successful crushed coral

[chewieee]

Anyone have some pics of a sucessful crushed coral substrate tank?

[navychief]

I have a tank that's establishing with crushed coral. Not sure what would be considered "successful"?

[Blown 346]

You can have succesful CC substrate as long as you clean it regularily.

[usmc121581]

Just my 2 cents. Just use sand. It will save you time in the long run.

[o.c.d.]

My coral substrate is over 7 years old and I have corals that old with fish to boot.I measure sucsess in overall animal comfort my clownfish lay eggs constantly so do the cleanershrimp many of my corals i've been forced to propigate from overgrowth eg.Orange Montipora Echinophyllia,Xenia Zoos many more. My manderin loves the coral substrate and my copperband I'm sure would thank me also. If you click on the camera you can judge for your self. I'm Happy with it.

[Deb91]

ocd,you tank looks very nice. When I had set up before,I used crushed coral and was happy with it. I think it may be a little more work to keep it cleaned,but I didn't mind.(I'm a neat freak anyway,I love to clean).Even though I am going to use sand this time I think It' still a personal opinion.After all it's your tank!!!! :)

[demonsp]

CC is a little more maint. but with the right flow , and your not overstocked or overfeeding you can be fine. CC can cause a nitrate nightmare and it could take months or yrs. If you see your readings start to rise and waterchanges dont seem to help then its your CC.

[chewieee]

O.C.D can you tell me your maintence schedule and events on your CC?

[kevin2000]

My 02

CC is considered a lousy substrate for SW tanks .. a hold over from the days of under gravel filters (which are lousy for SW tanks). It tend to hold debris and a smaller diameter substrate will hold significantly more beneficial bacteria.

With that said .... if you have a predator tank or something which requires frequent cleaning a CC substrate facilitates that and may be an appropriate choice.

[o.c.d.]

I don't touch it really my clowns move some in one section and I do a manualy prodding if the surface gets crusty but honestly thats very rare. My skimmer is intank and I found it picks up alot more than in my gravity fed refugium(2.5years old also DSB).I also have always had lots of water flow,and I've alway ran a large Ehime canister filter. My LR also is't resting on the back glass so the flow churns around.I also have 10 serpent and brittle stars 25 hermits and the very recent additon of a engineer goby all to clean and move the sand.

[Leafer]

I have a mix, 3 bags sand, 1 bag CC. I wish I could get the CC out without taking the tank down. My next build will certainly be with just sand.

[o.c.d.]

Quote:CC is considered a lousy substrate for SW tank. Yes some people,but not all Anthony Calfo and Ronald L Shimek both wrote great articals on the subject not to forget Julian Sprung and Charles Delbeek thats only mentioning a few ,but using sandbed as a filter is't a bad idea some people just tend to blame tank problems on the sandbed.poor little SB alway getting blamed. Rules to follow, of course,and lots of arlicles to help.BB to me does not look natural not to mention lots of siphoning,got to get the detritis out! or you could hire some proper scavengers and sifters to use the detritis as fule thus completing the natural circle of our little slice of a live reef. Sand has important functions and can be maintained with little effort,Many different animal use the SB as a smorgasboard and If my Fat madarin could talk I'm sure he would say "Burp excuse me ,can't talk to much to naturally hunt in this fine looking SB"

[o.c.d.]

I was expecting to be blasted for my DSB thoughts seeing as it's considered lousy by some.Maybe every one is sleeping?

[Rustylugnuts]

I dont think anybody should blast you for whats working. I had CC awhile back and mixed some sand with it too. Took forever to sift out the CC once i decided to replace it with sand. I personally like the look of coarse sand better (carribsea seaflor) but I dont dislike CC or fine sand either.

[o.c.d.]

I'm just used to confrentation on the subject, and when my large reef library support what I know, words like lousy are irritating.(coming from 33 years exp. But no tank listed?)At least I have a little gallery of proof on the subject.

[chewieee]

so you dont gravel vac your CC at all?

[jake32010]

use sand it works a lot better

[o.c.d.]

DSB maintained with proper diversity os animals you can facilitate the utilization of the necessary excess nutrients from normal feeding DSB detoxify trace metals.The large population of sediment animals also transfer nutrients from th SB back to the corals,by the movement in the sediment and water ,which gererates bacterial particulates in the water column and when all the small animals reproduce they also transfer excess nutrients back from the sediment into the water column in the form of larvae and reporoductive products.The key to the sand bed community success is the water movement between the sediment grains. When you vac you really mess with the creatures your trying to produce. It would be the equalivant of a tornado, like us they would also have to rebuild the community