Ne tank

[robrich342]

Hi, A friend of mine gave me a 29 gallon Red sea cube. My question is if I placed live sand in it , I only put three rocks in it 1 out of my currnt sump and two from his privious set up. I had his rocks curing for 3 weeks they sat outside for months and went white, and then I took 29 gallons of water from my current system.

So do I need to wait for a cycle ??

[m2434]

I'd say yes you need to wait.. Whether or not you need to wait, depends if the filtration you are adding is sufficiently established enough to support the bio-load you are adding. Water dosn't contain much bacteria, and rocks that went white outside, most likely, no longer have sufficiency established baterial populations. You don't say what type of "live sand" if the stuff you by in the stores, all it is is once live sand, now contaminated with lots of dead crap, that died off while sitting on the shelf and in transit. So, definitely not. If directly from someones reef, maybe if you have LOTS of it, but still probably not, also due to die-off. Much safer to wait.


Edit: also 3 rocks unless huge, isn't enough surface area for filtration.

[Paul777]

yep I would add rubble rock in one of your filter chambers to gain more space and start skimming for a few weeks, keep up with W/C I have found that doing 1 large 50%+ W?C a month is better than 10-15% everyweek but that's just me..