Another "Sand vs. CC" question

D

Deinonych

Reefing newb
From reading the forums, I understand that sand is the way to go. I was in a LFS today, and the owner swore up and down that crushed coral was the way to go. His reasoning was that sand gets hard and traps bad bacteria that can cause problems with algae blooms etc. I wasn't really in a position to argue with him, as my knowledge is limited at this point.

Thoughts?
 
I've never seen sand get hard in any of my tanks. If you keep your sand bed to 2" or less, it won't trap stuff that your clean up crew can't get to. With sand, since the particles are small, detritus and gunk tends to settle on top of it, which makes it easier to keep clean.

The problem with crushed coral is that the particle sizes are large, so detritus and crap gets trapped between the particles and that makes it difficult to keep clean. Plus, cleaners like burrowing fish and snails can't live in crushed coral.

You run into problems with sand when it's deep enough to create an anaerobic environment -- that's when toxic gases can build up in it, crashing a tank if the gas is released. But it has to be pretty deep (at least 6 inches) in order to create that sort of environment.
 
Crushed coral collects detritus! Sand is the best way!
Crushed Coral is a good nitrate factory. Sand is good 2 inches basically.
My reasoning for sand:

-Looks better
-Better for bottom dwelling fish ( can get gobies ect)
-Better for CUC
-Doesn't trap as many nitrates

The list goes on :p Good thing you came to the forum first for opinions, better that, than be fed false info.

EDIT: I Preganant Ninja'd!!!!!! Cuuuuurses!!!! :mrgreen:
 
Great, thanks for the info. I'm planning to use this guy to build an aquarium (he does custom builds and installation). I'll be sure to insist on using my own choice of substrate. :)
 
I set up my first tank (a 55 gallon) with crushed coral and a canister filter. I battled high nitrates (always in the 60 to 100 range) forever. After doing research, I eventually got rid of the canister filter and replaced the crushed coral with sand. Those two things alone (I changed nothing else except I kept up with the regular water changes I had always been doing) brought the nitrates down to below 20 within a few weeks. There have been several people on here that have seen their nitrates drop just by changing their substrate. I learned from experience! :)
 
So, is it worthwhile having a system custom-built, or am I better off doing it myself? I'm thinking about a 100G FOWLR tank for starters, probably with sump/refugium. Cost-wise, it seems about the same, but having one built for me reduces newbie errors significantly, it seems.
 
To be honest, if this guy is recommending crushed coral to you it's likely that he will have some other outdated or plain wrong recommendations.
In my opinion you'd be much better off researching all this information before you buy anything.

There is a significant amount of information available around the web on marine aquaria. This is where you will find most if not all the answers to your questions, and if this guy was a serious hobbyist or in the industry, he would have more knowledge than you've described.

Also, building the system yourself is always going to be cheaper than having someone do it for you.
 
Deinonych said:
So, is it worthwhile having a system custom-built, or am I better off doing it myself? I'm thinking about a 100G FOWLR tank for starters, probably with sump/refugium. Cost-wise, it seems about the same, but having one built for me reduces newbie errors significantly, it seems.
Click to expand...

There are very few people on here that have had systems built for them. I think the plus of doing it yourself is flexibility -- you can research the equipment and livestock you want and get exactly what you want out of your tank, not what someone else has pre-selected for you.

Another factor is cost. It's much more expensive to pay someone else to set up a tank for you (I don't know if you have looked closely at the costs if you think they seem about the same -- there's definitely a big difference!).

There have been a few people on here that relied on a store to set up their tanks that later regretted it because they ended up getting equipment (or substrates like crushed coral) that they later had to replace or get rid of because they realized that it wasn't the best for their system. Probably the most common complaint regarding this is surrounding lighting -- time and time again, these customized set ups seem to skimp on lighting, and then the customer finds out a few months down the road that the store gave them crap lights that they can't keep anything with, and they have to pay extra to replace the lights.

On the other hand, there are people that are very pleased with what their fish store has done for them when they've had stuff set up by the store.

To me, it's not worth the extra expense. Setting up a tank yourself doesn't have to be difficult, and you can do all your research online (and ask any questions on forums like this one!). There is also the satisfaction one gets from the "ownership" of setting up their own tank. Like when you look at your fish and corals and are amazed by their beauty and you think, "Oh my god, I can't believe I did this!"
 
Biff and Waddi are both exactly right (Wha! I listed Biff first?!) When it comes to setting your own tank up, you are more connected to it every fish you see every coral you have that thrives, you picked out. You build a bond with your aquarium and its inhabitants, when they suffer you feel their pain (well in some sense). Most of the time (not always) the building process and trial and error make you more knowledgeable on the subject (be it fish lights corals other equipment etc) that you can later pass on to someone with questions just like yours, those who have it done for them rarely go out later and do research on exactly what was ordered for them. These people commonly return to their source when something happens with the system and have the source fix it, rather than having the knowledge to care for and maintain it themselves.

Just my added 2c, I really think Biff and Waddi gave you the best possible information for this one.
 
Thank you everyone. Building it myself seems like really sound advice. This way I can buy what I need piecemeal and put together the tank that I want. You can bet I will have lots of questions for you all! Thanks again.
 
I agree with everyone else. If he's recommending crushed coral, I'd be looking for a new LFS. Or at least secondary one.
 
I have sand, but was alwayse having an issue with the return outlet blowing it around, making dunes, ect, so i put some crushed coral in the problem area. Even though it took care of the issue, i hate the way it looks, and you can almost see the crud that it collects.
 
d2mini said:
I agree with everyone else. If he's recommending crushed coral, I'd be looking for a new LFS. Or at least secondary one.
Click to expand...

Yeah, the more I think about the conversation I had with him, the less impressed I am. I think he was just too "old school" for my tastes. In addition to the crushed coral recommendation, he was also going on about how great T12 lighting was and how awful LEDs are. I can understand not wanting to jump on the LED bandwagon, but using T12s seems pretty out of date based on what I have read.

Anyway, glad I asked here before giving him my hard-earned dollars. :)
 
I don't think you can even use t12 bulbs and keep a reef tank. Are you sure he didn't mean t5 bulbs? Those you can keep a reef with and are very popular and useful as long as you have enough bulbs.
 
little_fish said:
I don't think you can even use t12 bulbs and keep a reef tank. Are you sure he didn't mean t5 bulbs? Those you can keep a reef with and are very popular and useful as long as you have enough bulbs.
Click to expand...

No, he said T12 and even showed me a reef setup that was using them. They were huge -- can't imagine how inefficient they are compared to T5s, let alone LEDs.
 
I'd run far, far away. Thank him for his advice politely as possible and never return. Some people do get stuck "in the old ways" of doing things. I personally wont go to LED's yet (even though I could have) because I feel far to comfortable with MH/T5 combos, but at least I know they are somewhat at the front of the hobby, with LED's being the new prototype (which is working very very well from what I've seen).

He may have a good selection but I would always come here first then buy there second, or do as others have recommended and find yourself a nice new knowledgeable LFS that can guide you properly.
 

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