Wow that explains alot. I'm new at this marine thing and am having a nightmare of a time getting my nitrate lower than 20. And I have 40 lbs of cc in my tank. I do a water change and it doesn't drop been driving me nuts. Thanks for the info. Was thinking to going with the fiji pink sand my only concerns are it would get sucked up while syphoning water, any problems with this?Hello,
A lot of lfs try to sell us crushed coral to use as a substrate in our marine tanks. It's not good it acts as giant nitrate factory and really causes some long term issues with your tanks health. You would be far better served if you would use sand or even a bare bottom.
There are several reasons that it causes problems like, it catches all the detritus in your tank, food, feces, dead plants etc. It's more or less like having a kitchen sponge in the bottom of your tank that you never change! :thud:
Your infaunal critters be they fish,inverts etc. have a very difficult time in moving through it and they can't get to the waste material to eat it.
It also won't compact enough to form an anaerobic area to allow denitrification and the ultimate removal of waste as atmospheric nitrogen. In short it's not a good idea to add to marine tanks in quantity.
IME it probably causes more people to leave the hobby than any other reason!
Hopefully other members will post their experiences to assist new hobbiest.
hth
chris
"Live Sand" from the LFS (normally CaribSea Arag-Alive) in a bag is simply dead sand with water and some bacteria added and called "Live". It isn't truly live as you won't have anywhere near the amount of life in the bag as you would from sand taken out of a running tank. So it is best to use dead sand and use some live rock and in a month or so just from the live rock your sand will become live. Where the "using sand from an established tank" comes in is to give your sand an extra little bump start into turning live. You only need about 1 cup worth of sand out of someones tank if you go that route, but with good live rock it really isn't needed. Hope that answers all your questions.ok - this thread is about a month old from people posting - so I guess I will start it back up.
When purchasing LS - where does one go any purchase it - I have heard the the LFS sand is not what you want to purchase - but rather someone that has extra sand that has came from a tank.
What is the benefit?
why is the "bagged" sand a bad idea?
is the bagged live sand from the LFS realy live?
what is a good price for LS