one more thing

[kydsexy]

Thank you everybody who responded to my last post. I have another question, a little more difficult this time. how do you clean sand when there is live rock and my tank is still cycling so i dont want to disturb the nitrogen cycle. what can i do? and i bought a piece of live rock, beautiful, with a live plant on it but pieces keep breaking off and floating around the tank. should i just leave it like this? are there any animals that will eat the stuff falling off while cycling? snails? hermit crabs? starfish? that wont die.

please help

 

[Len]

I recommend you don't clean the sandbed until after the cycle is complete and all the die off has occurred. After that time, siphon it thoroughly to remove all the detritus that has built up. As for stuff floating around the tank, don't worry about it. They will settle and you will be able to siphon that out later on. Don't get any critters during the cycle: most won't survive the harsh condition. Inverts are very sensitive to water chemistry, so get them after your tank is established.

 

[fungia]

you can use more mechanical filtration during this time to filter out all the stuff that is floating in the water. you can even stir up the sand a little to get some of the debris into the water to filter out.