BZepha's 14g BC NEW

Hello,

My name is Brandon and I am an addict...

I had a 10g semi-reef tank / experiment / college student one-track mind / nomadic existance about five or six years ago.  I was pretty naive and uneducated when it came to the world of salt water.  Flash forward....

I have been lurking on nano-reef.com and reefcentral.com for a few weeks, then I found this board & club ( I would like to join ) and feel like it would be a more productive use of time to post my tank build and questions here.

After putting up a couple posts about buying a used tank and misc. parts, I decided to go out and buy the tank and base supplies from a LFS during your poker run this weekend.  I am not a member of your club (yet) but buying and spending money with localally owned and opperated businesses mean a lot to me as a former chef, so I was inspired.

I bought the tank and heater on Saturday then went home and leak tested everything.  I attempted / did some of the mods I have read about regarding the BioCubes.  On Sunday I went back into the LFS (Fish4U) and bought live rock, live sand (sort of) and water.  I filled my tank half way and placed the rock and sand inside, then finished filling it up with water.

The next day I figured out that I had bought crushed coral which by most accounts is eventually bad for mixed reef tanks.  Well, I have a budget to work with and already spending 25$ on "live-sand" was too-much.  After spending a day or so of work reading these forums I decided to drive out to Stansbury Island and collect some "Utah Sand" and also some "LBTR".  My wife and I followed the directions from posts 2-5+ years ago and had pretty decent success ( I think).  I shoveled one bucket of sand and gathered about 20 lbs. of TUFA rock from a drainage ditch about 2 miles north of the Broken Arrow sand site.  I am planning on cleaning the sand and rock tomorrow and will post pictures of both my tank and the sand / rock for inspection.

My question(s) thus far are;  would it be wise to mix the crushed coral and Utah sand?  Also, my tank has only been up since Sunday so removing the crushed coral and replacing it with all or part Utah sand isn't really a big deal.  I would like to keep this tank as non-impact and non complicated as possible.  Opinions are welcomed!

-Brandon

I would leave a little of the crushed coral on the bottom and put the sand on top of it. Unless you are having something that burrows. Then I would remove it all because the burrower will mix it all up and make a mess. This is just an opinion though, you would be fine either way. I am glad you went shopping with us, though I didn't meet you. If you need seed water or sand, you are always welcome to stop by here!  

Welcome BZepha!