Lets see some tank with crushed coral as a substrate

[chris31]

Whats everyones feelings on crushed coral as a substrate??? What else can you use besides crushed coral and sand as a substrate???

[DLANDINO]

I had crushed coral when I first started out due to some poor advise on the part of an LFS expert. Then I scooped it all out and replaced it with live sand. Crushed coral can trap detritus and make your life a nightmare causing you to vacuum the CC to keep your nutrient levels low. If you were looking for a third alternative you can go bare bottom,,,,

[chris31]

Yea thats what im worried bout with the coral trapping stuff but ive always used sand i guess im just looking for somthing differnt but im not crazy about the bare bottom look. :/

[Plasma]

Check out the thread with the fella that has a 39 year old reef....crushed coral is fine, allow the tank to establish itself and practice regular maintenance...

[Alaskan Reefer]

Crushed coral can work, but needs constant maintenance (siphoning) to keep it from trapping detritus. It also can become coraline encrusted eventually as well which doesn't look very nice. Paul B's ancient reef is a little different than most -- RUGF is probably a major reason the crushed coral works well there. I'm not crazy about the bare bottom look either, but I'm crazy about how easy it is to maintain -- and how beautiful everything else in the tank is as a result.

[Paul B]

I use dolomite which looks just like crushed coral. IMO if you use CC or dolomite you need to run it with a slow running reverse UG filter as I do. There is hardly any maintenance and this tank has been running for 39 years. The dolomite has been in there over forty years since it was a brackish tank.


Here is a close up of the gravel which is enlarged in the picture as I took it with a magnifying glass. You can see there is no detritus and I don't vacuum it. A few times a year I stir it up a little and clean it out with a diatom filter.