How long to wait

[Trapshooter12]

The Tank is now 48 hr's old and has 2 inches of live sand in it. How long before we can add live rocks and fish and sand sifters.

It's only a 20 gal Tank can someone point me to a place to figure out how many and what types cleaners for this size tank.

[greech]

You can add rock now. Cleanup crew, fish, etc. after the tank cycles but that should be done gradually as well allowing your tank to adjust to bioload between additions.

Do not max out your CUC right off the bat. Start small and build as your tank needs it.

[Thorin192]

Assuming you salinity is correct you can add you live rock now. Then add something to the tank to create some ammonia (dead shrimp, flake food, etc.) Wait for the ammonia and nitrates to drop to 0 and then you can start adding the CUC. As for how many start with just a few and see how they do. You don't want to many to start especially for a 20g tank. If the ones you get don't seem to keep up then add a few more. It's better to have to few then to buy to many and they die from starvation.

[troyman]

cant rush this hobby as many found this out live sand dont mean a thing its prolly dead sand with a nice marketing label

[Original Fin]

Originally Posted by Thorin192

Assuming you salinity is correct you can add you live rock now. Then add something to the tank to create some ammonia (dead shrimp, flake food, etc.) Wait for the ammonia and nitrates to drop to 0 and then you can start adding the CUC. As for how many start with just a few and see how they do. You don't want to many to start especially for a 20g tank. If the ones you get don't seem to keep up then add a few more. It's better to have to few then to buy to many and they die from starvation.

As long as the amount of live rock being added is 1 or more lbs per gallon, The life in the rock and sand is more than enough to fuel a cycle. No need to add shrimp/flake, etc...You would only need to do that if most or all of your rock was dry/lifeless to start with.

[Thorin192]

Originally Posted by Original Fin

As long as the amount of live rock being added is 1 or more lbs per gallon, The life in the rock and sand is more than enough to fuel a cycle. No need to add shrimp/flake, etc...You would only need to do that if most or all of your rock was dry/lifeless to start with.

I like the idea of adding an ammonia source anyway. If you add a shrimp for example and your ammonia stays at zero then you know that you tank is processing the ammonia. But you are correct that you do not need to add it if most of the rock is live and ready. I just like to use it to check the tanks bio load capacity before adding anything living

[Korrine]

There are already lots of living things on live rock


If you add live rock from an existing tank, such as a dealer's tank/mail order/friends tank, then you won't need to kick the cycle as it will already be able to process it. What needs to happen is the water to stabilize before adding more things to it. It wouldn't hurt to let the tank sit with the rocks and sand for a month or two before adding anything.