I am using crushed coral in my 55. I was told last night that the crush coral may be part of my nitrate problem. How true is this?
That could be true. How deep is your crushed coral bed and do you vacuum it?
The best way i found to keep nitrates down in my 65 with CC was to really vaccum it well and you could see the dark waste coming out of the bedding. My :TWOCENTS
Crushed Coral is notorious for aiding nitrate build-up. It doesn’t provide anaerobic zones and also traps deitritus and debris that decomposes and adds nitrates. A thorough vaccuming with each water change is essential to keeping CC clean.
If you have a sump, one trick is to vacuum the CC and run the discharge through some filter floss on it’s way back to the sump, this allows you to clean the entire tank without having to stop because your bucket is full or you don’t have fresh SW made up to replace. You’re just taking the funk and chunks out of the water.
the crushed coral is about an inch deep. haven’t vacuumed it. When I did a water change I did syphon it some. dont have a sump. need to look into getting one. i like the idea of being able to clean the entire tank and have it go back into the tank. Would this work for doing the water changes each month or would I still have to take water out each month and mix new?
You still have to do water changes as you need to export nutrients and waste and add back in essential minerals and trace elements.
also was told that i shouldnt use carbon filters or bio wheels? I have an emperor 400
The biowheels are up for debate but carbon filters are not only ok but reccomended.
thats what I thought! So sand is better than the crushed coral then? If so then I will switch to the sand.
i like aragonite not sand sand blows around too much
or go bare bottom… solved many of my problems.
[quote=“firecrackerbob, post:11, topic:6271”]
or go bare bottom… solved many of my problems.[/quote]
Same for me!