I gotta ask...Nitrogen cycling question

[wontonflip]

Bear with me on another cycling question. Ok, so my daughter has now allowed me to turn her 10 gallon into a nano reef tank. I thought I was well versed in cycling a tank, but apparently not cuz I have some questions.

I got the live sand yesterday, and added rodi saltwater. First issue is that I noticed a small hole in the bag when I got home. So when I put the sand in, it was moist instead of watery. Does this mean the bacteria might have died off?

In the tank, I just have the el cheapo lighting in there (just 15 watts and ugly as hell! I will be replacing it for coral appropriate lighting), a heater, a powerhead (until I move my maxijet in there), and a hob filter just to make water movement. I tested the waters today to see what my levels are.

ammonia: .25-.50 ppm
nitrites: 0 ppm
nitrates:0 ppm
temp is around 79 F

I was surprised that there is ammonia, even though I used live sand. Does that mean there was some die-off in the sand? I probably shouldn't worry because I have nothing else in the tank, and I assume it will at least give the tank room to cycle, right?

I was going to put a filter sponge in my established 45 gallon to get some bacteria from there, but how long should I leave the sponge in the tank to get enough live bacteria in it so I can move it to the 10 gallon?

My other option is to get some sand out of the 45g and move it to the 10 gallon. I don't know how much to move. Or is the sponge method faster?

THEN I was going to just get some base rock since it's cheaper (and take some of my established lr) and cure it in the 10 gallon since there's no livestock in there. Will that cause problems to the live sand, since the uncured rock will have die off? Or should I cure it separately?

 

[sen5241b]

Spikes happen if there is a die off (and yes for other reasons too). I use some bacteria starter like 'Special blend' or 'Stress-zyme' --these will get the cycle going faster than waiting for nature to put the beneficial bacteria in there.

 

[wontonflip]

True, but since I already have an established tank, I was just going to use some sand and live rock (and maybe a sponge) from there. I'd rather save money so I can buy decent lighting :) Plus I'm in no rush to put in livestock.

 

[daugherty]

use your water also

 

[dustin_P74]

the live sand in a bag really isnt live so dont worry about that, if you use base rock and cured live rock and just a cup or so of sand from your tank youll be fine and that should take the ammonia right out of the water and cycle the tank

 

[yote]

You never know how long that bag of *live sand* has been sitting on a shelf somewhere.And since bacterias got to have a food source to survive,your basically just paying for some wet sand that you dont have rinse out.
Like James and Dustin said,just use water from your tank,and some live rock along with a cup of sand from you tank.That way it'll probably cycle within a week.

 

[wontonflip]

You never know how long that bag of *live sand* has been sitting on a shelf somewhere.And since bacterias got to have a food source to survive,your basically just paying for some wet sand that you dont have rinse out.

LOL you know, I always wondered about that :) It didn't make sense to me to call it live sand since there's no way they could've kept the bacteria alive that long in a bag.

 

[daugherty]

i bet is died that is why you see ammonia. i refuse to buy that sand and never recommend it i think it is a waste of money for dead sand.

 

[wontonflip]

Yeah, and after reading these posts, it totally makes sense to me now about the sand not being live in a bag. Caveat emptor -- I usually do research as much as I can before going to the lfs. In my haste to grab the first thing, I grabbed the "live" sand. Oh well.