changing substrate... need advice

[dhe420]

Hi everybody,I love the look of a DSB so i am going to push the crush coral i have to the back of the tank, and add sand to the front. My tank is very well established, and i know i could just add "dead" sand and very soon it would be "live". I am not to concerned with the price so what i am wondering is does it pay to add something like natures ocean ls or just add something like south down sand from home dep0t. Basically i want to know is what do you guys/gals think the "best sand" is, and obviously where to get it. Thanks a lot in advance for your help......Dave

 

[dhe420]

ANYBODY????? PLEASE HELP> I WANT TO DO THIS TONIGHT......THANKS

 

[johnnysalt]

More ppl on this board than not will tell you the many benefits of sand compared to cc. CC is cheap, that's the only one positive thing I can think of on the side of cc. Yeah, don't you like all the crap that makes its way to the bottom of your tank through your cc? I have no idea why anyone would want to leave it in their tank....IMO, either either take out all your cc and add sand to just the front, or else take out all cc and add sand to the entire floor.
Yes, Nature's Ocean live sand is the best I've heard of. I'm having good results with it as are lots of others here....I bet most of us are using a mix of live sand and "dead" sand...I'm using 25% live sand. Over time it will seed the other sand (it will become live also). Don't waste your time and money with cc.....Dig it out like I did, sell it on ---- or something and use that money to go buy a 20lb sack of live sand and just start with that. Get it at your lfs or buy it online. How 'bout going to a live sand dot com website?!
[ August 22, 2001: Message edited by: JohnnySalt ]

 

[kdlbem]

Definitely get rid of the CC, and use all sand. Natures Ocean LS is VERY good stuff! I used 60 lbs. LS, and 30 lbs. of aragonite sand to get a 3+ inch bed in a 75gal. I still haven't seen any more than a trace of nitrates. Also, with a good cleanup crew and LS, you can kiss that gravel vac goodbye(I always hated that about CC substrate) The critters will keep it nice and clean.
The price of the Natures Ocean at SWF.com is actually cheaper than the LFS here.
HTH
B

 

[playtime]

Not to cause trouble, but you know, some hobbiest do like crushed coral. I happen to be one of them. It isn't about the price. I think a persons decision about subtrate is a personal prefrence and not much more. I haven't read anywhere where its says that sand is a better sub. than crushed coral. for one thing in my opinion, CC is much easier to clean and doesn't get sucked up the vacuum during the cleaning process. I also like the way it looks as do many people. Of coarse, these are only my opinions and don't really aply to the original post, just to the reply.
Hopefully I didn't offend anyone, that wasn't my intention.
Playtime

 

[cosmosbasement]

Hey gang-I'll follow up, take all the cc out of there. I did it in thirds as well. Worked like a charm. Here's what I did:
Bought 4 20lb bags of Nature's Ocean Live sand. Came home and removed 1/3 of the cc. Put up a little partition so the cc and sand wouldn't mix. Added on bag of Natures Ocean to the spot I cleared all the cc. Then, waited 48 hours and did the middle section. Again after the cc was cleared I partitioned it and added bag #2 of the Nature's OCean. Again, waited 48 hours. Removed the rest of the CC and dropped the sand in. Then waited another 48 hours to make sure there was no spike of any sort and put a 4th bag of Natures OCean Live sand on top of all that. Looks fantastic. Sorry for the long drawn out post, just trying to help.
peace
doug