Live Sand or crushed coral?

[Mark82]

What kind of substrate are you using in your tank?
Can you list the pros and cons?
Thanks

 

[Puffalicious]

I had crushed corals on my old system... had a bad experience with it cuz detrius would get stuck and I was too lazy to clean it. I'd have high nitrates(40ppm and above)... that's why I had a de-nitrator hooked up on that system just to keep nitrates low...

Sand was never a problem for me, it always kept things in check.

I went BB on my current cube setup and it's doing well for me too

 

[weluvfish54]

no crushed coral.

 

[reef_doug]

Crushed Coral looks natural but is a nitrate factory. It easily gets diatoms and looks brown more often.

Only Argonite for me. I use the Carib Sea Special SeaFlor grade in my 180. If I had a tank with less flow then I would opt for the sugar size. Fuji Pink adds small bits of color (the sand isn't really pink).

Ali has display tanks with SeaFlor Special Grade and another with sugar sized. Nice to compare them at his store.

 

[Left Coast DJ]

Crushed coral traps crud!

 

[mikedege]

Fiji pink sand FTW!

:beer:

 

[Henry760]

Crushed coral.I like my tanks to have a ton of flow,
I hate having "bald spots" in the sand bed.Seems
to be working well for me

 

[Reefer08]

Crushed coral is nice since you don't have to worry about it flying in the water. But you gotta vaccum it every water change and it doesn't look natural. I personally think the large substrate sand looks kinda like freshwater sand.

 

[OCReefMadness]

Black sand....

 

[Clam]

Black sand? I'd love to see a pic if you have one :fisheye:

 

[FOSELONE]

sugar grain sand is the best...

 

[anthony911us]

live sand

live sand ....live sand .................live sand :top:

 

[gemini]

I have crushed coral and I agree with the previous statements. It does get rather disgusting with detritus. however, i think it does look more natural and it doesnt fly everywhere with lots of flow.