Live Sand vs Crushed Coral

[tjsimon88]

Long time reader first time poster. I am planning to start up a 20 gal. nano reef tank and noticed alot of talk about Live Sand what is if any the pros and cons of LS over crushed coral? Does it matter in that size of tank, I am planning on getting live rock. Is there any fish that cleans the crushed coral like the sand sifters for the LS. How much more mantanence is there for the crushed coral. Me personally I just like the way the coral looks over the sand. Any remarks would be greatly appreciated.

 

[9supratt4]

I have a 55 Gallon tank that had a cruched coral bottom and I was finding that I had to vaccum the crushed coral out quite frequently. I just replaced it with Live Sand and I am finding that you don't have to vaccum out the sand. I just purchased 5 nass. snails and will probably add some more sifters to my tank soon to keep the sand stirred up even more.
I recommend Live Sand!!

 

[sk8shorty01]

The crushed coral is quite a bit more work than live sand. First of all, there is nothing that is going to clean your crushed coral because it is too coarse and to large for any sleeper gobies to handle I believe. Crushed coral has to be vacumed like gravel does in freshwater from what I have read (which is a lot more than I do with my sand which is nothing). Live sand also does not trap nitrates like crushed coral tends to do. This can wind up being a huge problem later on down the road. If you dont like the look of normal sand, check out the indo pacific carib sea sand, it has a few black pieces speckeled here and there and that might look better for you. If I were you I would just go with live sand, its definitely less work and will save you a lot of trouble later on.

 

[lovethesea]

ditto on SK8shorty!! CC is a huge mess after a few years. We placed CC in our first tank years ago (didn't know better) and after about 2.5 years we got enough guts to switch it out. It was a mess, but worth it on the long run. The only thing that will clean the CC is a vacuum. Any time you clean the tank and the CC gets stirred up can be a potential problem.

 

[tjsimon88]

Thanks for the info. Next question, is there a certain way that the LS needs to be added to the tank. Just getting started with the set up. Do I need to rinse the LS before hand? Also do I add the LR at the same time as I do the LS? or does the LS need time to settle?

 

[turtlegirl933]

Live sand is the best ever!!!!

 

[lovethesea]

If its true live sand (versus Old Castle or Southdown playsand)....no rinsing. If you are just setting up the tank get the sand and then rock. There will be a dust storm in the beginning.

 

[sk8shorty01]

Make sure you get good live sand, I think the indo pacific carib sea sand is a good mix of colors. It has mostly pure white with black pieces throughout the mix. It looks really good under actinic lighting, and will look great in any reef system. I just got a 220g tank about a month ago and it came with 240 lbs of crushed coral (bought from a local) so I gutted the tank, and bought new sand. I am so glad I did because it would have been trouble considering I am running an aggressive tank, with triggers and angels (no snails for me).

 

[fishyfrenzy]

Live sand!

 

[m0nk]

Imo, you don't need "live" sand, or at least all live sand. If you get dry sand (argonite reef sand is my recommendation) then it will eventually become "live". Personally, when I started my first tank I didn't use live sand, it was "dead" and eventually became "live". Then when I started the bigger tank I used 1/2 live sand and 1/2 dry. That seemed to work out well for me and I've seen others do the half and half thing too.

 

[ducky]

Is "live" black sand out there somewhere? If not how can you seed it without getting white sand mixed in?

 

[m0nk]

Originally Posted by ducky
Is "live" black sand out there somewhere? If not how can you seed it without getting white sand mixed in?
If you get dry black sand, after a couple months in your tank it will technically be "live". All that live sand really has in it that makes it "live" is the beneficial bacteria that builds up over time.

 

[donald]

Originally Posted by m0nk
Imo, you don't need "live" sand, or at least all live sand. If you get dry sand (argonite reef sand is my recommendation) then it will eventually become "live". Personally, when I started my first tank I didn't use live sand, it was "dead" and eventually became "live". Then when I started the bigger tank I used 1/2 live sand and 1/2 dry. That seemed to work out well for me and I've seen others do the half and half thing too.

I used dead sand to fill my tank and then seeded it with one pound of live sand. It's wuch cheaper this way and it doesn't take very long for the dead sand to become populated with the benifical critters.