When To Add Live Sand On Fishless Cylce

[Azedenkae]

1) Is there merit to this claim or is a diverse set of bacteria actually a good thing in the long run?

Yes. Biodiversity generally leads to interactions that makes an ecosystem more resilient.

2) When should one add live sand if there is a bacteria Thunderdome competition?

Theoretically, after nitrifiers are established since we kinda want them to have less competition. But in practice, especially from personal experience, it does not quite matter that much. So imo, chuck whatever you want in whenever. ^_^

 

[blaxsun]

*Agreed with Blaxsun things settle out in time. there is zero consequence for pre rinsing and having instant and sustained clarity however. its a means to begin the reef with total control, if that's wanted.

for the 200+ gallon reefers that's a lot of pre rinse work it'd take years to clean it lol. I can understand not rinsing when 150 pounds of sand are involved. its so dirty that rinsing 5 pounds took me an hour (and the bag is marked no rinse needed, clean, it aint)

I can’t speak to other brands, as I’ve only used CaribSea. I went with 120lbs of the Oolite - which is probably the worst-case scenario in terms of difficulty, mess, etc. Even CairbSea said as much, but also indicated we’d be super stoked with the end result (and they were right - we are). My inverts just love, love, love it...

Yeah, the image of that bucket looks familiar. Just multiply that by about 40x and you’ll have a good mental image of my tank after adding sand+water. This was pump and 4x 200-micron sock filters only, and we did go through 3 sets of sock filters in 2 days. It took a day to clear up, and an hour to wipe the inside of the tank and sump down.