Adding frag tank to main system

[stinkyreef]

So I am in the process of adding a frag tank. This tank I am using consists of 3 separate 10g tanks in one unit. One of them will become a nano tank to house fish that can't be in the main tank. I had a beaten up Bangaii cardinal that started this whole adventure. the other 2 will be mini frag tanks until I setup one of those 50g Zoomed frag tanks. Hopefully by the fall. So I want to add some sand and dry rock to this nano. It will eventually become live sand but do I want to add live sand right off the bat or get dry sand, rinse the heck out of it and use that? I don't want to cause an uproar in my main display as everything is going well.

 

[organism]

Whether you get dead sand or live sand in a bag it's still likely to have some die-off, so it might be a good idea to make sure everything is fully cycled before connecting it to your display with corals in it. Personally I wouldn't go putting a bunch of new sand of any kind into a system that's already running unless it had been in a bucket for a month or two first.

 

[stinkyreef]

Wouldn't it be like adding a refugium to the main system?
Im only talking 10 lbs of sand and some dry reef ready rocks. Also will be rinsing the heck out of it with ro. I appreciate the info from you. Thanks

 

[JohnnyHildo]

what he is basically saying is that adding a large amount of sand, rock or both could cause the tank to fall back into a state of cycling again. in reality it's best to probably just cycle the rock & sand on their own before hand in a tub.

 

[Cajunreefer87]

Not even could you have to worry about a cycle, every time that I have ever added new uncycled sand to a system algae tends to follow. Dry rock is know for algae as well, I throw 25 pounds of dry rock away because of it.