Hey I went with crushed coral over live sand because of the price difference mainly, and also because of the fact you can clean it with a vac fairly easy... was this a huge mistake or no? Im also going to purchase a fairly large clean up crew for my 55 gallon saltwater tank to help keep things clean... But am I asking for problems in the future with the crush coral?
Crushed Coral Vs. Live Sand
- Thread starter downy14
- Start date
The only problem I see that people do not like about crushed coral is that it tends to calcify and turn into one large piece, also it traps in things like detritus. Even with a large clean up crew they will not be able to get into areas where detritus will fall into.
This can create/build up to a bad thing called nitrates.
This can create/build up to a bad thing called nitrates.
In my humble opinion live sand is nothing more than dead sand that has been subjected to a system for awhile, I long ago quit salt, but when i set up my first tank, i used crushed coral with aragonite sand mixed in and bought 1 milk jug full of (LIVE SAND) from a good LFS here, out of his huge system, and like magic in a short while i had a tank full of live everything. Then added a lot of base rock with quality coraline and live rock on top.
Unless you are planning to keep bottom dwelling sharks or stingrays, it doesn't really matter what you use. Even regular sand will turn to "live" after your tank is setup for some time.