Sand/live sand vs. crushed coral

[dclegern]

Anybody got any good material or suggestions between the two?
I started with CC a few years ago, and have always had issues.
Plenty of people use live sand and love it, I just figured it would be more of a pain to clean up.

[kkiel02]

I would go with sand. With crushed coral you can get a lot of detritus build up. To clean live sand all you do is stir it a little at a time. I don't even do that because of all the critters in the sand that stir it for me. If your sand starts to clump up though you might want to.

[allan]

Sand all the way.

I had crushed coral before and it seems it's hard to keep white as the individual pieces start getting Coraline growth on it.

[klwheat]

I've had crushed coral in previous tanks, and I use sand now for a couple of reasons. 1) soft bellies on some of my critters. 2) my sand sifters can keep it clean for me (because I'm lazy about that!). 3) I just think it lights up prettier :)

[dclegern]

I figured it would be harder to keep clean for some reason....hmmm!
You guys almost have me mind made on switching it out.
A project for this weekend perhaps. . ******!

[dclegern]

So I swapped out the CC for a nice 1" sand bed.
Inhabitants love it, and it looks smokin'.
!st time I've ever seen nitrates on a read before, but I'm sure it's normal after a huge change like that.