Live Sand

[sarge]

Been reading a lot on this board about Live Sand. I started my 75g back in Feburary of this year and I'm quite pleased. However at the recommendation of my LFS, I used Crushed Coral. Now I am wondering if I should take out the CC and put in Live Sand. Any suggestions? Everyone is doing fine in the tank, but I have to vacuum the CC to keep the alge down, not a big problem, I do it when I do my weekly water change. Does alge grow on Live Sand also?

 

[barracuda]

Live sand is the best thing for the bottom of the tank IMO. It has a lot of borowing creatures. If you can create 4-5" of it, you will get the DSB (deep sand bed). This will help your tank to get rid of nitrates. Algae grows can be controlled by controlling phosphate and nitrate levels low. Check for phosphate level and use phosphate sponge to remove it if detected. Add some crabs, conches to stir your sand. To add the live sand you first have to siphone out the CC. You can mix dead aragonite sand and some of live sand to seed with. This will make this "upgrade" cheeper. Do a search on this forum and you will find tons of discussions about DSB or just LS (live sand).
Sinse i switched to DSB i do a small water change bimonthly. I used 60% fine quartz sand and 40% Nature's Ocean live sand. It works great!!! No bioballs, no other Bio filtration. Just Live rock and live sand.
Good luck!!!

 

[scubadoo]

Do not vaccuum your CC too much. It was recommeded to me to vacuum 1/3 per month. When you vacuum the gravel you also remove the good bacteria with the bad stuff.

 

[katara]

IMO,live sand is the way to go and its maintenance free w/just a few cleaners..I've gone from water changes weekly to once every 4-5 weeks.The cc I originally had just kept getting discolored and it also harbored nitrates..just a real pain!

 

[sarge]

Okay, looks like I am going to convert from CC to Live Sand, what risks are there? should I leave the very bottom layer of CC? or get out as much as I can? Or since I only have about 1" of CC just put the Live Sand on top of it. Thanks for the replys so far.

 

[barracuda]

You should get rid of all the CC before adding live sand. This is because live sand grain size is much smaller. If you add it on top of CC it will sink down.
Good luck!!!