Changing crushed coral to sand....help!!

[leslie]

My husband and I did about a 25% water change last night to get out some of our red cyno. Well after we did the change and sucked out some of the crushed coral to clean it we tested our water for nitrates and phosphates and they were off the chart, even after we had added the new water. My question is, what is better? Is sand better for a aquarium and if so what kind? Or should we just leave the crushed coral and continue to do what we did last night??? We are looking into getting sechem de nitrate and adding it to our sump or would we do better to get a phosphate reactor to help with both?? I am very worrried about my fish and the levels we had last night. I was afraid I was going to wake up this morning and find them all dead, however they are all fine. I am in some need of much needed advice on what to do. Thanks!!

 

[jerry26]

Crushed coral is a nitrate trap. The general consensus is going to be using caribsea special grade reef sand.

How often do you do water changes and how much do you feed?

 

[leslie]

We have been very slack on our water changes to be honest. We have an outbreak of red cyno, I know its our fault, we were sucking it out last night and just decided to do the tests on it and they were off the charts. Is the sand better than crushed coral??

 

[jerry26]

Yes. Idk the science behind. I just know thats the word on the street.

 

[leslie]

Whats the difference between crushed coral and Caribsea Arag-Alive Special Grade Reef Sand???? Can anyone answer that for me?

 

[reefer gladness]

To the best of my knowledge it's the size and shape of the particles that make crushed coral a trap for nitrates. The crushed coral has jagged edges and sand has more rounded edges. It's a pretty common problem for people who use crushed coral.

You also don't need to buy the 'live' variety of aragonite, in fact most people here will recommend that you don't. Here's a link to the dry special grade aragonite many of us are or have already switched to.

CaribSea Dry Aragonite Special Grade Reef Sand

 

[ddelozier]

Crushed coral is very coarse, Caribsea Special grade is half way between coarse and fine. The particles are fairly large, so they wont cloud the water like sugar sand can/does. But they are also small enough that they do not trap detritus like Crushed coral is. Crushed coral, from what i've seen, is similar in texture to clay non clumping kitty litter. Leaves tons of voids and gaps for particulate to sink into, which turns into a nitrate factory really quickly. Caribsea wont do that. It is Sand in the strictest sense of the word, but big grained, not sugar fine.

 

[degibson84]

I just changed my sandbed out from a dolomite which is a huge crushed coral like substrate. I removed the dolomite in a 3 week process. during my weekly water change i removed about a 3rd of the dolomite. once most of it was removed I added the special grade reef sand. I used a 1.5 inch PVC pipe to reach down to the bottom of the tank and i added the sand through a funnel. very minimal clouding. just make sure you rinse the sand very well

 

[leslie]

Thank you all for your info.....Hope this all goes well. Now we are having a problem with I think its a psudocromis, not really sure. Its one one as my profile pic. I would love to know what it is. He is being very aggressive towards our new 6 line wrasse we just added, I mean

 

[leslie]

Very aggressive!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[reefer gladness]

That's a Diadem Pseudochromi and they're known for being aggressive. So are the 6-line wrasse for that matter but some people have rather peaceful ones. Here's a link on the pseudochromi. Buy Diadem Pseudochromis Online | Vivid Aquariums

 

[leslie]

Thank you so much for that link. He just does not attack larger fish. The wrasse we added was smaller than him so he was being very aggresive and picked on him. We took the wrasse out and added him to the 30 gallon tank with the cinnamons and 1 other 6 line wrasse. The two wrasses are just trying to see who is going to be dominate, however no agression.