Subsrate for reef tank

I have a 55 gal. fish only tank with lr. I use crushed coral as my substate, is this ok when I start adding corals or should I use a different type of substrate.


Thanks

 

Welcome Viceversa
This might cause nitrAte problems what are your parameters?CC tends to trap detrius in the nooks and cranies raising nitrates which corals dont care too much for ya know (toxic to them) :'(
ive heard some people slowly add fine sand over thier CC but thats no good,eventualy the fine stuff ends up under the CC then your back where you started.
A good way to swap ouy CC for reef sand is to do A LITTLE at a time.remove a few cups of CC and add LS to replace it .Do this every few weeks it takes forever but youll have a very small cycle or none at all.
If this method is to long for ya just start all over

 

Viceversa
W E L C O M E T O 3 R E E F
it is the current trend to go with a fine "sugar" sized sand in a reef tank. There are several battles going on among the reef hobbyists as to the depth of the sand. Some are going with no sand (nothing) while others are putting 4-5 inches.

The theory behind a Deep Sand Bed (DSB) is to create a zone in the sand that is completely devoid of O2. an environment with no O2 breads nitrate consuming bacteria and that is a good thing.
It has been seen that a DSB will over time absorber heavy metals that would eventually lead to a over load and death of your reef.
this is probably way too much info

But to answer your question I would haul all the CC out and replace it with sugar sand like caribsea fuji Pink.
But before you do that how long has your tank been running?

Jason

 

Welcome! Good advice so far. Tank info. as requested will help us answer questions. You can put your tank info. in your signature so you don't have to repeat.

 

Thanks for the replies, I get my water tested at my lfs every week they say my ammonia and nitrate levels are o ppm. I have had my tank running for 7weeks, I have two damsels and a yellow tang. I will definately try to remove some crushed coral and replace it with some sand, can I do this with fish in the Tank?

 

Just FYI, a 48" tank is the minimum size recommended for tangs as they requirw lateral swim room. In addition, three fish in seven weeks is way too fast for a new tank. Not very good guidance from your LFS.

Yes you can remove the sand with the fish in the tank. I'd remove it in thirds or halves over a month or two. completely remove section of CC and replace with a good dolmite, aragonite, or oolite sand.

How much LR do you have and are you running a skimmer? 1 to 1.5 lbs of fully cured LR is recommended for a reef tank. What is your lighting set-up?

 

Agree about the tang in a new tank.

About the sand, you can always do the plain panty hose (or filter sock) trick. Stuff a bunch of the old CC in that and leave it in with the new sand for a month or so, then pull it out.

 

I have a 55 gallon as well..I just purchased 120lbs of caribsea suger sand for mine..That should give me a decent dsb. Maybe thats a gooda moutn for you man.

 

Here is a good article to read on changing substrate:

http://www.reefs.org/library/article/layton_mohr_toonen.html

Here is a DSB calculater for how many lbs of sand you need to acheive a desired depth with you tank dimensions:

http://www.purearagonite.com/SandBed.html

 

Thank you for all the great advice! I will try to replace the cc in incriments with caribsea live sand, 1/3.