But what if the aquarium you bought second-hand comes with a crushed coral substrate and the previous owner swears by it? Can you just clean the crushed coral and then add new sand to it to speed up the cycle? Well yes, you can but why would you? Saving money is usually the first answer I hear.
If you do add sand to a crushed coral substrate you will fill in all the gaps to prevent detritus from building up, but if you do not clean the crushed coral properly you have now just locked in that detritus which will decay and release its problem elements.
The other problem is your substrate will still be too coarse for any sand-sifting Clean-Up-Crew to help keep it clean. The best practice is to dispose of the crushed coral and start with new sand, dry or alive. Just spend the little bit of cash now to install a new sandbed and save yourself potentially many nitrate and phosphate problems in the years to come.
It is far easier to remove the crushed coral now than to do it when the aquarium is full of life and Algae! This is by far the most popular sand for saltwater aquariums because it is comprised of a type of Calcium Carbonate that will slowly dissolve in a solution of Ph 8.
This is important because most reef tanks like to sit at a Ph of around 8. As the Aragonite slowly dissolves, it releases Calcium Carbonate into the water which is then consumed by the invertebrates to build their shells and corals like LPS and SPS to build their skeletons. This is also a calcium carbonate-based mineral except it dissolves at a much lower Ph of 7.
With saltwater aquariums having a much higher Ph this type of substrate will never dissolve. If you have a gallon L tank, aim for about 55 pounds 25kg of sand. Now, actual results will vary based on the shape of your aquarium and the size and shape of the grains of sand. Coarse aquarium sand takes up more room, and fine sand takes up less space. But if you start with that idea in mind, you can get close to your desired depth. Then you can tweak it higher or lower based on how it looks in your tank.
And while it sounds easy just dump it in, right? The first step is to clean the aquarium sand. If your tank is already set up and you want to add aquarium sand, the technique is slightly different. You still need to clean the sand that dust can still create problems and clog your filters. But you need to work a different way. The YouTube video below provides a visual on how to clean and add sand to your aquarium.
Yes, the tank appears to be freshwater. Picking the best aquarium sand for a reef tank is as simple as figuring out what you want and finding the substrate that works for that design. Figure out the look you want, and purchase a type of aquarium sand that mimics that look. Then decide on the depth you want, follow the pound-per-gallon estimate, and add that much sand. You also want to pick an inert sand aragonite or silicate.
And if you have more money than time, buy live sand instead of dry sand. Whatever works best for YOU is the correct choice. Your fish, corals, and other invertebrates will stay happy. And your tank? How about the ultimate guide to aquarium sands? This YouTube video is on the long side, but it provides plenty of helpful information:. Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment.
Image by Siim Sepp. Image by Mark A. Image by Raul Terrific information. Thank you, Wendy! This also led to often heated discussions of whether the substrate should be regularly stirred up on not. Some felt that stirring up the substrate disrupted the natural processes that were occurring in it, while others felt that stirring it up during a water change was a good way to reduce the detritus and nutrients that accumulated in it.
I tried it both ways and regardless of which I chose it seemed that over time the nutrient levels in my tanks, always tended to go up. I will admit that all of my tanks have always been overstocked by most estimates, so this probably contributed to the high nutrient levels. But since I have gone to bare bottom tanks with strong flow this problem has been reduced dramatically.
As mentioned above, some corals seem to do better when substrate is present, while this may be true, it is also possible to grow some corals on a bare bottom that would otherwise Encrusting corals like Montiporas, Cyphastreas, Favia, Porites and even star polyps all can be grown on a bare bottom.
In addition, coralline algae will also cover the bottom glass over time in a bare bottom tank. As a result, the rocks need to be moved and the overgrown corals need to cut back. When my tanks used substrate when these moves and changes needed to be made the result was often a major disruption owing to how much dirt and detritus was released when the bottom rocks were moved from the substrate.
Often after these moves it would take two to three months for the tank to settle back down and for everything to regain the health and vitality it had before the rocks were moved. Now these were not just the corals on the rocks, but rather all of the corals in the tank. So I can only surmise that this kind of disruption due to having substrate is not a good occurrence.
I say this as this has not been the case when I have had to perform the same procedure on a bare bottom tank. In fact, the opposite is true as everything seems to do better when things are thinned out and any detritus that has accumulated under the live rock has been removed.
As with just about every aspect of the hobby there are multiple ways to do everything and whether to have substrate or run a bare bottom tank is just another choice. While I admit that aesthetically a bare bottom tank may look better, I do not recall anyone noticing that my tanks did not have substrate when they looked at the corals and fish. Running substrate in a tank goes back to the days when we ran undergravel filters for biological filtration and having a deep substrate was a necessary evil.
Now that we utilize live rock and a refugium, having enough substrate for bacteria to colonize is no longer an issue. As a result, when you decide which way you want to go there are a number of ways you can go.
I run bare bottom as a result of my desire to have as much flow as possible in my tanks, and using substrate limits how much flow I can use. But for those using less flow or who still like the look of what substrate brings this is still a great ay to go.
Just as some like blue lights while others like white, there is no one way that works for everyone. As with most things in this hobby, do what brings you the most enjoyment. Sand Bed or Bare Bottom? Bare Bottom You can siphon off detritus dead organic matter like dead organisms or fish waste that collects on the bottom of the tank.
Otherwise, you risk losing the helpful bacteria and the health of your entire tank with them. On the other hand, larger grain size media will be easier to clean without causing as much of a disturbance simply because most of the debris you will be cleaning is located in large pore spaces and is easier to access.
You can also opt to do very little maintenance and leave it to the bacteria and critters in your tank — like sea cucumbers, snails, and gobies — to clean up debris for you. While this may leave the bottom of your tank looking dirtier, it is an effective way to manage the water chemistry. The types of creatures that are living in your aquarium should have a big impact on what type of substrate you need.
The types of creatures in your aquarium can also affect how much maintenance you need to do. If you have critters like snails, gobies, and sea cucumbers that continuously consume debris off the media, then you may not need to constantly clean the media and can opt for a fine-grained substrate like sand. Finally, consider whether any of the creatures in your tank are burrowers. These critters will prefer fine-grained substrate, since it offers more area to hide than large-grained substrate with gaping pore spaces.
Remember that aesthetics is also a major part of your substrate choice. So how do you figure out what the right amount is? The volume of your tank in gallons is roughly equivalent to the amount of sand in pounds that it takes to make a one-inch bed. So, if you have a gallon tank, 10 pounds of dry sand is enough for a one-inch bed.
On the other hand, deep beds do not have oxygen at the bottom of the bed, allowing bacteria to facilitate denitrification so that the nitrogen balance in the tank auto-corrects itself. Deep beds thus require little to no maintenance, and can actually be harmed by intensive cleaning. This live sand mix from CaribSea is designed to get your reef tank up and running quickly thanks to its pre-established colonies of helpful bacteria.
The substrate itself is made of aragonite, which has a relatively small grain size and is biologically inert in saltwater tanks. The grain size is similar to the fine sand you might find at the beach and is ideal for reef tanks with burrowing creatures or fish like gobies that prefer to pick detritus off of the tank bottom.
While the substrate is called pink sand, there are relatively few pink grains in the mix and it is instead a has an aesthetically pleasing white sand appearance. There are also a variety of other styles available from CaribSea to achieve a unique look for your aquarium tank. This crushed coral blend from CaribSea is designed for tanks where a substrate with a large grain size is preferred.
The blend is specifically intended for tanks with high flow through the bed, such as tanks with under gravel filtration systems or reverse flow beds.
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