Setting up my 125 to cycle and right now I have a sand bed of about 1" across the tank. Will 1" be enough or should I go deeper?
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Sand bed depth (1 Viewer)
- Thread starter nightster
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OP
OP
Picture for reference
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1” is perfect. Don’t go deeper. It is harder to clean.
If I were you...I’d leave the lights off for a while or keep them very low. Make sure you get your bio media in on day 1 with good bacteria products. Let the bio-film cover the rocks before you add a bunch of fish and turn on the lights. Or you can have headache after headache.
OP
OP
Most definitely, I'll only turn the light on when I'm inspecting something in the tank. Will be lights out until I move the 40b over. Was thinking about using turbo start to speed up the cycle.
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Roger that. Yeah, all these bacteria products work pretty well. I'm fixing to use Dr. Tim's and some ammonia to start my cycle in a vat. Will be lights out for maybe 4-5 months.
RobertP
Guest
I agree, it looks great. The toughest part for the next year will be patience! The tank will go through the ugly phases so dont get worked up about it and start throwing chemicals in there. It will work itself out, you just have to deal with a few different blooms. Tank looks great.
OP
OP
I just realized I didn't rinse my sand before putting it in. Would it be worth pulling it all out to rinse it?
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Glenn
Guest
I would. It’ll save you from looking at a cloudy tank every time you vacuum or disturb the sand bed. It’ll be easier on your filtration too.
slojim
Supporting Member
you don't have to pull it out, but I agree it would be worth the effort to get a good rinse. maybe down the road you'll get a sand shifting goby and it will stir it all up.
OP
OP
Tangs
Guest
I had a crushed coral sand bed for many years. It was always disgusting. I have bare bottom now and will never go back.
slojim
Supporting Member
You can do that a couple of ways - a HOT magnum with the polishing cartridge is a really good polisher. If you don't have something similar, you might be able to run a siphon back to a felt sock in your sump and keep pumping up to the display, then agitate the heck out of the display - a spatula works well. The idea is to create a sandstorm of the smaller particles and then pump/float/filter them out. But it can certainly be done that way.
For me, having done it both ways, I think it would be easier to scoop out the sand and do it in a couple of 5 g buckets if the tank isn't fully set up yet. I can't tell in the picture if you already have water in there. I can get a pretty vigorous rinse outside, in the tank you may well splash.
You'll likely be successful either way.
It may have a lot of silt, but it's nothing that a 10 micron felt filter sock and a flocculant won't eat for lunch. That tank would be clear in 1-2 hrs even if you stirred it all up.
Look into Dr. Tim's Clear-UP.
Look into Dr. Tim's Clear-UP.
OP
OP
I was thinking about filling it up half way, stirring it up, then syphoning it back out and repeating until it's clear. Don't want to pull my rock bc the chances of me getting my scape back to the way it is now is slim to none lol.
OP
OP
I went ahead and pulled everything, don't want to take a chance of running that dirty of water through my new sicce pump.
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