Hey so im setting up a 20 gallon saltwater tank. Im an experienced freshwater keeper but new to salt. I have done some research and overlooked one thing. I bought 10 lbs live sand and 5 poudns crushed coral as a substrate. But the crushed coral is going to seperate and sit ontop of the live sand. I didnt really think about this at the time. Will this be a major issue, should i scoop the crushed coral out with a fish tank and only use sand?
New to saltwater and already messed up. (I Think...)
- Thread starter Aneno312
- Start date
what ive read is that normally either u use crushed coral so that the detritus fills the spaces in the CC and u siphon it out, OR you use sand so that the detritus sits ontop. But when u use both ur going to have to siphon sand out to clean the CC? what do you think.
With my salt tank i mix sand and crush coral. I dont clean anything on my sand or crushed coral. Theres nothing to clean up..... My fish eat the food and dont waste any and the poop i never see sitting on the substrate. It probably dissovles and gets picked up my filter system and protien skimmer. I just do water changes through my sump...
I cant see it being a problem, with sand sifters (nassarius snales are the way to go here), the crushed coral mite end up on the top, but with the snales siphoning wont be as big a deal (or nessisary) as they should pick up a good deal of the detritus. And like they said worste case you could mix it up, or if it becomes a problem then scoop it out like you said. Another thing that could cause the coral to all end up ontop would be powerheads to close the the substraight... in which case you would want the crushed coral there to keep your sand from blowing away haha.
you didnt mess up i have seen plenty of people mix crushed coral and sand
thats crazy that u dont vac your substrate u must have a nice cleanup crew/filtertration
TheCanuck;3949063; said:
thats crazy that u dont vac your substrate u must have a nice cleanup crew/filtertration
fcamargo6thave;3951027; said:
Can't have a clean up crew.... i have triggers, they eat snails and hermit crabs..... I can never see any solids or anything in the sand, i think one time i found a shrimp, then it was gone. My smaller eel might have cleaned it up but otherwise it will just rott. Or get picked up by the filter? lol idk i just havent had any problems with this issue....
so ive partially removed the crushed coral. I want to leave a little bit of shells in there to give a slight texture in the sand everynow and then but for the most part ive removed 3/4th of the crushed coral.