What goes in first.

[Joe]

My 110 should be ready by mid week.

What goes in first, second, etc. As in dead sand, live rock, live sand and water????????

Joe

------------------
Never explain: Your friends do not need it, and your enemies will not believe it anyway.

[FishKid]

i put the dead sand in first, then the rocks, a few at a time, after adding the first few, i added 2-3inches worth of water, and so on.. i didnt have live sand, except for the pound or so that came wit hthe rock, and the fragments of rock that chipped off, which i added last.. thats how i did it, many people do it differently..

mark

[nucleuscracker]

dead sand, water, salt to taste (lol), then live rock. If you want to add Live Sand I would add it after your tank has cycled to avoid die off...


JMO

------------------
where is the cat at....?

[Shadetree]

Joe,

Last week I filled mine with 10 inches of water, mixed it to proper salinity, added 550 pounds of Southdown sand, continued to add water until the tank was full but the sump was empty, adjusted the salinity and then added 290 pounds of base rock. This method produced the least amount of cloudiness for me. Now I will slowly add live rock.

Scott


------------------
Homepage

[This message has been edited by Shadetree (edited 02-24-2001).]

[SPASSE]

Joe,

1 Dead sand.

2 Salt Water.

3 Live Rock.

4 Live sand after cycle. If live sand is just “bacterially” live (no worms pods etc.) it can be added with live rock.

5 Detrivore kit. Bio-diversity is a good thing, so “wonder mud” and detrivore kits from Indo Pacific Sea Farms and Island Aquatics and local sources is a good approach. Then you feed the bed to build up the fauna community. A fully “live” sand bed can take 6+ months to build up.

Regards,

Scott

------------------
The definition of an expert is a washed-up drip under pressure.
You can see my reeftank at http://www.homestead.com/spasse/

[Joe]

SPASSE,

Is the live sand from CaribSea really live? The stock turnover at my LFS is really quick so it will be relatively fresh.

Should it be mixed with the dead or layered on top?

Is Oceanic correct that you just hand tighten the bulkhead fittings?

Thanks

Joe

------------------
Never explain: Your friends do not need it, and your enemies will not believe it anyway.

[Ninong]

Originally posted by Joe:

Is the live sand from CaribSea really live? The stock turnover at my LFS is really quick so it will be relatively fresh.

Yes, but don't expect to see anything crawling around. It has a biofilm of dormant bacteria that has a shelf life of several months. Don't confuse this stuff with real live sand.

Should it be mixed with the dead or layered on top?

I would mix it in with all of the other sand. Remember that the goal here is to have mostly very fine sand.

Is Oceanic correct that you just hand tighten the bulkhead fittings?

Yes.

Ninong [img]/ubb/biggrin.gif[/img]



------------------
Irrational Exuberance!

[SPASSE]

Joe,

The CaribSea is live bacterial sense, but as Ninong said, I contains no critters that you need to worry about damaging during the cycle.

I have been using this product lately and recommend it as sand beds that I have set up with it seem to establish their de-nitrating capability more quickly than without it.

As I understand it, it is now available in a number of particle sizes. I would get the smallest available particle size.

Mixing/scattering it throughout the sand bed is probably the best approach. But make sure that you add salt water to you tank immediately as the CaribSea live sand is not meant to dry out.

Finally, on the Oceanic bulkhead fittings. At least as of 7 months ago, these are bad news. The bulkhead fitting that the use/used has a molding seam that seems to be a stress riser. Even when the not over tightened they will sometimes split at the molding seam. Also this split does not occur sometimes, until the fitting has been put together for some time! So bottom line for me is that I replace the Oceanic supplied bulkhead fittings with bulkheads from Rainbow-LifeGuard. http://www.rainbow-lifegard.com/bulkheads.htm

Regards,

Scott

------------------
The definition of an expert is a washed-up drip under pressure.
You can see my reeftank at http://www.homestead.com/spasse/

[albee1947]

I added my live rock first, so that I could make sure it was stable and the way i liked it. Filled with water and rea the filters for a few days to filter off any die off, Than added the sand. I think it keeps the sandbed a little cleaner to start, Either way is OK.

------------------
HHeeeerrrrrsss ALBEE


Come see my tank!