carlos413

Can I cycle my tank with live sand and two clownfish? Is this safe?

aquarist48

Good morning Carlos. I can't help you with your Reef tank but I can't wait to see the pictures when you're done! Have fun

sgould

Cycling fishless is preferred, as the cycling process can be hard (frequently fatal) on fish. A great way to cycle a SW tank is with live rock, which will also provide you with a great deal of biological filtration once the cycle is complete. Live rock can be a little pricey since you ideally want in the range of 1 pound per gallon of water, but you can start out with less and add more rock down the road. Just be sure you do not add uncured rock to your tank once you have fish in it.

carlos413

Thanks, my problem is that I don’t have lighting as of yet. I wanted to get the lighting before I get the live rock. My LFS has some that is very purple. It’s got that coral line algae al over it. I know with out the lights I will lose some if not all. No to mention any live organisms that come with the rock. I was just trying to figure out if their was something I could do to speed up the process wile I get the cash for the lighting.
Also so what is the big deal with live sand?

harpua2002

The organisms on live rock don't need light to survive, and the coralline will come back eventually. Much of the coralline will die off in transit to your house anyway, but like I said it will come back in time. Live sand is not necessary. The organisms from live rock will make plain aragonite sand live, in time.

cerianthus

Absolutely! Use aragonite sand and will become live with time. I dont know how live the packaged live sand are.

Coralline will not die off during transit, imo, so dont worry too much about coralline algae or other organisms as long as you dont sun dry (LOL).

Do you have any lighting that you can simply change the bulbs to accomodate LR such as double flo strip?

harpua2002

Ok, but I see some dead coralline occasionally after a water change, so IMO it was worth mentioning. In my experience, exposure to air kills it pretty quickly. I would not expect a ton of coralline to arrive to the tank intact. JMO.

cerianthus

Calcareous algae such as coralline algae die due to air contact? I 've experienced many difficulties with just about all the varieties of Macro avail to hobby plus some as hitchhikers (SG, Temp, water chemistry, etc) and some I collect myself from ocean but never heard that one before.

Will be going out to shore this weekend to catch some seahorses and other tropicals fish which will or have hatched locally thanks to gulf stream or unappreciative global warming (LOL).

harpua2002

Just my experience. It's happened to me several times.

Catching seahorses sounds like a lot of fun.

cerianthus

Hmmm! Odd! Unless exposed to different water chemistry, i cant picture other possible scenario.

As far as catching, children gets kick out of such experiences. Making this trip due to request from children's friends. Last year, they caught seahorses, many different varieties of pipe fishes, webb burr, Big Eye, File fish, triggers, not to mention critters such as hermits, shrimps/prawns, and mysids, and plus many fishes I did not know or could not ID, etc. I guess it was unforgettable experiences for children. I feel it is and was good experiences for children to learn and respect other lifeforms as I make sure they release back what they can not keep alive in captivity (none of their parents are not hobbyist). But they get to see growing seahorses in my tank whenever they visit.
Hopefully cool weather did not reduced the population of other tropicals. It is actually sad cycle since most of eggs which made up to NY do hatch, but hatchlings wont survive cooler water as Fall approaches. Even if they survive due to warming water temp, that is not good news either.

I read an article where Lionfish are found at the tip of Long Island. I may have to wear protective shoes before jumping in, lol.

Will post pics of fish and inverts they catch.