Sand, Crushed Coral, or both?

[am00re34]

Right now i have about 40 lbs of sand in my 55 gallon tank. i am getting annoyed that the water is always a little "cloudy" due to suspended sand particles because of the water movement in the tank. is there anyway to fix this?
i was thinking about putting crushed coral over the sand? is this effective? maybe prevent my snails and conches from doing thier jobs?
any help is great!

 

[renogaw]

sand only. fix your powerheads so they aren't angled at the sand maybe?

 

[pikapp168]

I used both...40lbs of live sand and 40lbs of crushed coral.
but I don't have my power head blasting the sand either, it sits in the side middle, and the other one is blasting the top.

 

[am00re34]

the problem is you need to have some movement near the bottom and it takes almost no movement to suspend sand in the water.

 

[renogaw]

ehh, the only sand i have ever seen in my water is what my clowns kick up. I have 2 pumps facing the surface, one pushing the water even through the back of my rock, and the return pump facing downwards. as long as you have water flow in your tank, you dont have to face the pumps at the sand.

 

[spanko]

Stay away form the CC IMO. Adjust your flow so that it is not as downward as it is now. A small adjustment goes a long way.

 

[am00re34]

so would everyone suggest placing the powerheads near the bottom facing up? as opposed to near the top facing down or straight across?
also, whats the problem w/ CC? Is it that it just provides no benifts like sand does?

 

[lion_crazz]

I use a little bit more coarse aragonite (still sand) and it really does the job nicely. It is easy to keep clean, but it is not too fine that it gets kicked up too much.
The problem with crushed coral is that it can trap detritus and debris and it can be difficult to clean because it is so coarse.

 

[am00re34]

well thats the other thing i was thinking of. i know with CC you can clean the coral bed like you do w/ gravel in freshwater, but if i have sand w/ a cc top i can't do that. i guess i'll have to just move powerheads and things to get it to not be so suspended.

 

[kanicky]

Also, not sure how old your tank is, but it may just be that you don't have enough bacteria as of yet in the tank to mesh with the sand particles and make them drop to the sandbed. May also be your PH's, as has already been stated.
Definitely don't go with Crushed Coral. It may work for some, but it does not work for the vast majority of others. Use the Search feature of this site and see what everyone has had to say about CC.

 

[am00re34]

i have had my tank up for about 4-5 months. i have a small bio load with only a tang and 2 damsels.
is that long enough? i would think it is

 

[imurnamine]

How big is the Tang?
He might be a fair-sized bio-load, especially to a 55.

 

[am00re34]

from memory i would say about 3-4in long and 2 inch tall (w/o fins fully extended)

 

[soldier0117]

My tank thrived on CC for 6 months. Then when I replaced my undergravel with a wet/dry I changed out CC for half live sand and half base sand. This led to a HUGE!!!!! blue green cyano algae bloom that was a brownish color. About a month later it produced so much toxins (not ammonia, nitrite or nitrate: in fact these were at perfect levels) that everything in my tank died at nearly the exact same time (overnight). Now I will use half CC and half live sand, because I think the base sand is what killed my tank.