Yet another dumb question from me... re: Adding Live Sand

[evenings]

65 gallon with 40 lbs live sand, hardly enough, I've seen some tanks with a really deep sand bed and it looks awesome, also, I've read that my long tentacle anemone might just love a deeper sand bed so that it would finally bury it's foot on the sand.

Question #1. Will I have an ammonia spike if i added live sand? I'm thinking of adding another 40 lbs.

Question #2. Live sand bags come in 20 lbs. Can I add half of one bag in 1 week interval? If so, would the bacteria in the remaining live sand kept in the open bag die? I'm thiking yes, but I'd like an opinion anyway.

Question #3. Is there anyway of adding more live sand (or dead sand) wihtout getting an ammonia spike?

TIA

PS, I'd like to promise this would be my last dumb question but I'm sure something else will come up along the way.

 

[Sparky]

I changed out my CC substrate for sand. I did it over a period of 1-1/2 months in three stages. I did not have an ammonia spike when I did mine. I used regular Old Castle playsand. I did get a slight "brown" algea outbreak, but I just let it go and it is starting to fade now.

HTH

Mike

 

[darb2]

Add the sand in small stages and you should be fine. Is the sand the bagged stuff from lfs? If so skip it. Get some southdown or aragonite.

 

[dralarms]

I agree, Don't buy the "bagged ls" it's junk. You don't need ls if you already have ls. Just get some dry sand and don't add more than 1/2 inch at a time.