live sand cc mix ok?

[murphy914]

i have a 220 gal tank i just filled and was wondering if anyone has ever mixed live sand and crushed coral? my lfs told me it would be fine due to the ls making the cc alive in time. is this true? i really dont want to buy 400lbs of live sand as it will kill the pocket book. i was thinking 1in bed of crushed 1in bed of live sand. any input would be great.

 

[waterlogged]

If you bought dead sand wouldn't it eventually become live sand.

 

[murphy914]

yeah i guess thats true. but is there any harm with mixing cc and ls i have a 55 gal that has about 125 lbs of good crushed coral and i was going to use that.

 

[scotts]

You don't want to mix LS and CC. They both work in different ways, the CC traps the waste until you vaccuum it out. The LS holds bacteria and critters that break down the waste, so you do NOT vaccuum LS. If you mix them then they do not work right. I equate it to mixing oil based and water based paint. Either one will work fine on it's own, as a mixture they do not work right.

 

[nicetry]

Mix the two and over time they'll separate. Eventually you'll have the cc on top anyway. Why not just go with the inch or so of sand. Ue the cc to seed the sand. Take some old nylon panty hose (clean of course) and fill the foot section with cc. Tie them off and place them in the tank. The bacteria and even some micro fauna will make their way into the and bed. Move the nylons around every couple days.
Plan B is to simply seed your sand with the live rock you'll use.

 

[murphy914]

thank you for the advice! i guess im buying alot of sand. lol. i will try the dry sand live sand method to try and save some money. i didnt think this 220 would be so expensive. but it will be worth it!!!! thanks again for the advice thats why i love this site!!!!

 

[mikeyjer]

I would basically put dry aragonite on the bottom, then live sand over top of it. I did that when I did the move. All my fish did just fine, same with snails, hermits, etc. BUT you do need to do some good water changes on a weekly basis after that. Otherwise you'll see algae from hell.....Been there done that....