crushed coral is bad? what if...

[lionman1006]

i hear a whole lot about crushed coral being a nitrate factory and ammonia build up, what if i lay a couple of inches of sand on top of the crushed coral? will it make a difference at all?

[ricksreef]

it could help a little, but the larger pieces will eventually make thier way back to the surface and start trapping detritus again.

[lionman1006]

so i should go ahead and pull the crushed and do a 3" sand bed and forget about even trying to get the crushed coral to work huh?

[ricksreef]

I would, but I'd only pull 25% (laterally) at a time, a week or two apart, to let the micro fauna migrate to the new sand so you don't get a new cycle. a little bit of CC mixing with the sand as you shift over will be fine.

[lionman1006]

sounds good to me im sure my carpet anemones will enjoy a sand bed over a crushed bed anyway

[reefplayground]

yupers, or you can always do a bare bottom tank as well

[lionman1006]

now thats something that i havnt seen, what complications come with doing bare bottom? that sounds like it would actually be really cool...

[Ninong]

People who go with a bare-bottomed tank are restricted in what they can keep in their aquariums. All of the fish and invertebrates that require a nice sand bed are out of the question.

[reefplayground]

yup.

I'm actually not a fan of it myself, as I like the "ocean look" personally, and that includes a fine substrate.

But what we have noticed in both our holding systems as well as in out bare bottom clients is that algae control is a lot easier and nutrient control as well.

There are actually a couple reef tank pics on here with bare bottoms.

[reefplayground]

here's a pic of one:

My Aquarium Log - Public Aquarium Logs

[Ninong]

Is this the 90-gal aquarium that you just set up a few days ago? If so, then I would remove ALL of the crushed coral at once and replace it with a deep sand bed at least 4" (10cm) deep. Only S. mertensii lives on hard substrate. The other two carpet anemones (S. gigantea and S. haddoni) are sand-dwelling anemones. It would help if you could tell use exactly which species you have?

I gave you a link to Dr. Ron Shimek's article on sea anemone husbandry in your other thread. Don't forget to feed your anemones appropriate food once or twice a week.

You may be pushing it with your proposed bioload for the 90-gal aquarium. A pair of lionfish and a pair of triggers, plus your other proposed fish AND two carpet anemones with resident clownfish may be a bit too much. Lionfish and triggers are messy fish.

Since I believe you already have the carpets, I would suggest that you try to locate them at opposite ends of the aquarium. You might try banking the sand bed higher at either end of the tank to give them a nicy comfy environment -- assuming they're not S. mertensii, which I doubt.

Good luck!



P.S. -- I think a bare-bottomed tank would not be a good choice for you because of your two carpets. However, if you would like to see a nice bare-bottomed tank, take a look at Mike Moye's beautiful 539-gal reef aquarium. It's in his basement.



That photo was taken prior to the crash in the spring of 2007. I'm sure he has it looking almost as good once again as he is a dedicated reefkeeper with many years of experience. I'm not sure what caused the crash two years ago but I know it wasn't due to power failure because Mike has a whole-house generator back-up system to get his tank through the occasional power outage caused by winters in Greenwich, CT.

Mike uses a professional aquarium maintenance service. I don't know if they were the ones who recommended that he go bare-bottom but they're the ones who set up his aquarium and the very nice equipment room behind it.

I don't know if I would want to deal with a bare-bottomed tank that is 36" tall. A nice four- or five-inch sand bed would make it a lot easier to reach the bottom of the tank. Mike's tank is 96"x36"x36".

[ricksreef]

whoa. ya, I didn't know this was just set up. I'd agree with George about the quick switch to a sandbed and that your stocking list is way to optomistic. any anemone would likely be doomed from the constant ammonia, nitrate, and phosphate spikes that fish list would generate (plus one day, the lions will eat your clowns).
I'd really reconsider even having the anemones in a fresh set up. has the tank gone through it's cycle yet?

I did bare bottom for two years just to say I've done it. I wasn't impressed and went back to my nice, functional, intank oolitic DSB.

[lionman1006]

it was a useded system that the guy maintained for the past 2 years with no fish or corals he just had it sitting around, and im going into my second month of cycling it i want to pull the crushed coral and add sand, and especially since i have the carpets going into it...and my triggers will be kept in my 55 im just going to house the lions and paper or leaf fish in the 90 along with my carpets. i'm just making a plan and trying to get a blue print of what im going to do in the 90 before i jump in head first and lose everything...i know the last thing i need to do is rush it...reefs weren't built in a day. I just want to get some ideas going and know what im prepared for...something else ive also been doing is cycling the water between both of my tanks about once a weeks, and i check my nitrate and ammonia levels about once a day...recently (the past two months) i havnt had any type of spike, and my pH has been maintained. In the 90 on the other hand i test once a day and a week after i got it filled with water again i had a nitrate spike im guessing it was from stirring up all of my crushed coral bits......

but anyways i can talk about this stuff all day haha

thanks for the info again and i will try to get species of carpets that i have to you, so i can double check and make sure everything is suitable.


and i guess let me say i know i have too much in my 55 right now...but surprisingly i have had no problems...yet

[reefplayground]

hehe, well then good luck with the system, and post some pics as you progress