Restarting an aquarium...

I had set up an aquarium about two years ago and had a bad red algae and bubble algae outbreak that I couldn't get rid of so I packed everything up and recently I have the urge to start it back up again. That being said, i'm still a beginner in my opinion. I now know that it was my filter media (bio balls) that caused the nitrate spike which increased the algae. From now own, no bio balls in the sump.

My tank is a 46 gal bowfront. I have a 20 gal sump with 67lbs of lr at the moment. Well, it's not really lr anymore - now it's dead rock. I decided to just go ahead and cure it in the display tank since I need an ammonia source anyway. So after a week and a half, my params are:

Ph: 8.0
Ammonia: 0 (Last week it was the highest my test could read)
Nitrite: 1.0 (a couple days ago it was 5)
Nitrate: 20
dkH: 7

I'm guessing the ph and dkh are kind of low because the tank is going through a cycle.

Ok so now for my question: My aquarium is cycling rather fast for my comfort level, i was expecting a week until the Nitrites would even spike but it seems that the bacteria is forming rather fast. Is this normal for a tank re-build? Next- I'd like to add a clean up crew first. nothing large, just a couple crabs and snails because there is a lot of dead waste on the rocks and i know that some snails/crabs will clean that up. Is this a bad idea? I've been doing water changes to try and clean up everything but it's pretty tough to clean the junk off those rocks.

I haven't added any sand yet either. I was wondering if it's a good idea to add live sand? I know this will cause another cycle. Or just get dry sand and let the bacteria grow on it's own. I also plan on buying a couple more pieces of cured live rock to help the seed process go along. Again i know it'll cause a cycle. (I'd get the CUC after the sand/additional lr)

Sorry this post is so long!

 

Go to reefcleaners.org they have great prices for clean up crews

 

And i use dead sand and it seems to work just as well i would probably add it before the cycle is over

 

Great! Thanks for the help.