Sand look or crushed coral look?

[Bchbound]

I was at the fish store today and saw Atlantic crushed coral that was
crushed so fine it looked like sand. I like the idea of the sand look
(which is actually crushed coral which maintains water quality)and will
go with it unless there is a good reason not to. What are the pros/cons
vs the crushed coral which looks more like the size of gravel. How does
the sand sized crushed coral act with buried airators? This base will be
used in a 46 gal bow front African tank. I am moving up from my small 20
gal.

Thanks in advance!

[The Madd Hatter]

I imagine it would look pretty nice... I I think the problem you will
probably encounter is during gravel cleans....I had sandin one tank
once, and it was really hard to clean w/ a siphon, as all the sand
came right out w/ the pollutants... that being said, I used silica
sand,and I didn't really investigate better ways to clean it... I know
there are alot of people that use sandy substrates, so I imagine they
will pipe up eventually w/ a solution to that problem... Regarding
aerators, they will be somewhat inhibited because the finerthe
substrate, the more closely packed it gets... If it becomes a problem,
I suggest getting pebbles, to cover the aerator while putting it just
below the surface of the substrate...
Good Luck!

On Thu, 17 Jul 2003 12:23:02 GMT, Bchbound
> wrote:

>I was at the fish store today and saw Atlantic crushed coral that was
>crushed so fine it looked like sand. I like the idea of the sand look
>(which is actually crushed coral which maintains water quality)and will
>go with it unless there is a good reason not to. What are the pros/cons
>vs the crushed coral which looks more like the size of gravel. How does
>the sand sized crushed coral act with buried airators? This base will be
>used in a 46 gal bow front African tank. I am moving up from my small 20
>gal.
>
>Thanks in advance!