crushed coral to live sand

[anamilasti]

ok so as you can see i have crushed coral. it sucks. i wnat to add live sand but dont want to tear down my tank. can i just remove the front section of crushed coral as much as i can and add a bunch of live sand to it or will i disturb to much in the tank?
also what is the best type of live sand to add or just sand.
small, med or larger grain?
and live sand or aragonate?

 

[aztec reef]

yep it will disturb too much and and it willeventually mix with the CC.
You have to take out all the CC first then add sand,
Aragonite most of it , preferaly oolite size sand on the half buttom of sandbed and then you can use a little bit bigger size grain for the top layers.
Now all this sand will become live eventually or you could help it become "live" by putting a few scoops of "real" live sand on top , you can get this live sand from an stablished reef tank, or just buy a Detrivor Kit from a Seafarm on the internet or whoever sells them. also you can buy a bunch of rubble rock from your LFS and that should have some fauna to seed the new sandbed.

 

[reefrunner]

I went through the same thing a few months ago. I started my tank with cc on the advice of my lfs. I quickly realized the disadvantages of cc. Harder to keep clean, doesn't harbor as many beneficial critters, and just doesn't look nearly as good. I made the switch to ls, and am happy I did. It was kind of a chore, but I'm glad I did. I went with a very fine dsb, and added some ls on top.

 

[disciple]

I've had live sand for 3 years and love how it stays clean, would never do cc IMO

 

[cannonman]

It's a pain to take everything out and replace it but when you look at the big picture it's minor really. I know I am 110% happier every day when I look at my tank now- I think you will be to.