I have a 75 gallon tank with a sump/refugium and a protein skimmer. I put my live rock in my new tank to cure yesterday. I have been trying to squirt the dying stuff off the rocks with a turkey baster periodically. When do I add the live sand? I have a lot of broken off small pieces of rock and dying stuff on the bottom of the tank so should I siphon that up and add the live sand now? Or should I let the rock cure a little longer before adding the sand? Thanks for the help.
when to add the live sand?
- Thread starter croaker
- Start date
Hmm. I'm no real expert, but I'll give you my thoughts.
I'd usually add the sand first to be honest, but your way is more effective in ensuring the rocks are firmly placed on the bottom, so don't worry about that. I'd say siphon up the dead stuff (but not the small bits of rock necessarily, unless it's impossible not to). Otherwise I'd say your plan strikes me as good to go.
One small other thought though. Some would say you don't need to waste money on live sand if you're already using live rock. The bacteria would colonise the sand anyway. Up to you of course, and it may be true that it accelerates the process, but I'm not sure myself.
I'd usually add the sand first to be honest, but your way is more effective in ensuring the rocks are firmly placed on the bottom, so don't worry about that. I'd say siphon up the dead stuff (but not the small bits of rock necessarily, unless it's impossible not to). Otherwise I'd say your plan strikes me as good to go.
One small other thought though. Some would say you don't need to waste money on live sand if you're already using live rock. The bacteria would colonise the sand anyway. Up to you of course, and it may be true that it accelerates the process, but I'm not sure myself.
I agree with Tom, syphon the crud out. For the first few weeks your rock is going to shed a lot of detritus. I would keep blasting it off with the turkey baster periodically and syphon out the gunk. You should see this start to slow down after a while (tough to say how long). Personally I'd give it a month or two before I added the sand to make sure you've got the bulk of it, but that's JMO.
As for live sand, I agree that inert sand will become seeded with the bacteria from the live rock. One disadvantage to adding inert sand to an existing setup, however, is that it can clump, especially if you have good Ca and Alk levels. This seems to happen more easily with the real powdery, fine sands IME. The sands that are coarser, or at least have some varying grain sizes don't seem to clump as easily (again IME). One nice thing about real live sand (or sand that is cured/seeded in a separate container for a while before added) is it will generally be well coated with slime already (technical term
) and is not as likely to have the clumping issue.
HTH
As for live sand, I agree that inert sand will become seeded with the bacteria from the live rock. One disadvantage to adding inert sand to an existing setup, however, is that it can clump, especially if you have good Ca and Alk levels. This seems to happen more easily with the real powdery, fine sands IME. The sands that are coarser, or at least have some varying grain sizes don't seem to clump as easily (again IME). One nice thing about real live sand (or sand that is cured/seeded in a separate container for a while before added) is it will generally be well coated with slime already (technical term
) and is not as likely to have the clumping issue.HTH
Taekwondodo":2slrm252 said:
Buy the dry stuff in plastic bags instead. It's cheaper, less heavy to carry and it'll seed itself from the live rock.
If you want more diversity, do a google search for critter packs (including some aquarium related words like sand and bristle worm/brittle star) and you can order them in the US through the mail.
Well, everyone is certainly entitled to their own opinion, but having run a sanbed per Shimek's recommendations for a couple of years (out of curiosity), and having the experience of running other configurations to compare against, I remain unconvinced of many of his theories...
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