HELP??? LS vs CC substrate

[trish&dave]

Hello All,
My husband and I are upgrading our marine tank from a 56g to a 120g
we currently have LS and I love it. However, my husband is thinking of going with CC or Aragonite ( spelling ). I really love the LS as i think it has very benificial bactiria and also looks great.
My husband on the other hand thinks that it is of no benifit to have LS if you don't have a DSB . I'm just not sure. I have read alot about LS and so far everything says it is best to use. I have also read CC is bad to use.
Need all the help we can get, so we may agree on this together.

So I'm asking for opinions as to what is the best to use ( pros and cons )
any advice is greatly appreciated

 

[turningtim]

JMHO, b/c this is a touchy subject.....
But if starting out fresh I would go with sand. CC needs to be kept clean by vacuuming. Sand does not! It is argued that CC is not good for inverts. Really don't know I haven't had a conversation with any snails lately! Sand will not allow as much detritus to penetrate it. This means that the yuck stuff will remain suspended in the water column and allow the filtration to pick it up rather then getting stuck in the CC and remaining there until vacuumed.
Sand has more surface area for beneficial bacteria to adhere to whether its a DSB or not.
I'm not a fan of DSB's in main tanks. I think they take up far to much room in the tank. 6" of sand takes a bunch of viewing space away and displaces a large amount of water. DSB's also have the potential to go bad. When in a DT you will have to rip down the entire tank. If the DSB is in a fuge or even better a remote DSB (RDSB) you can always just remove this part of the filtration and have a functioning DT!
Again JMHO
Tim

 

[turningtim]

I forgot to mention that you will NOT have to buy all LS. I would buy a couple of pounds of good aquacultred LS (SWF.com) and use that to seed a bunch of dry bagged sand.
A bit easier on the wallet.......

 

[bizzmoneyb]

ive heard cc can really give problems. id stick with the sand

 

[lexluethar]

My opinion would be to stick with sand. Sand does not have to be vaccumed like CC, and is much easier for inverts and sand sifting things to move through and clean. While your husband is right about the benefits, sand really provides no benefit to the bacteria population (i mean there is some just like some on your glass, power heads, ect). Sand needs to be deeper than 4 inches to really provide any benefit to the aquarium. After about 4 inches nitrofying bacteria will begin to populate in the oxygen deprived areas (why it needs to be deep) and will start to break down nitrate into nitrogen, which then floats to the surface and out of the water.
Larger rocks provide this same benefit, because the deeper pores in the rock will harbor this type of bacteria and will breakdown your nitrate into gas. This is why you can sometimes see bubbles on your LR.
For look, as well as maintenance i would go with sand.

 

[namas05]

Stick with the sand, but I personally would recommend the coarser reef sand.
It seems to stay cleaner and nicer looking. JMO

 

[john,jr]

I had CC and was disappointed with it. It was a job to change to live sand but well worth doing so. JMO

 

[scopus tang]

I also would recommend the sand; the selling point IMO is the maintanence. Your going to spend a lot less time working on your tank and more time enjoying it with the sand vs. the cc; either will work, but the cc requires way more maintanence. So my question would be, what are the benefits of the cc as he sees it?

 

[trish&dave]

Well, the husband will chime in!

I have seen some tanks with CC and just think it is more of a natural look with a reef tank. I agree with the person that recommended maybe a more coarse sand vs the very fine sand we currently have. It blows all over the place and just makes it look as if it is not natural.
Considering I do most of the maintenance, and especially if it makes the wife happy, I think we will probably look more at the sand.
Keep them coming, this is very helpful!

 

[lexluethar]

I use aragonite in my tank, it is very fine crush shells and coral. But the sizes of each piece are smaller than a piece of grain. So you don't have to worry about it blowing around as much, but it is fine enough so that food particles don't penetrate through.

 

[trish&dave]

Originally Posted by LexLuethar
http:///forum/post/2599839
I use aragonite in my tank, it is very fine crush shells and coral. But the sizes of each piece are smaller than a piece of grain. So you don't have to worry about it blowing around as much, but it is fine enough so that food particles don't penetrate through.
I think that is what I will try and convince my wife we should use. Do you have a picture of your tank to show her? Thanks!!!!!

