CC and LS

fishfreak1242

Active Member
When I started my aquarium i decided to go and buy about 30 lbs of Crushed Coral and 20 lbs of Live Sand because I thought that it would look moderately good and I wanted to save some money. Now 5 months later I completely regret buying the CC and I now want to do all LS. But it is now almost impossible for me to do this without having to take apart my entire system. So aquariumists, you should clearly decide which substrate that you want to have, not half and half, otherwise you might regret it later.
 
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alexmir

Guest
+1, it may sound good to save 30 bucks in the beginning, but you will usually reret it, and fixing the problem will cost much more.
 

kjr_trig

Active Member
-1...In a FOWLR tank, I love CC...."Aggressive fish" love it, and it is beneficial to maintaining proper PH, it does have the possibility of increased nitrate, however if you clean/vacuum about 1/3rd of your substrate everytime you do a water chang, this won't be a problem.
 

fishfreak1242

Active Member
Originally Posted by kjr_trig
http:///forum/post/2603429
-1...In a FOWLR tank, I love CC...."Aggressive fish" love it, and it is beneficial to maintaining proper PH, it does have the possibility of increased nitrate, however if you clean/vacuum about 1/3rd of your substrate everytime you do a water chang, this won't be a problem.
Im not putting down CC and saying that LS is better, I am just trying to point out that you should have just one of them and not both.
 

kjr_trig

Active Member
Originally Posted by fishfreak1242
http:///forum/post/2603493
Im not putting down CC and saying that LS is better, I am just trying to point out that you should have just one of them and not both.

I respect your opinion as well, however IMO they can be mixed, I have 80 lbs CC and 100 lbs of Live sand (200 lbs LR) in my 240, never have nitrates, and my tank cycled in under 2 weeks....I just think CC gets a bad rep from reef tank keepers, but it looks great and is effective in a FO or FOWLR set up.
 

fishfreak1242

Active Member
Originally Posted by kjr_trig
http:///forum/post/2603590
I respect your opinion as well, however IMO they can be mixed, I have 80 lbs CC and 100 lbs of Live sand (200 lbs LR) in my 240, never have nitrates, and my tank cycled in under 2 weeks....I just think CC gets a bad rep from reef tank keepers, but it looks great and is effective in a FO or FOWLR set up.
Its not that I didnt like because of my parameters, its just that i didnt like how it looked. It didnt look very natural to me.
 

jaymz

Member
Originally Posted by fishfreak1242
http:///forum/post/2603196
When I started my aquarium i decided to go and buy about 30 lbs of Crushed Coral and 20 lbs of Live Sand because I thought that it would look moderately good and I wanted to save some money. Now 5 months later I completely regret buying the CC and I now want to do all LS. But it is now almost impossible for me to do this without having to take apart my entire system. So aquariumists, you should clearly decide which substrate that you want to have, not half and half, otherwise you might regret it later.
A wire mesh poop scoop for retiles, like you find at a pet store will easily remove your CC and leave the live sand behind. It will take a while but would work great. I used one to remove the cyano out breaks i had every so often due to low flow spot I had in my tank.
 
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rcreations

Guest
What is the advantage of mixing CC with LS? I can see using one or the other, but why mix them?
 

fishfreak1242

Active Member
Originally Posted by RCreations
http:///forum/post/2605806
What is the advantage of mixing CC with LS? I can see using one or the other, but why mix them?
Im not really sure why I decided to mix them. I guess it was because my friend told me I could, it was my first tank and I was a little low on cash to buy 80lbs of LS.
 

kjr_trig

Active Member
Originally Posted by RCreations
http:///forum/post/2605806
What is the advantage of mixing CC with LS? I can see using one or the other, but why mix them?
Live sand has obvious benefits such as cycling your tank faster and the critters that live in it, CC is an excellent PH buffer....Again, I recommend CC for aggressive tanks as the fish (triggers, puffers, angels and wrasses) seem to enjoy digging around in it. I will post a pic of mine later today when I get home from work....Cost has nothing to do with why I (and many other FO tanks) use it.
 

stdreb27

Active Member
Instead of going a mix of both crushed coral and live sand, go with argonite! That buffers your tank and is small enough where you don't have the buildup problems!
 
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