Sand vs. CC
- Thread starter ltradziej
- Start date
ryanhayes9
Active Member
take it back and get sand. cc trapes nitrates and sand looks better IMO
sleasia
Active Member
I have crushed coral and my nitrates are low...but the point here is not only this...always think in terms of the possibility of upgrading later. I have fowlr and now would like to do reef...but I have crushed coral...so I will probably have to start another tank. If I had started with sand...I'd be doing reef already. If you are planning on reef go with sand.
ktsdad
Member
I had a reef with CC for 2 years, if CC is maintained properly it will work just takes more work. You have to vacumm it weekly to keep the detrious from building up and adding nitrates to your system.
Sand you basically sit back and watch it become alive and do the work for you.
I.E. it becomes a nitrate filtering bed.
IMO - take back the bag of CC and get a bag of sand.
Good Luck
Sand you basically sit back and watch it become alive and do the work for you.
I.E. it becomes a nitrate filtering bed.
IMO - take back the bag of CC and get a bag of sand.
Good Luck
sleasia
Active Member
Well that's why my nitrates are low now i guess, because I vacume weekly and do 10% water changes weekly...but for reef, I imagine I will add twice the live rock, and with all the corals, it will then be too difficult to vacume well enough I would think....so I may just start a new tank with sand for reef, and keep the 200 gallon for fowlr...
gman52
Member
the advantage of CC is u can get all the crap out with vacuuming it. With sand it just sits there untill it all leaches back into the system. You can have a reef system run a lot longer with properly maintained CC, than you could with a sand bed. Doesnt matter how much microfauna you ahve, in such a small area, with the all the food and waste, the microfauna wont be able to keep up.
sleasia
Active Member
gman52 this is an interesting point, and in fact the reason I decided to use cc on the 200 gallon...previously I had sand in the 55 and had nothing but trouble...However, in all fairness in the 55 gallon days, I had an inadequate skimmer, no uv, probably an inadequate filter as well, and was not using r/o water...so there was so much wrong, that you really couldn't single out one thing to blame. I think if you use sand, the point is not to clean it and have enough inverts and clean up crew to manage it....but with cc I can feed the fish even up to three times a day and maintain the tank, because like you say, i can vacume the cc.
oceanists
Active Member
Originally Posted by gman52
the advantage of CC is u can get all the crap out with vacuuming it. With sand it just sits there untill it all leaches back into the system. You can have a reef system run a lot longer with properly maintained CC, than you could with a sand bed. Doesnt matter how much microfauna you ahve, in such a small area, with the all the food and waste, the microfauna wont be able to keep up.
I couldnt dissagree more .... this is what your clean up crew and starfish are for.. not to mention with cc it is alot easier to lose snails and starfish because the cc cuts them up... also when you vaccum cc your losing a nice amount of copepods and other beneficial creatures and bacteria a; everytime you vaccum chances are your going to cloud your water and disturb your PH level and also stress your fish out. CC is a horrible choice on a reef system... do yourself a favor and ditch the CC .... Trust me, I changed out with a full tank and it was a pain but well worth it
the advantage of CC is u can get all the crap out with vacuuming it. With sand it just sits there untill it all leaches back into the system. You can have a reef system run a lot longer with properly maintained CC, than you could with a sand bed. Doesnt matter how much microfauna you ahve, in such a small area, with the all the food and waste, the microfauna wont be able to keep up.
I couldnt dissagree more .... this is what your clean up crew and starfish are for.. not to mention with cc it is alot easier to lose snails and starfish because the cc cuts them up... also when you vaccum cc your losing a nice amount of copepods and other beneficial creatures and bacteria a; everytime you vaccum chances are your going to cloud your water and disturb your PH level and also stress your fish out. CC is a horrible choice on a reef system... do yourself a favor and ditch the CC .... Trust me, I changed out with a full tank and it was a pain but well worth it
gman52
Member
i dont care what size tank you have, how much microfauna you have, how many snails and stars you have, it will never be enough to stop that sand bed from filling up with crap.
when i vacuum my cc, i dont stir up much of anything, because it all gets siphoned out, thats the point.
if i do lose some microfauna so wat, i have plenty in my rock
vacuuming gravel does not kill beneficial bacteria
i have used both sand beds and cc. Sand beds are destined to fail, theres no way around it. You can keep on using ur sand bed, but ur sittin on a ticking time bomb.
when i vacuum my cc, i dont stir up much of anything, because it all gets siphoned out, thats the point.
if i do lose some microfauna so wat, i have plenty in my rock
vacuuming gravel does not kill beneficial bacteria
i have used both sand beds and cc. Sand beds are destined to fail, theres no way around it. You can keep on using ur sand bed, but ur sittin on a ticking time bomb.
sleasia
Active Member
I know that most people recommend sand...and now being a bit more informed, I realize that I was not managing the sand properly...I had no clean up crew at all...so at this point, I am thinking of getting another tank for reef and starting with sand....In the long run for me, I think this is easier than converting my fowlr 200 with cc back to sand. (and heck, then I'll have two tanks)
sleasia
Active Member
Ok...I must be dreaming....or maybe I've died...I came to work tonight and one of the nurses tells me her husband has a fish tank he'd like to get rid of complete with stand...because its collecting dust. so I ask the questions...how big , how much? Its a 240gallon tank and he only wants $175.00 for it....I told her I'll be there tomarrow with a truck
Ok for my reef tank, sand or crushed coral...fight it out, I'm listening seriously now.
Ok for my reef tank, sand or crushed coral...fight it out, I'm listening seriously now.