Crush Coral v/s Sand bed

[taossweetcheek]

I bought this 120 gallon tank from a friend. He had it for about 6 years before I bought it. When I bought it his crush coral bed had some red slime on the front side of the tank but nowhere else. When we moved the tank to my place we had to remove the cruch coral bed and I also rinsed the crushed coral to remove the nasty smelling waste and slime algea before I put it back into to the tank. I also wiped down the entire bottom of the tank because it was stinking up the whole house and it was just nasty to look at. 6 months later My zoo's began to close and now have a thin hairy bristal like algea on them and the slim algea has returned to it's orginal spot. I've done a water change at least 59 gallons at a time every two weeks for the past three months. I don't know what is going wrong but my real question is should I chang my crush coral bed, which I think is ugly to begin with, to a sand bed? I am also open to suggestions about the 120, because I've never in 5 years ever had a problem like this with my other 75 gallon tanks, which look perfect, compared to the 120.

 

[azul1994]

IMO yes a sand bed is better.
But first we need more info. Current livestock, exact perimeters. ammonia, nitrite, nitrate etc.

 

[reef_dart21]

also if you dont keep the crushed coral cleaned it can cause a nitrate spike.

 

[taossweetcheek]

ammonia is at 1.0, nitrites are at 0 and nitrates are at 0.

 

[taossweetcheek]

anyone have any suggestions? please?

 

[usc932000]

I just swapped my CC to a sand bed not even a month ago. I had the same discriptions as you mentioned (nasty smell...etc). You only mentioned your zoos. Do you have any other livestock? The reason to know this is to determine how long will you need to house the occupants in a temporary tank or bin. It took about 2 hours to move all of my LR, Verts and Fish out of the tank, but them in a bin and back into the main tank.
What I did was fairly easy and fast. I drained my tank into a 55 gallon rubbermaid trash can. I prewashed the agronite sand while draining the tank. I then removed the CC and replaced it with the sand then pumped the original tank water back into the tank. I had a mild sand cloud for about a day. All of the animals showed no overt signs of stress and my constant Nitrate readings have disappeard. Needless to say the occupants seem much happier and the tank looks 100% better.