Sand Or Crushed Coral Or Both?

amonya

Reefing newb
iM GOING TO BE BUGGING EVERYONE A LITTLE MORE NOW THAT IM GOING BIGGGER SO HOPEFULLY I CAN GET THIS SET UP RIGHT THE FIRST TIME .FIRST OF ALL WHATS THE DIFFERENCE , AND I KNOW THAT SAND CAN BE BENEFICIAL TO CORAL BECAUSE OF THE CRITTERS YOU CAN HAVE FROM LIVE SAND BUT DOSENT CRUSHED CORAL HELP WITH THE AKALINITY OF THE WATER . IM JUST WONDERING HOW MUCH LIVE SAND WOULD BE ENOUGH AND IS IT OK TO MIX CRUSHED CORAL AND LIVE SAND TOGETHER OR DO YOU THINK I SHOULD JUST GO WITH THE LIVE SAND BED .JOHN WHAT HAVE YOU FOUND OUT FROM USING IM SURE YOU'VE GOT SOMETHING UP YOUR SLEEVE ABOUT BED SET UPS WHAT WORKS FOR YOU.
 
Im going to mix maybe 2-3 cups of CC with my new sand, but its all going to sink to the bottom eventually. If you do both the CC will end up on the bottom and sand on top.
 
Do not get crushed coral that is a big mistake.Don't mix it either .U need reef grade sand for a shallow bed and fine sand for a DSB.
 
Thats not always true tho. My cousin has a dsb with CC for 6 years, no problems in his reef. Also if your going to have a jawfish, you may want to give him some CC to play with, but still not much.
 
I guess the alittle crushed coral added to the sand is ok just depends on what your keeping.Some inverted move more freely in sand.Jhnrb has some really good articles posted on sand beds.Also an Aragonite sand bed will help keep your calcium regulated.I read good and bad thing about a deep sand bed.A deep or shallow bed will be your choice.Also try google search on sand beds
 
Read the articles on ARAGONITE, AND SANDBEDS.

I will be using carib-sea aragonite sand reef select at 4" deep. once wet I will add two bags of aragalive sand from carib-sea and some live sand from mail or others. (short of it.)

There are several opinions out there on sand beds and one over the other is not neccessarily correct as various types of substrait have been proven to work. what you need to do is to read up on sand beds until you understand the principle and function of a sand bed, deep or otherwise, then select a sand bed material and depth that will provide a benefit to your particular system. (Use only material from the ocean).

I am not partial to cc but then my needs require a smooth bottom small enough grain size for cucumbers. if you are going to have any burrowing animals i.e. jawfish etc. you will need something more than sand or oolitic substrait to provide structure to the burrow. if not cave ins are for sure. so all the information up above has some merit but you need to decide for your self what is best for your system. so more reading is needed good luck and let us know if you are still confused after consulting the helpful articles. I believe if you take the time to fully read the articles on substrait and aragonite you will aquire a base to make a reasonable decision. good luck. let us know if you still have questions after consulting the articles again.
 
Thank you all for your opinions , I thought I would get diffrent answers on this type question you should of seen the three owners arguing about this same question when all three own the same fish stores one said 1/8 sand grde the other said i think 1/4 and the other said 1 cup wouldnt hurt as long as it was spread out over tank with 1/8 grade but i know that I want to have a DSB set up to help with the filter feeders when you have a dsb do u still clean the sand as much as you would with no dsb?so in the case of dsb set ups thinner would be better right ? p.s i will go read everthing we have on sand beds and aragonites and once again thanks everyone for all the help. :bowdown:o if anyone has anything you would like to add fill free 100 brains are better than 1 lol
 
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you need good water movement over the top of the dsb. it helps the filtering capability of the sand and keep to buch debris from settling on the bottom. the "critters" that make the sand "live" should do the rest. a shallow sand bed does't do any filtering besides bio film on the very top. that's why you're supposed to clean it with a gravel vac much like freshwater tanks
 
Well I will have to weigh in here on the sand beds. weather deep or not deep sand beds that are live should not be vacuumed. if you have a properly live sand bed with critters and all for stirring all that needs to happen is to stir it gently every week or so to keep the top stuff in suspesion so the filters can collect it. For a deep sand bed you would stir only the very top say not more than a 1/4 to 1/2 inch. you do not want to disturb the deeper reagons of the sand bed. if you use cc or a moderately medium substrait sized medium you may very well have to vacuum, however most use smaller grain size for their reefs.
 
im thinking maybe 3 inch sand bed with thinest sand i can find and then live sand how long do you think i should what when it comes to a new set up after or before cyle to introduce live sand and john im not useing any fish im going to try your fresh sea food idea. before i try is there anything anyone would like to add . :sfish:
 
very fine sand is called oolitic. a bit too fine for me but for a 3 inch sand bed should do just fine. Im using carib-sea reef select aragonite. they also make an oolitic sand. my depth is 4". make sure you do not put too much sea food in the system to start. just a little to give things a boost, test and watch for the cycle. once the cycle has completed add live sand and watch for next cycle. then add limited number of live animals and space out 2 to 3 weeks between additions. hope something here helps. see helpful articles on new setups, sand beds, aclimation, etc. you will find a lot of information there to guide you in getting to the point where you are up and running and adding animals to your system. be patient and add slowly. happy fishin.

oh and remember that it will take some time for the reef to mature, and be able to handle a high bioload. so sparingly for the first 6 to 8 months and then if all is well you can increase bio load if desired and if your system is not already overstocked.
 
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THANKS FOR INFO ALLWAYS A HELP. :bowdown:ps i might just still your idea lol since youve been doing this for 30+ LOL o yea i just heard that we have two marine biologist in are family one just started working for nasa and the other im going to kid nap just joking but,you would think they could give good pointers right thanks to my youngest biologist my first set up was a cotastraphy thanks tj for all the help in confusing me when i was a neebi(i still cosider my self as one)but not a confused one. :mrgreen:
 
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