Sand only cycle?

Can you cycle a tank with live sand only?

 

Yup. You can cycle an completely empty tank. The ability of the biological filter is limited by available area for anaerobic bacteria development. The cycle can start and proceed normally though, you just want to balance any bio-load because of the decreased biological filter.

 

Agree with Corailline.

 

You won't get much of a cycle though unless it is a deep sand bed that can support anaerobic and anoxic bacterias down deep. Shallow sand still has too much oxygen in it so only supports aerobic bacteria which do not help much with nitrification/denitrification. If this is all you use you will have ammonia spikes every time you add something since the bacteria will have to catch up.

Live rock is porous so can support bacteria way down deep in the rock.

 

Great point!

 

Wow!!!

 

There will be lot's of rock just not live rock. I don't want all the crap that comes with live rock for my new tank, all I want in there is what I put in there. I will add pod's and micro starfish and bristle worms myself, all the macro algae has been like a plague in the tank I have now.

 

I would add at least one nice size piece of established live rock. You want diversity not just what you put in there intentionally, you may leave important things out.

 

I think I missed something LOL.

Anyways, you can use dry rock instead, but really there is no way to avoid liverock. Corals and such come on LR and even if you qt everything, there are spores and such that will last longer. About a year ago, I had Halimeda just pop up out of nowhere. I probably hadn't added anything in over a year and had never seen it before. Apparently it was just waiting around until it decided the time was right.... This isn't a hobby you can control. You can try, but nature's the boss.