From sump to refugium question

[AbsoluteFaye]

Hubby and I are having an argument over this. He just bought a trigger system refugium to switch out his sump in his 75gal reef. He wants to add live sand in the refugium and the argument is will it cause a mini cycle? He's planning on using maybe 10-20 lbs of live sand, however much it takes to make a deep sand bed in the fuge.

 

[Fish-guy]

I would doubt it will cause a cycle. You aren't touching the bacteria already established in the tank so I'm pretty sure you're ok. Oh to have a spouse that's actually interested in saltwater tanks. Only a dream for some of us. Lol

 

[AbsoluteFaye]

Haha. He has his 75 gal, I have my 34 gal and now my mantis tank that is currently curing rock so it's not ready yet. This hobby is our shared hobby.

 

[BigRedsReefs10]

Unless the sand is coming from an established tank it's not really live, just wet so I would buy the regular sand for $10 less a bag. Just my $.02 though, and I agree it will not cause a cycle.

 

[Gregcoyote]

Unless the sand is coming from an established tank it's not really live, just wet so I would buy the regular sand for $10 less a bag. Just my $.02 though, and I agree it will not cause a cycle.

I would do the same, start with dry sand (that's not loaded with silicates) and let it seed itself. Live sand will have some die off and that could raise your DOC"s. And that will cause a spike in phosphates. Why take a risk? The sand will seed itself in a few weeks. And the dry sand has no chance of causing a cycle. JIMO.

 

[jeremy upshir]

I would also start with regular sand to be safe... you can always add live later if you want it. adding live sand in the start will raise your phosphates quit a bit

 

[AbsoluteFaye]

We already bought the love sand. So maybe well return it. I figured it would do something negative.

 

[BigRedsReefs10]

I don't think it will do anything worse than cause a diatom bloom
Edit: if you use the live or regular just seed it with a scoop or 2 from one of the established tanks to seed it