petco or at my LFS that they have live sand in a bag, shoudl i buy one of these bags too?

 

[Anonymous]

I think the live sand in a bag is crap. I put 1 - 20 lb bag mixed up with 100 lbs of Southdown and have yet to see any of the bubbles or critters typically associated with a DSB. I don't have any LFS around me that even uses sand in their tanks. That is why I am ordering a detritivore kit this week for my 55 gal. Also everything I have read so far in this hobby says 1" or less or 4" or more of sand. The reasons for this varied, but most had to do with denitrification.

Have fun

Bryan