crushed coral"why not for a reef "

[newfishliny]

I am very curious why crushed coral is not used , or lets say any more. I have read on this site some many complaints about live sand beds and use of agronite live , many of us have big problems of hair alage , diatoms ect. I remember when I first had a salt tank there was noe of this in the tank . Yes it was only a fish only tank .WHAT are the factors when haveing a reef tank that causes all these problems and all the equipment we need to use.I for one have a reef , protein , uv , refuge , 90 gal 2 mags ect ect ect . Can't seem to get it straight after one year but mostly its the alage and water clarity, my corals are doing pretty good its the look of the tank and still dame hair alage
thanks
this is for everyone
Don
new fish

 

[ross]

The reason people don't like cc is because you have to vacum it and if you dont it will trap lots of nitrates.

 

[thomas712]

Said it before and I'll say it again:
Most of us will not use crushed coral because it is a large substrate that traps the fish waste and uneaten food that has to be vacuumed before it creates nitrates, which it will anyway. Crushed coral does not provide a very good biological zone, and many tanks are setup with CC from the get go through lack of knowledge or because it is the only substrate that an LFS sells and tells you that it is all you need, using a selling point of CC has buffering power. I have personally battled nitrates over 100 ppm during my days of CC and UGF doing frequent large water changes. So many of us have been there and had high nitrates, did a water change to lower them and they were back in a couple of days. CC has sharp edges, which is undesirable for inverts, like anemones walking around, pods or worms. No getting around it CC is high maintenance and can lead to poor water quality, frequent maintenance, sick livestock, algae blooms and more.
You can have hair algea, diatoms, cyno..etc.. with any substrate.
Thomas

 

[legend]

I have CC was my base now...should i change over to live sand? Everything seems to be going really well in my tank with the CC though....
If i do change it do i have to take all of the CC out or would it be ok if i could just go around my reef and take out all of the CC.....it'll be a mix of 75% LS with 25% CC.
Any inputs?

 

[sammystingray]

If your tank is running fine, and has for some time......don't change anything. My opinion.......why would you? Go one way or the other...mixing loses all the good qualities of both, and keeps all the bad issues with both CC and sand....never mix the two......another opinion.

 

[thomas712]

Legend - As long as everything is working well then you do not have to change a thing, if it isn't broke then you don't need to fix it. I personall had a 55 with crushed coral for years, but since I know the difference..........I'll take the sand.
Thomas

 

[sammystingray]

But, in a way......if you take care to clean the CC regularly, you won't need as much bacteria. I don't like CC because of the maintainance, and I also prefer the look of sand. People get the high nitrates associated with CC mainly because they slack in the cleaning. As far as surface area for bacteria, I believe most of our tanks can be considered as "overkill" on the surface area for aerobic bacteria if a normal bioload is in place.......that's fine though. Plenty of people believe that a sandbed has enough surface area to not even need rocks....true or not? I don't know.

 

[legend]

The only problem is i cant clean behind the reef......will that lead to a future problem?

 

[reefraff]

Just to add my $0.78 (inflation) I added a slightly course silica sand over my c.c. a little over two months ago(just found the store receipt, didn't think it had been that long). I have not had a problem with it settling through the c.c. I am still fighting high nitrates but have not had an algae bloom since making the change. I do have a little algae in the sump/refugium i built but I am also using a grappy light.