Crushed coral v. sand

[mojozen]

same experience. I gave up the tank with crushed coral and moved everything to my 125 and sold the whole thing. Too much detrius gets trapped and will look pretty bad later on.

whats the best alternative?

 

[tcduongxx]

whats the best alternative?

Move very thing into a close loop cannister system. Put a (Mechanical) pre filter in the filter loop to filter out the dirt particles, then after that multi canisters of gravel for bio and buffering. You then an eliminate sump and substrate in the main tank. What you do is to clean the Mechanical filter once a week. Protein skimmer can be a hang on to the main tank. If I want to add carbon, I then add another canister in the loop after the Mechanical filter and before the gravel.

To clean the main bare bottom tank is to just take the power head and drive what ever remaining dirt into the water col so that the dirt can be suck into the mechanical filter.

I think that would be a good plan for an experiment.


A friend asked me to help him setup a 75gal. I am going to suggest this method to him and see if willing to take on this experiment.

 

[cali_reef]

Aragonite sand = finely crushed coral, they are all dead CORAL of some sort.. All aragonite based sand will dissolve at the same PH, but due the the amount of surface area on each "grain" of media, smaller grain sand will dissolve faster when compared to the same amount (weight) of coarse sand or crushed coral. I personally think it is cheaper and more reliable to use baking soda for buffering the tank. Counting on sand dissolving naturally at a correct rate (or enough) to buffer the water sounds crazy.

Not sure how a 1" sand bed of any grain size can be anaerobic in a reef tank with water flow, fish, bristle warms....

You should choice your sand size and depth based on the need of your intended tank inhabitant.

 

[Pink Coralline]

I prefer sand. I didnt like the crushed coral for losts of reasons... Just a preference I guess.