Live Sand vs. Crushed coral

[Tim and Kendra]

I am new to this and just bought my first tank and I am not sure what I should use for the bottom. Could someone help me out with the pro and cons to both live sand and crush coral??

[Chrispar]

search it, there are several threads up and they are all full of opinions from both sides of the fence

[Meteorflower]

I started out with crushed coral, and ended up switching to sand. I prefer the sand because it lets me have more interesting sandbed dwellers, like gobies and Nassarius snails.

[muddybluewater]

I have 80# sand 80# small crushed coral mixed in mine.

[Brooks]

Hey, Tim!

After we met today I went scouring the internet seeking help on this subject.

I could not find any good articles on the matter, however, there were many concerns posted about various forums. Basically, I read the same response in on every topic I visited: Sand is better than crushed coral (henceforth referred to as CC).

Here are a few quotes from "top posters" on the aforementioned websites that might help you with your question(s):

1. "Crushed coral being a larger granular size allows organic material to settle and decay within your substrate requiring more effort to keep clean. Sand does not have this problem and also has the added benefit of providing an area for anaerobic bacteria to colonize if the sandbed is deep enough. I would recommend hands down using sand if you are switching to a reef tank. Decaying organic material, or detrious, can contribute to a low PH due to the carbonic acid produced but there are likely other factors as well causing your PH to be difficult to maintain at the appropriate level."

2. "I would switch. CC is going the way of UG filters. CC can become nitrate factories due to its' large particle size. Detritus can find its' way into it whereas with fine grain sand it sits on top of it & can be easily siphoned off. Think of a freshwater tank with an UG filter - you know how gunked up the gravel becomes - you don't want that in a reef tank. IMO sand looks so much better as well."

3. "Your question is a little off base. You don't need all live sand because it's too expensive. You want to find a source of dry Pure Aragonite sand as it is shipped in from the Bahamas. Processed and bagged "live" sand is a joke in my humble opinion. Aerobic bacteria, the critter that gives "live" sand it's name, requires oxygen to live. Once the "live" bacteria are closed off in the bag, how long will oxygen be available to them? Until they consume it. After that, death comes quickly. Your "live" sand is only live for a short period of time. Buying it from a LFS, your likely to be buying dead "live" sand. Why? Because before your LFS received it, it sat in a warehouse, for how long? Do you get my point?

Your best bet is to find dry Pure Aragonite sand in it's original state and find a diver that offers real "live" sand collected and shipped from the ocean. For a source of Pure Aragonite sand from the Bahamas PM me and I will send you more information on a source and why Pure Bahamian Aragonite sand is the preferred substrate.

When you first set up a reef tank you don't even need live sand. Your LR will seed your sand bed in a short period of time, long before you are ready to add corals and fish. This is an expensive hobby. Save money where you can.

If you want to add live sand, top of with an inch of real "live" sand from the ocean. You'll get more than aerobic bacteria. You'll get marine worms (very important), mini stars and maybe some little clams and snails.

I hope this helps win over your fiancee to sand because CC is a disaster waiting to happen. The results of your poll should point out how wrong CC is. I commend you for having the fortitude to stand up for your belief and bring your question here to **."

4. I added a picture of a poll taken off of a popular reef-related community forum. This poll can be found under the "attached images" at the bottom of my post.

I highlighted the basic opinion of each statement in red.

If you would like me to PM you the websites in which I retrieved these quotes from, I'd be happy to give them to you to further your knowledge!

Hope this helps!

-Brooks-

[Chrispar]

my nassarius snails seem to do ok in my CC.

[reeferRob]

there is a guy who has studied DSBs, refugiums, Aerobic and Anerobic bacteria etc etc to GREAT lengths and given many lectures and demonstrations on MAAST, his screen name is PING, and if he cannot answer your question no one can IMHO! Might be worth the effort to seek him out and pick his brain.

[subsea]

The term live sand is a loaded gun. It means many different things to many different people. It is more important to discuss grain size and of secondary importance is the chemistry of the calcium carbonate of the media. I try to use the aroggonite form of calcium carbonate because of its buffering capability at a higher pH but it is not mandatory. Without sounding too condensending, may I suggest you read up some more before you get your feet wet.