Will it hurt to switch my crushed coral substrate to aragonite sand?!?

[Piscean]

It's a relatively new 10g reef tank... 2-3 weeks old.

I stupidly used crushed coral as substrate, but after joining a few forums I have read more and more horrifying things about CC.

I'd really like to switch to aragonite sand(for aesthetic and functional reasons)... but by removing the beneficial bacteria that has formed in the substrate, will I be restarting the cycling process???

What is the best way for me to go about changing the substrate without completely messing up the entire tank?

I know that when I re-arrange the live rock, cloudy water is an issue.... When I take out the CC, will it create SO much cloudiness that it will never go away???

I'm kind of mad at myself for not fully researching substrates... I just figured it was the least of my worries...

Help? :shock:

 

[Bifferwine]

I suggest doing it now, when the tank is very young. If you put it off, you will only be kicking yourself later on, when you have livestock to worry about. Do it now and if it does recycle, you have only lost a few weeks of time.

If you have a sufficient amount of live rock, there should be enough bacteria on the rock to prevent a mini-cycle, but that's not a guarantee.

I would remove your rocks into some buckets, keep them wet, then scoop out all the crushed coral. Add your rocks back in, add sand (place the rocks on the glass bottom for stability) and fill it back up with water. The cloudiness may last a few days, but it will settle out in time.

Don't worry -- plenty of people switch out their substrates. Better now than later on down the road when you have a tank full of fish and corals!

 

[Waddi]

Ninj'd :(

but do you have any live stock in the tank?? Or is it just bare??

 

[Piscean]

I suggest doing it now, when the tank is very young. If you put it off, you will only be kicking yourself later on, when you have livestock to worry about. Do it now and if it does recycle, you have only lost a few weeks of time.

If you have a sufficient amount of live rock, there should be enough bacteria on the rock to prevent a mini-cycle, but that's not a guarantee.

I would remove your rocks into some buckets, keep them wet, then scoop out all the crushed coral. Add your rocks back in, add sand (place the rocks on the glass bottom for stability) and fill it back up with water. The cloudiness may last a few days, but it will settle out in time.

Don't worry -- plenty of people switch out their substrates. Better now than later on down the road when you have a tank full of fish and corals!

Ok, thanks for the insight.

I have a little over 10lbs right now. I def. going to get more! (As long as it's covered with coraline and other life and is clearly cured, I can add it to my tank at any time...right?)

Do you think I could get away with keeping as much water as I can and reusing it when I fill it back up, mixing up new water to top it off??

Idk why I went for the crushed coral, when aragonite sand looks way better. lol.

 

[Piscean]

Ninj'd :(

but do you have any live stock in the tank?? Or is it just bare??

It's bare, just a few pest nems. and other live rock organisms.

 

[Smitty]

+1 Biff...Yep, do it now. :)

 

[Piscean]

Ok, thanks :P

I'm going to go out this afternoon and get the sand. What would be better.... The regular sand or aragonite sand???

 

[phastroh]

Hey now hey now I have crushed coral and I personal like the way it looks. https://www.livingreefs.com/my-new-paired-clowns-t33946.html

I am NOT going to switch it because it is WAAAAAY to much work for me now.

I move it around every once in a while and also have removed a lot of bigger pieces from the top. If I look at the bottom of my tank it is very fine. It is only the top inch that is crushed coral.

It came from the Gulf of Mexico so it really wasn't 100% Crushed Coral. I always thought it was but it isn't. A lot of it has turned pink with time.

I have a lot of rock so most of it is covered in the back areas but I have a ton of Hermits milling around it and most of the stuff settles in the uncovered areas.

I have Cleaner Shrimp so I hope they eat as much crud as advertised.

No problems so far. My tank is roughly 5 months old now I think and in the future I plan on a bigger tank and using the sand instead of the CC but will used some of it to decorate certain areas like around the base of some of the rocks.

Just to change it up a little and make it realistic looking.

 

[little_fish]

aragonite, but i think even regular sand is aragonite sand :)

 

[Piscean]

Ok cool :P

 

[DAvis]

Ok, thanks :P

I'm going to go out this afternoon and get the sand. What would be better.... The regular sand or aragonite sand???

I use the Caribe Sea 'SeaFlor'. It's a nice particle size, and my Goby and snails like it.
CaribSea Dry Aragonite | Aragamax Sugar Sized Sand | Aragamax Select | Seaflor Special Grade Reef Sand | Fiji Pink Reef Sand | Flamingo Reef Sand | Bermuda Pink | Grand Bahamas Biome | Super Reef