Water Changes during cycling/

Question
QUESTION: Hello;

I am currently tearing down my brackish water tank and have decided to venture to saltwater. I upgraded my tank size and have a few things I can use towards a saltwater set up, was hoping if you give your opinion on my gear selection and some I plan to get, as well answer some questions I have concerns w/ once I get started.

My goal right now is to set up a FOWLR tank and of course cycle my tank w/ the live rock before adding fish. I have not quit determined what fish I want to get as of yet.

I currently have;
72 gal. bowfront w/stand/glass hood
Cascade 700 canister filter (185) gph
Timer for lights
Maxi-jet powerhead (230 gph)

On the list;
Seaclone protein skimmer
Emporer 400 bio-wheel filter
Flurecent lighting (double strips)
additional power head
2 150 watt heaters

I wanting to use sand as my substrate.

I currently have a preferred saltmix and a hydrometer as well.

My questions;

How much of an impact would it have if I purchased live sand along w/ live rock? The live sand I was looking at is Caribi Sand I believe (Foster and Smiths). Can I simply just use "sand" on the bottom? Or do I have to place rock underneath it? As well, can sand be vacuumed like rock? Or would sand be too lite in weight? If so, how would I go about properly cleaning it? My thought is the vacuum would suck it up..

Live rock. I read in my book that it's best to start off with a small amount of live rock? Do you agree with this? Their suggestion was 10 lbs, and then slowly build. Could I start off w/ maybe 30 lbs or so and build from there or splurge and drop in more? Are there pros and cons to this? Will double stripped fluorescent lighting be sufficient for the cycling process? I read as well from my book, that lighting really isn't a huge factor in the cycling process, or at least that is how I took it.

Protein skimmers. Can cycling the tank be done w/o the protein skimmer? Or started w/o one? I am getting at is, if I start the cycling of my tank, do I have to have a protein skimmer right away? Or could I add it later to my system?

Lastly, I get very confused with this, maybe its simply preference, but when cycling the tank with live rock, or cycling any tank for that matter, the FAQs page of this site says not to do "any" water changes during the cycling process. So, even if my ammonia and nitrites are way off the scale, is it best just to let it ride out, or is there a point where I should consider doing a water change regardless of where I my tank is during the cycling process?

Thanks for your time, I hope this information is sufficient.

Paul
ANSWER: hi there, sounds like your gonna have a nice little setup there.

first thing i would do is look at a diffrent skimmer, they are not the best by a long shot, look at the TMC V2 400 for the money you won't get better.

in my opinion live sand is a bit of a gimic, its best to get normal argonite and, if your friendly with your fish shop, ask to pinch some sand out of their more established tanks to kick start your sand to becoming live. cleaning wise there are small rakes on the market, you can comb the rubbish into 1 corner and remove it that way. also if its possible get some egg crate to go under your sand, it acts as a stage for the rock so its not touching glass, i have a certain fish that likes to dig under rocks many a time they have fallen down and possibly would have gone through the bottom of my tank.

as far as ammount of live rock goes, i think its best to add it all at once if you can, adding it bit by bit may start off mini cycles in your tank. the lighting isn't really a factor while its cycling, its good to have some light as you will probably get some freebies on the rock you buy. you also really only need the protein skimmer when you add fish, i added 1 straight away so it could get bedded in (if that makes sense).

when it comes to water changes during the cycle period i would say no. its best to let the bacteria get on with it. you will have stronger live rock if you leave it alone. on my first tank my rock had a serious amount of die off, it was cycling for 3 months, the last month i had to do small water changes due to the nitrate reading being off the scale. doing so seemed to bring everything withing proper perameters, i would say if you get properly cured live rock the cycle will be relatively short, water changes shouldn't be needed.

hope that helps.
paul

---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: I appreciate your help and support. I had a couple follow up questions.

The "live sand" I was looking at was simply cheaper per pound than most the other brands that were not, but I did find sand from the same brand that is not live, and as well is "aragonite". It also mentioned in the description that the sand "...is ideal for shallow static beds and bottom covering of up to 1" in depth." Not sure what a static bed is...

We can defiantly purchase a better protein skimmer if we can get by w/o it during the cycling period!

"...also if its possible get some egg crate to go under your sand, it acts as a stage for the rock so its not touching glass, i have a certain fish that likes to dig under rocks many a time they have fallen down and possibly would have gone through the bottom of my tank."

Cool, I understand what you are saying by this! In some of my reading, I've read how many aquarists suggest to mount the rocks above the glass bottom, or as you mentioned, egg crates would probably work as well. Are you suggesting the styrofoam type? Would it be okay to use any kind of Styrofoam as long as it has been cleaned? Do I need to treat it with anything before placing it in the tank? I have a few flat styrofoam blocks about a quarter inch thick that would work perfectly if its okay to use styrofoam in the tank.

Starting a quarantine tank;

As well, we have a 10 gallon currently running. We are planning to use this as our hospital/quarantine tank. It has a reliable heater and a Penguin bio-wheel power filter. Currently it has a little bit of sea salt in it because I was using it as a quarantine tank for my brackish fish. Since a lot of lfs do not keep their BW fish in the proper saltwater, I used it to help condition the fish from fresh to brackish. Currently the salinity is very low, like around 1.003-1.004. Right now I have a couple of mollies and thought about just converting it on over SW salinity. I know freshwater "good bacteria" differs from salt water bacteria, but is it possible to slowly convert this tank over? We aren't planning to set up our main saltwater tank w/ live rock until the end of this month, so I thought it may not hurt to try and get our quarantine tank's salinity up. Would you advise to this? Or should I simply just try and start it from scratch?

Thanks again Paul!

Paul  

Answer
A 1" sand bed with live sand really doesn't make sense to me, the live bacteria need very low O2 conditions to thrive i am not sure they would get this from only 1" of sand. a deep sand bed (DSB) is a method used to cultivate these bacteria in a sump or main tank, 3-4"+ in sump and deffinatly over 1" in main tank.

egg crate is a white hatched plastic structure (very hard to explain what it looks like) like a tic tac toe board about 1/4" thick. this is ideal to go under the sand bed.

with regards to your QT tank i would start from fresh, if you slowly raise the SG it will kill the bacteria and make the water conditions horrid. all you have to do is use a fresh RO water and salt mix at 1.025 or as close to what ever your main tank SG will be. it won't need to be cycled as there is no need for rock/corals, just fill with fresh salt mix at the correct SG when you need to use it.