crushed coral substrate

[sobsts]

I have a crushed coral substrate and my nitrates are out of hand. Ive posted the last couple of days trying to figure out my best plan of attack and was just wondering how much of a bed should i have using crushed coral. Right now its about 3/4". By the way 90 gallon tank 10" puffer and 6" yellow tang. All other water checks out but nitrates are 120ppm. In process of building 30 gallon fuge.

 

[fedukeford]

you best bet would be to switch to live sand

 

[patandlace]

I agree with fedukeford.

 

[teviesfish]

Amen... i had cc and it sucked.. never could control my levels.. the cc holds it all in...switched to live sand and wala... perfection

 

[bsd230]

I would agree, get rid of the coral and go with live sand. I had a crushed coral substrate with an undergravel filter and my nitrates used to be out of control. Now I have live sand, live rock, and bio-wheels and the highest my nitrates get is 20. 3/4 of an inch is awfully shallow for a 90 gallon. I have a 105 with 140 pound of live sand.

 

[stanlalee]

What kind of maintenence do you do with the crush coral (how often do you vacuum it and do water changes)? I actually think he could stand to lose a 1/4" of depth. You dont have an underground filter do you? What kind of filtration do you have? How often and what do you feed? IMO far too often when somebody says CC instantly people start telling them its the root of their problem and changing over to sand will cure it. You have one the greediest carnivores and herbivores both large. with the puffer you likely cant keep any hermits or shrimp that would spend all their active time picking left overs from it. any of the above might be just as responsible for elevated nitrates. The fuge if you do macro will knock down nitrates significantly fairly quickly. I have CC and zero nitrates/phospates, feed two times a day and an algae clip all day. only have a seaclone 100 and cheato fuge for filtration, only maintenence is to vacuum siphon during water changes done once every 3wks so I know CC maintained properly in of itself should not spike nitrates beyond acceptable levels.

 

[sobsts]

i bought a RO/DI unit about a month ago and started doing 5 gallon water changes everyday for 3 weeks, I vacuum the gravel half the tank one week and the other half the next, feed the puffer once a day a jumbo shrimp feed the tang a piece of seaweed in am and Formula 1 at night. No clean up crew and have very high nitrates. In process of building a 30 gallon fuge and changing my lighting system. Right now i have a emperor 400 prizm deluxe skimmer 2 200GPH powerheads and a hangon the back wet dry with 2 bags of chemipure in it. O ya carbon in the prizm. Hope that helps appreciate the help.
Dave

 

[stanlalee]

doesn't seem like anything wrong there (except the half and half vacuuming, via the course of a water change you should be able to vacuum the whole tank). what were you doing as far as water and changes before you started the daily changes and RO water. Once nitrates get up there they can be hard to get down quickly. Its pretty tuff to keep crush coral substrate without a clean up crew. I have hermits, a fire shrimp and the substrate is crawling with amphipods (must be thousands since I have a fuge and nothing at the moment that aggressively goes after them). Now that I look at my tank I only probably have 1/4" of cc or enough to comfortably cover the bottom. Sand or at least a reduction in CC is probably a good idea but its going to be a pain and be sure not to create a sand storm if you have corals. It can be fatal to some and none like it one bit (found that out when created one adding a fuge).

 

[katz]

I would get rid of the crush coral. If you only have the two fish, I would put the fish in a 55g trash barrell and change out the cc with sand. I did this with my tank. I never regreted doing it.
Katz :joy:

 

[sepulatian]

Originally Posted by Katz
I would get rid of the crush coral. If you only have the two fish, I would put the fish in a 55g trash barrell and change out the cc with sand. I did this with my tank. I never regreted doing it.
Katz :joy:
Yep, cc just traps nitrates, switch it out with sand

 

[sly]

Originally Posted by sepulatian
Yep, cc just traps nitrates, switch it out with sand

No it doesn't

This argument has been had a thousand times. CC is not a nitrate factory... CC does not trap ditrius when properly maintained...

 

[bigarn]

Originally Posted by Sly
No it doesn't

This argument has been had a thousand times. CC is not a nitrate factory... CC does not trap ditrius when properly maintained...

IMO what Sly says is true. However, a LS substrate is much easier to maintain and harbors much more beneficial critters than CC substrate. IME I've seen systems with both substrates being equally successful ... I guess it boils down to how much time and effort you're willing to put into maintaining it.

 

[sobsts]

Decided to pull out the crush coral and put in a LS bed along with a refugium. In doing that im doing a 30% water change help get a jump start on it. Thanks for the help.