sand or crushed coral

bowser220

Member
I have crushed coral and I can not keep my nitrates down. Should I make the switch and how should I do it? I wanted a black sand.
 

travis89

Active Member
You will be better off if you make the switch. The finer the sand the better off you are. To change it most people take a little bit(2-3 nets worth depending on tank size) of the CC out at a time after vaccuuming it so you don't release a lot of nitrates into the water. Then after all of the CC is out of the tank put the other sand in.
 
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sinner's girl

Guest
do a search, it's been covered a few times lately...
make sure you're vaccuming the cc with each water change, decrease feeding, increase water changes, increase lr and other filterations, add some inverts to clean up-that'll help with nitrates
I have flordia crushed coral.. Does that mean that my tank is going to screw up!!??!
what's flordia cc? any cc is bad, sand is better
What did was cleaned an area of cc very well, then removed 2-3 nets of cc. I did this with each water change and started doing weekly water change. You MUST clean the cc or you'll increase nitrates by stiring stuff up. Also, be careful when moving lr around, that'll stir stuff up also. So move the lr, wait for stuff to settle, then clean the cc...you can clean a larger area than you remove, just make sure you clean the area you remove.
or take the tank down, empty out cc, replace with sand, set tank back up. this will work if you have a qt for your fish/inverts...in case you get ammonia. Either way, clean the heck out of the cc before removing it (unless all the water is out of the tank)
 

rusting

Member
C.C. to sand
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when I did my tank, 2 months ago. I got some storage tubs,small powerheads,heaters, and buckets. I put my coral in one tub and my live rock inthe other, with as much water as they would hold. I was then able to net my fish, and put them in a small tank. I took the water out. Iwas able to save, about 70% of it in buckets. It was then no trouble to take out the C.C.,add the sand, and put it all back together.
I did this post to someone the other day.
 

kafawa

New Member
I have had the same problem. I am getting sand tomorrow, taking everyhting out of the tank and juist putting the sand in. I hope it all works out, I don't see why it wouldn't. My tank is 50 gallons so it's not THAT crazy. I'll let you know tomorrow how it all worked out for me. I have no idea why the stupid pet store lady told me to get coral in the first place.
 

triga22

Active Member
EEk.. my tank is in the cycle so should i do it now while i have hardy fish in there (damsels)
 

bowser220

Member
Will the tank cyle again if I save as much water as possible (85 gallon tank)?
How much sand would I need for a 85 gallon bow tank?
 

fishykel

New Member
what is black sand? i've seen it before, and it looks really cool. i guess its good because it never really looks dirty. :)
 

drewsta

Active Member
Originally Posted by bowser220
Will the tank cyle again if I save as much water as possible (85 gallon tank)?
How much sand would I need for a 85 gallon bow tank?
that depends on how deep of a sand bed you want I have 90lbs of sand in my 75G tank and I have about a 4-6 inch deep sandbed.
 

mcsd22

Member
Originally Posted by TriGa22
EEk.. my tank is in the cycle so should i do it now while i have hardy fish in there (damsels)

Yes you should do the switch now and you should not cycle a tank with fish. 99% of the time they don't live through it and its really not fai to the fish.
 
1

100 guppi

Guest
Originally Posted by mcsd22
99% of the time they don't live through it and its really not fai to the fish.

Why do people torture their fish like that??
 

connor

Active Member
Originally Posted by fishykel
what is black sand? i've seen it before, and it looks really cool. i guess its good because it never really looks dirty. :)
i have live sand in my 90 and black tahitian moon sand in my 29 and love them both they look so different
 
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sinner's girl

Guest
that depends on how deep of a sand bed you want I have 90lbs of sand in my 75G tank and I have about a 4-6 inch deep sandbed.
really? I've bought 80lbs for my 75gl but thought I'd only have 1-2inches of sand...(sand not in tank yet, still in bags).... I'll get another 2-3 bags if that's all that's needed for me to have a dsb.
 
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