Settling sand

[direfishking27]

Hi I'm new to the hobby and I have just started building my tank and I added the sand and well as we know you have to wait for the particles to settle because of all the particles I haven't submerged my pump or my power head would it be okay to submerge them and if so should I turn either of them on.
Thank you

 

[mike007]

Welcome TO R2R. Yes you can put your pumps In but If you leave them off sand will settle faster.

 

[direfishking27]

Also if I have live sand, and a mechanical, chemical, and bio filter is live rock still a necessity and if not should I still get some

 

[mike007]

If you are planning on a reef tank with corals you will need some live rock,skimmer and you could do a mechanical filter if you are not using a sump. If you use a mechanical filter you must keep filter media changed frequently.

 

[direfishking27]

Also about how long might it take for the sand to settle

 

[tyler1503]

I would recommend adding live rock regardless of how much live sand you have. To my knowledge the rock is far more superior in it's ability to house the good bacteria. Although I've never used live sand so I can't say for sure. Personally I would never run a tank without rock in it somewhere. Plus it looks nice to see fish swimming in and out of the rock and grazing on it
It could take up to a couple of days for the sand to settle, but probably less time.

 

[direfishking27]

Thank you so much

 

[AZDesertRat]

Find a LFS, friend or other local reefer with a live deep sand bed and have him give you a cup of sand out of his tank (or trade a cup of yours for a cup of theirs) to seed the bacteria in your system. Once the bacteria start coating the sand particles they will settle like a rock.

The same will happen if you add cured or uncured live rock, not dry rock to the system to seed the bacteria and jump start the cycling process.