Big ooppsss - changed the crushed coral to river sand..?

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Hi guys,
Last week I had this "brain wave of an idea". I've decided to change the crushed coral gravel in my system to river sand.
I've done this for the following reasons:
1. there were very little creatures in the crushed coral - I think (and a couple guys said) that the crushed coral was to "grof"
2. Because the crushed coral was so "grof" it allowed alot of detrius to settle between it, which in turn caused some unwanted nitrates/phosphates ext...

The problem now is the sand is blowing all over my tank - my poor cabage coral are covered with sand as well as my LR. I've tried to change the possitions of my powerheads - this helped alot, but i still have a problem with sand.

Can anyone please give me some advice..?
 
Hello Raven - how do you mean "river sand"? Did you actually get the sand from the river yourself? Or did you buy this from a local builder's merchant?

I hope that you washed the sand before putting it into your tank.

Perhaps have your power-heads deflect of the glass of the tank, instead of pointing directly into the tank?

Hope you understand?
 
Hi,
I've bought the sand from a builders warehouse. Yes i've washed it a couple of times before I added it to the tank. It acctually doesn't look that bad.
I've used the same type of sand in my DSB - works like a charm.

I've tried to do break the current of the powerheads, but the problem is, is you only "move" the place where the sand blows up..
 
oh- another question - how bad is this sand for the corals and liferock?
 
The sand can clog up the live rock - and shade the light away from the corals. The soft-corals will most likely become "irritated" by the sand, and "shrink". The soft-corals then excretes a "skin" which is then discarded. This "skin" will remove the sand granules from the soft-coral.

So - for the live rock - could possibly have slightly longer term problems. For soft-corals the problem is short-term.
 
why not mix the river sand with the crushed coral?
the river sand will fill the gaps inbetween the coral and the coral should (in theory, but i could be totally wrong) help keep the river sand from flaoting all over your tank. This should make your crushed coral less "grof" and prevetn detritus from settling.
 
Hi 459b - Raven COULD have done that - BUT now is a little bit too late. Another issue, is that he would have the power-heads "blow off" the top-most layer of the river sand, and expose the big particled crushed coral again... Which being him back to square one.

I would still say try to "Deflect" the power-heads off the closest glass panel.
Raven - what powerheads are you using? Can their 'heads' be rotated? Or are you using "standard" power-heads/pumps?

If you can rotate the power-head's "head", then try and do so, otherwise, try and move the powerhead that it points either front to back, or back-to-front. And there where the water converges with the sand - try and place some live rock...
 
I'll try this - but now i'm thinking - was this sand idea so good - is the advantages really that great (in comparison with all the issue I have with it now...)
Should i switch back to the crushed coral, or try to fight the sand storms in the tank....?
 
Hi raven i disagree, pls get rid of that sand and get seachem aragonite or caribsea pls do not use river sand thear is nothing good in it
Why would you say that?
I've had no problems with it in the sump area.
I've just spend alot of money on a chiller, pumps and lights (more than I've budget for) I can't afford to spend this on aragonite. To use aragonite in my display will cost me more than I can afford (unless someone is willing to sponser me:whistling: )
 
Hi IMarine / Raven -

I don't have any aragonite in my tank. And I have seen many other tanks without aragonite nor caribsea.... And they all are doing very well?

Why is it a MUST to have caribsea or aragonite, according to you? Do you perhaps know something about it and other types of sand that you could perhaps share with us, please?
 
Dont know if i would use river sand as you dont know what is in it. I would rather go for silica/play sand as it is totally inert and wont leach anything into the system.
 
hi - the sand storms are better - i've changed the water flow, but it is still not 100% :(
I've started to think about removing all gravel/sand from my display tank, but i don't want to do something that i'll regret later on.
What is the pros/cons of not having sand/gravel in display tank.
But i must say - it looks cool with the sand in it, it will be a pitty if i remove it..
choices choices in this world, ai tog.
 
In my opinion, bare bottom just doesn't look nice, for that reason alone I have not been interested in the pros and cons of a running a barebottom tank as I would never do it.

The only pro I can think of would be detritus not collecting, or collecting only in one or two spots and then being easy to syphon out of the tank.
 
Big pro, is the amount of life that will live in the sandbed. This life is great food for the other inmates.
 
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