What Should I do????

[wicked1]

I just set up a 55 GAL. tank at the beginning of the week that i will be using for a reef. I put in crushed coral then put live sand on top of the coral, which after reading A few threads, i shouldn't have used the crushed coral !! The tank is already filled with water and live rock! Should i save the trouble and tear it down to remove the crushed coral or should i let it go!
Also i have two power jets that aren't in the tank yet-i was wondering where exactly i should place them for best circulation- my 55 gal. is the tank with dimension 48" long X 12.5" wide.

 

[michaeltx]

if it were my tank I would take the time now an dchange it out to all sand. the CC will eventually come to the surface and will start to cause problems unfortunatly. and if you have a full blown reef at that time its not going to be fun and you will risk loosing dome of your fish and inverts from a major change over.
as far as the pumps you want flow in different areas of the tank. I used 4 different power heads in different spots in my 50 to keep dead spots to a minimum
Mike

 

[bsd230]

I agree, I would go ahead and bite the bullet and do it now. It will be easier now then when you have corals, fish, and inverts and try to do it. If you have it available try to pump most of your water into a clean trash (a new can just for this purpose) so you can reuse it.

 

[wicked1]

What kind of problems are we talking about?? iT would be hard to separate the two now(the sand and the cc) i could try - i have a litlle bit of sand left- will it hurt if there is a little cc left in the sand??

 

[wicked1]

i just bought 75lbs. of live sand. i'm just going to re-do the tank! After everything i've read on this site it will save me a ton of money in the long run!
Thanks for the help guys

 

[sepulatian]

Originally Posted by wicked1
What kind of problems are we talking about?? iT would be hard to separate the two now(the sand and the cc) i could try - i have a litlle bit of sand left- will it hurt if there is a little cc left in the sand??
Well crushed coral works great for the cycle period, but what happens after the tank is cycled is that all of the nitrates get trapped in the nooks and crannies of the cc. Then it starts to release them. Your nitrates will be high and unless you clean and syphon the cc very often and correctly. You will most likely have nitrate problems. Now I see you are looking to do a reef tank. Do yourself a favor and get the cc out now before anything is added and replace it with live sand. Corals can not take more than 20-30 max for trates. You will never achieve that level with crushed coral. Also some small gobies or other sand sifters that you may want in the future will get scratched on the cc. Pull it out now and save yourself the hassel.
PS to separate the cc from the sand, use a corse net. The sand will fall through, the cc won't

 

[kogle]

I also used crushed coral in my new tank I'm setting up. I think it's crushed coral anyhow. This is only going to be about 15% of the substrate in the tank though. The rest will be a mix of LS and "dead sand" I like the look it gives to the tank to have a little bit of larger substrate.
I do plan on having a pair of diamond gobies though. Do you think they would be ok with the very low percentage of crushed coral?

 

[milomlo]

If I'm not mistaken the gobies can't sift the cc cause it is to big for their gills.
The cc will eventually be on top cause the sand will settle. IMO I would also get rid of the cc and go w/ sand. When I did mine, I just used dead sand and let the lr seed it.

 

[michaeltx]

absolutely right milomlo CC no matter how iltle will eventually end up the top layer over time. It will start to collect the detrious and uneaten food. also beacuse of the corseness of it alot of the micro fauna wont be able to use it correctly and in some cases wont be able to populate the CC layer.
Mike