# pros and cons to switching crushed coral to sand



## kingofkings101 (Jun 6, 2009)

i currently have a 55 gallon set up with 13 tropheus in it, are there any benifits or negative features with the sand, as apposed to the crushed coral how it raises my ph. i really perfer the look of sand to the crushed coral.. and will be doing so unless there are several reasons not to switch to sand.


----------



## noddy (Nov 20, 2006)

Crushed coral does very little, if anything to raise the p.h unless it's in your filter, it also is not good to use with mouthbrooders. Tropheus sift through and eat sand. Sand looks more natural. I used to have crushed coral in all my tanks, I gave it all away and swithed to sand a couple of years ago. The only drawback with sand would be that it will scratch glass if you use a mag float and you'r not carefull with it.


----------



## raycam01_au (Apr 25, 2006)

i have juss posted a thread up with my duboisi tank, it has a base of very fine coral rubble that i have gone ove rthe top with fine sand, looks gr8 and the trpheus love it

check out the pics on this thread


----------



## 24Tropheus (Jun 21, 2006)

I can think of reasons not to switch. Filter intakes can suck up fine or moved sand. But if you use a causer grain like pool filter sand or put sponge over your filter intakes, then you do not get this problem.

The other problem is your coral may be acting as part of your filter system (covered in helpful bacteria) so be careful when switching substrates that you do not get nitrite or ammonia peak.

I tried crushed coral in one of my Tropheus tanks. To be honest I quite liked it but did switch to pool filter sand and find this easier to keep clean once fully mature (couple of months).

To be honest I think my Tropheus only play moving and sifting or eat fine sands. I hear that some folk think this does them good but I have no indication that my Tropheus kept over play sand are any healthier than the ones kept over other substrates.
(though it is nice to see them play with fine playsand etc.)  
Mine may get this effect in none playsand tanks of stones in the gut from grazing on algae covered limestone.

As to buffering whats your tap water like? As stated you may find old crushed coral was making little difference. You can always add a little Baking soda (Sodium bicarbonate) each water change to keep your carbonate hardness up and your pH stable if the coral was actually doing this for you before or put some crushed coral in one of your filters.


----------



## BlackWaterMama (Oct 30, 2008)

I have 80# PFS and 30# crushed coral mixed together as a substrate in both of my 125's. The water here in GA is neutral and soft (GH:2 KH: 0), and the coral alone brought the pH up to 8.8-9 and GH to 5 and KH to 3. Then I needed to add epsom salt and baking soda to finish the job, but it's no big deal. One tank has 14 tank raised moops and they're breeding, spitting and growing. The other tank is 12 newly acquired WC moops and 6 WC Erets. They're doing fine, colouring up, staking territories, and wooing the females. I have found it a successful mix.


----------



## BlackWaterMama (Oct 30, 2008)

I forgot to add that the "remodeling" is greatly reduced. When it was straight PFS, they dug ditches around the bottoms of the rocks and that made me nervous. KABOOM, comes to mind. With the added crushed coral, they still pick up mouths -full, and dump it, but it's not full -on re-scaping.
JJ.


----------



## smark (Jun 11, 2009)

I use white quartz blasting sand. Never had a chance to try coral.


----------



## KaiserSousay (Nov 2, 2008)

> dug ditches around the bottoms of the rocks and that made me nervous. KABOOM, comes to mind


Don`t think I could rest easy, without having my "base" rocks sitting on solid bottom. 
Either eggcrate, or bare glass. 
I lost a nice crabo by it getting "pinned" by shifting rocks.
How about some pics of all the different sand/coral/gravel used???


----------

