what is better to use in a saltwater tank sand or crushed coral?

Question

i have several large natural corals using that with sand should give me a proper ph no and what do you think abpout crushed coral

Answer 1

As Pyro said, neither one will give you a perfect pH.

Sand, if it's really sand like that on a beach, is made up of silicon dioxide and it's inert, so it won't do anything for the pH at all. There are diatoms (looks like a brown algae coating the rocks) that makes use of silica in the water to create it's shell. So in a way, you might be contributing to a diatom problem if you use sand.

Crushed coral comes in too large (and rough) of pieces to for burrowers like wrasses, jawfish, shrimp gobies, and others that like to dig. and you may get the problem of it accumulating wastes if you don't have good sifters and scavengers liekthe nassarius or sifting stars or brittlestars.

My preference is for the aragonite shell material or oolitic aragonite. You can use this website to compare some of the sizes and colors available from one of the more common suppliers to pet stores: http://www.caribsea.com/pages/products/dry_aragonite.html

That said, the aragonite/crushed coral will only increase your pH to about 7.8 by itself. A marine tank should have a pH of 8.2-8.4. The best product I've found for increasing the pH for a saltwater tank is kalkwasser. You can use a doser (looks and works like a IV unit used for medicine in a hospital), or mix it up in a clean bottle and add a medicine dropper of the mixture daily (or the amount needed to maintain the proper pH). This is highly caustic, so you don't want to add too much at one time, and don't allow the powder to come into contact with your skin. Kalkwasser also add calcium to the tank, which benefits hard corals.

One word about using the aragonite or crushed corals - pour them into a container with water and rinse them well before you add them to the tank - the material gets moved around in the bags and it rubs against itself and creates a lot of dust. It you pour it into the tank without rinsing well first, it can take days to clear!

Answer 2

sand, the crushed coral keeping the pH is a myth, it will not dissolve at a rapid enough rate withourt the pH being so low that your fish died months ago, thats why you need a calcium reactor to make it dissolve at a noticeable rate, cruched coral keeps waste in, and the sand looks better in my opinion. just keep in under 1" with some critters like narrissius snails to help arate the bed, or go over 5" and create a deep sand bed, but be warned it can look gross. for more info look around on wetwebmedia.com or reef-central.com, very knowledgeable. oh and you dont clean the sand.

Answer 3

Do sand if your doing a reef tank if you are doing a fish only tank go with crushed coral, if they knock up the sand it can impact your filter and sand is difficult to clean you'll wind up sucking the sand right out of the tank but if you like the 50/50 then go for it its all about personal preference

Answer 4

I've read on a several forums that crushed coral isn't that great to use. Over time, the shape of the crushed coral tends to hold in the gunk-causing nitrate problems down the road. I'd stick with the sand....

Answer 5

Generally speaking and depending on what kind of sand you are considering, crushed coral will do more to buffer your pH than the sand would. Also, crushed coral is easier to clean and maintain than sand.

MM

Answer 6

it depends on what kind of filtration you use. If you have an under gravel filter I'd use crushed coral. Sand just make sure you stir it up once in a while. Get serth snails or sand sifting star to help you stir it

Answer 7

Crushed coral maintains your ph much better than sand.

Love,
Snag

Answer 8

alittle of ea. you cant go wrong with crushed coral and sand mxitures.

Answer 9

mix them together but use more sand.