Live Sand without Live Rock

[JEBrown2]

I'm setting up a 75 gallon tank for a single Trigger. I will be using a Power filter and a Protein Skimmer. I will not be using Live Rock.

How deep should the sand bed be? And how long will it take to cycle?

Thank you.

[Dkuhlmann]

Live sand is a joke and most certainly not worth the 2x cost over dry sand. The bacteria will grow on both the sand and the rock from using ammonia to start the nitrogen cycle.

Sand bed depth depends on what you plan for your tank. There are pros and cons for deep but most people myself included have 2-3 inches of sand as a norm.

Cycle time is usually 4-6 weeks depending on your methods. I like to start by dosing pure ammonia that has no additives to 2 ppt and wait, this is faster than using the ghost feeding method or using a market shrimp to begin the ammonia that is needed to create the cycle and using the pure ammonia will save that time of the food or shrimp method to break down into ammonia. This pure ammonia can be purchased at any grocery or hardware store usually in the cleaning section. Just make sure there are no additives like scents etc.

[MeghanisradxD]

Will you have a sump? If so, I would look into the Marinepure biomedia blocks. They have a large amount of surface area and will make up for the lack of live rock.

[A1t2o]

No offense, but that seems kinda boring. Why have that big a tank with only 1 fish and no aquascaping? Or are you going to add decorations that aren't live/dry rock?

[JEBrown2]

I raised an Undulated until he was 7" long. He had tons of personality and was like an underwater puppy. I miss having that, just wont make it a display tank.