is this cc???...pic inside

[geoj]

Originally Posted by YearOfTheNick
http:///forum/post/2746517
I never said nwdyr's method was the wrong thing to do, just for the record.
Where I think he was wrong was when he said that a lack of maintenance causes nitrate problems, but a lack of maintenance is necessary in order for the live sand to do what it needs to do. IF you keep kicking up the live sand all the time, it won't do as good of a job absorbing and converting the nitrate into nitrogen gas.
Again, nwdyr's methods of bio balls and cc is not WRONG at all, in fact, i agree that it is an alternative, but it is undeniably higher maintenance than a sand bed. Let me break it down really easy.
You have to wash bio balls regularly. you do not need to take out your live rock and you do not need to wash your live rock regularly.
You need to vacuum crushed coral regularly. You can vacuum live sand every 3-6 months if you want, or leave it and let it do what it does best - remove nitrates.
This is only true in a tank that is fed, a tank that is set-up to be a no feed or low feed, you do not have to maintain as you describe because there is not enough waste build up...

 

[geoj]

Most of us have had WF tanks
X inches of fish per gal of water
The concept behind this is your bio-load should be smaller than your filtration export. If you export a lot more than you put in than you have a low maintenance tank. This takes willpower and discipline. So don’t add that animal if it puts you over the filtration export capacity!
I think I will get off the box now

 

[kjr_trig]

I will throw in my 2 cents....I must say I get sick of all the blanket statements on here of "crushed coral is bad!" "Live sand is the only alternative" "crushed coral causes nitrates"....Gimme a break, I have used CC for 6 years now, I have never had a nitrate issue, vacuuming CC doesn't take up any more time or effort then just siphoning out water. I keep CC because I prefer it in my FOWLR, and I think my fish prefer it.....THERE IS NO SUBSTITUTE FOR GOOD MAINTENANCE.
I also had bioballs in my first tank...never washed them, never had nitrate issues.