Adding a sand bed at a later time.....

[FishyFishy!]

I have been debating putting a sand bed back in my 131 FOWLR due to the fair amount of wrasses I have been accumulating as of late. Most of the species I am keeping like to have the sand bed to hide and sleep in. All of the wrasses seem extremely happy and are nice and healthy so far, but I hate to make them go against their instincts and not feel comfortable.

But my real question is, being a bare bottom since setup, how do I go about adding a sand bed without causing any mini-cycles or issues? The bottom of my tank seems to have a decent amount of algae and smaller chunks of rock etc etc. Will covering it produce die off?

[globaldesigns]

Maybe cycle the sand in a seperate tank, but most of us don't have that... So if it was me, I would probably add a little bit at a time. Lets say, quarter inch or so, leave it for 1-2 weeks, then do the same, until you have the depth you want.

I would also really rinse it, prior to adding. But you knew that already

Good Luck!

P.S. I too have jumped on the wrasse bandwagon, great fish... Thicklip banner wrasse, potters, black leapord, bluish colored leopard, 6 line (I love the quirkiness of six lines).

[FishyFishy!]

Yeah I might cycle it before dropping it in. I have tanks everywhere around here that could help me do that.

My wrasse collection so far looks like this:

Melanurus Wrasse
Solar Wrasse
Female Pencil Wrasse
Cleaner Wrasse
Red Coris Wrasse
Seagrass Wrasse (which is the craziest character of a fish I have ever had)

[FitoPharmer]

If it is new sand from a bag I wouldn't bother adding it a little bit at a time or cycling it before adding it. If your bottom is covered in life I would give it a good brush, scrape, vac before adding the sand, maybe with your next water change? Anything left after that is most likely less then a over feeding or two, that your tank would handle right? If you rinse your sand well, choose a proper grain size for your water movement and needs, and add it carefully. There is only one sand storm that you have to clean up.

[daplatapus]

I'd agree. If it's new sand, I wouldn't "cycle" it. It's not like live rock, there's nothing alive on it to die and give off ammonia. Putting it in a tank to cycle it will create life on it that will possibly create a cycle in the display tank once you move it.
Easiest way to add it to your new tank is get a chunk of pipe with a nice big funnel in one end. Stick the other end down to the bottom of your tank and get someone to slowly pour in your rinsed sand as you slowly move the pipe around the bottom of your tank depositing the new sand where you want it.
IMHO, I'd add it all at once. If you add 1/2" then wait and add more later, the top layer will kill some of what's grown on the bottom layer. If it's all new sand it won't matter if you add 2" all at once.

[oyf709]

It will never work in this case, you will never prevent the "cicle" happen as it need settle sand bed to build up the bacteria level.

[SeaHorse_Fanatic]

We added a sand bed to our bb 210g reef 6 months after setting up after Irene and I agreed we hated the bb look as being very unnatural. No problems.