 

[lexluethar]

None really of my tank closeup like that. Aragonite also has a higher buffering capacity compared to CC too. Here is what i've found, these are pictures when my tank needed some cleaning so forgive the algae growth in the sandbed:

 

[nordy]

I started out w/CC about 7 years ago and just changed out to a shallow sand bed and I say why did I wait so long to do it? CC does have maintenance issues and requires regular cleaning and maintenance plus sand just looks cleaner and neater, IMHO. The only thing I don't like about sand is the way it can blow around and get on some of my bottom dwelling corals. Not a huge issue, but there it is.

 

[scopus tang]

Originally Posted by trish&dave
http:///forum/post/2599814
Well, the husband will chime in!

I have seen some tanks with CC and just think it is more of a natural look with a reef tank. I agree with the person that recommended maybe a more coarse sand vs the very fine sand we currently have. It blows all over the place and just makes it look as if it is not natural.
Considering I do most of the maintenance, and especially if it makes the wife happy, I think we will probably look more at the sand.
Keep them coming, this is very helpful!

lol! I hate the sugar sand, so I understand your issue! Use the Carib LS over dry aragonite sand, and you will be much happier with the sandbed

.

 

[trish&dave]

Originally Posted by Scopus Tang
http:///forum/post/2599883
lol! I hate the sugar sand, so I understand your issue! Use the Carib LS over dry aragonite sand, and you will be much happier with the sandbed

.
Would be ok to mix our current sand bed (smaller than sugar!) with some dry aragonite? We should have some good life in our sand, it was live when we got it and running for around 6 months.

 

[scopus tang]

Originally Posted by trish&dave
http:///forum/post/2599896
Would be ok to mix our current sand bed (smaller than sugar!) with some dry aragonite? We should have some good life in our sand, it was live when we got it and running for around 6 months.
Never tried it, but it should be ok. Usually you place the LS, over the dry aragonite sand, but if you are removing the sand (which is currently a shallowbed) other than still having sand flying around, I don't believe that you will have any issues.

 

[dennis210]

CC vrs LS = LS by a long way. With LS as stated you will have less maintainance issues, more buffering capacit, more surface area for benefial bacteria, a substrate more conducive to invertabrates burrowing into to aid incleaning, and IMO a more asthetically pleasing tank.
I would without a doubt use what you have now in the 120, I would scoop it out and layer it on the bottom. Overlay it with dry aragonite sand in a particulate size you like, and then place a little live sand over that. Many go with just a 1 or 2 inch sand bed and that will help breakdown ammonia to nitrate, but no farther. If you go DSB you will get denitrification in the deeper layers (4.5 inches or more of depth required).
Do make sure and get a number of both cerith and nassarius snails to help turn the sand bed. Hope this helps.
Dennis

 

[vkuroczka]

Originally Posted by trish&dave
http:///forum/post/2599814
Well, the husband will chime in!

I have seen some tanks with CC and just think it is more of a natural look with a reef tank. I agree with the person that recommended maybe a more coarse sand vs the very fine sand we currently have. It blows all over the place and just makes it look as if it is not natural.
Considering I do most of the maintenance, and especially if it makes the wife happy, I think we will probably look more at the sand.
Keep them coming, this is very helpful!

Maybe this will help you out. I have had a CC bottom for about 5 years in my tank now and I really loved the way it looked, however I am going to agree with everyone that LS is best, beneficial and more hassle free. I am currently in the process of switching (see pic) from CC to LS and let me tell you it is NOT fun.... so to save yourself the trouble I would just go with LS from the begining. I also contribute my high nitrate spike (80+) that will not go down after multiple water changes, to my CC bottom. Hope this helps! And the pic is of me in the process of switching from CC to LS.... messy.. time consuming....ewwww....

 

[dennis210]

"me in progress" I only see tank shots absolutely no "me"

 

[tizzo]

I hac CC on my other tank, and I vacummed it regularly. Every water change I had to use that syphon and I did, all the way to the bottom glass.
THIS tank, I have sand, and IMO it need cleaned just as much!
If people have clean sand, then I don't know how they do it!!
I like the lookj of sand better, but as far as maintanance, they are the same IMO.