Crushed Coral vs Live Sand

[JGon]

What's better?? I currently have LS, but my LFS is telling me that CC is the way to go. Remove the LS and replace with CC. What do you guys think??

 

[saltyphish]

Why are you wanting to change it? CC will turn into live sand over time. It really comes down to preference and needs for habitants. IMO live-sand would only be more beneficial for a new tank start up helping to cycle the tank faster. Otherwise go with what you like. I will say I use Fiji pink live sand, but that was used when I started up my tank and I am slowly siphoning it out since it easily creates a sandstorm in my tank.

 

[JGon]

I had a bad case of cyanobacteria (red slime algae) a few weeks ago. Then I cleaned the tank really well and did a water change. Seemed to work a bit because a lot of it went away. But it's still there. It's getting on my zoas and keeping them closed and on my LR and I'm having to manually remove it everyday. It gets all over the sand bed too. It's not as bad as it was before because before it was completely covering the sand bed. Now it's just small patches here and there. So I use a chopstick to sift the sand and remove the slime off my corals. The guy at my LFS told me it was all because of the sand. It traps phosphates and nitrates that cause it to grow. But my water tested 0 on nitrates and 0.03 for phosphates. And I feed my tank every three days being that I only have two fish and a shrimp. So i don't think it's a nutrients issue either. He's been doing CC since he started 20 years ago and nothing else. Just stayed completely away from LS. And his tanks do look amazing.

 

[saltyphish]

CC would do the same thing. You need to buy some sandsifting members for your cuc. Also I highly recommend chemiclean when all else fails. The sand is not what caused your problem. Lack of sandsifting critters, too much food, not enough flow caused it. Once cyano starts it can feed off of the lights as well.

 

[zwulfke]

i used both and it depends if you won't have sand fish or other creatures its ok but, it likes to become full of coraline and algae grows easy.

 

[JGon]

I have my lights on timers for 8 hours. He recommended cyano rx ( i think it was called?).

 

[JGon]

I only have two fish, a pistol shrimp, and an anemone crab. So I only feed the tank every two three days.

 

[bumperbeetle]

I have LS currently. My tang loves it! He skips along the bottom as fast as he can and uses his fin to toss up sand. My only complaint is the never ending sand storm. Ive moved my power heads every angle I can without compromising vortex with no let up. So Im gonna leaving it in....but Im going to put a good 1"- 1 1/2" layer of bimini pink over it.

 

[ReefGeek_11]

Cyanobacteria, first and for most. Do not buy anything for this. It just takes a little elbow grease and about a week. I had taken a tank over for somebody about 3 weeks ago and it had a very bad case of Cyanobacteria! Covered the sand in layers and just about all of the LR. I noticed that the flow wasn't all that great in the tank and with the powerhead that was in the tank was under powered and pointing in the wrong direction. I had a lot of mistrials with getting rid of it. I tried everything from using my hand to stiring it up. After finding out how to properly remove it. Do not! Don't not stir it up! And do not let it break in peices! First thing. Turn off all flow. Second thing, use baister (cooking baister) slow start sucking in up and discard as much as possibly from sand and LR. Immediately after I removed as much as I can, I noticed small particles of it floating all around the tank. I did a 30% water change! After water change I added a extra powerhead that was primarily shooting low across the sand with out totally making a sand storm, and the other rotating it high across my tank. I then only removed a few spots on the sand a few days after that ( first turning off flow) made it a lot eaiser. I have zero sign of Cyanobacteria. I know there is a lot of stories out there on why and how but I try and simplify things. I did a test in my jbj 6 gallon, I had cycled sand and I dropped a dime size black nasty Cyanobacteria into the tank with no flow and ran my lighting 10 hours a day. Within 24 hrs it had doubled in size. I then tore it in half and made it about dime size again. Turned the flow on and over 5 days there was not added size it still remained dime size. I went for a second round with the flow off and as I figured it had doubled in size. Flow has a huge part in any type of Cyanobacteria. Thanks and good luck!