LS Help

[adam & jeanne]

Maybe this will get a few more looks under this subject.
I have a 55gal fish only tank I recently removed all of my cc and my ugf and replaced it with 45 lbs. of dead sand and topped it with 45 lbs. of live sand. I done this while I was in the middle of my cycle and my nitrites were peaked. My questions are: how long can I expect to wait to finish the cycle? and How long will it take for the live sand to completely seed the dead sand?
55 fowls
2 penguin 330 bio-wheels
2 penguin powerheads
ebo-jager 150w heater
6 damsels (soon to be leaving i hope)

 

[jsolomon]

It depends on many different variables. THere is no way to give an exact answer to a question like this.

 

[beanejar]

As stated, this is probably a highly variable process depending on almost everything going in and out of your tank.
My experience -- having done the same thing while moving to a new house last November -- is that my values all looked reasonably good from day one, but the tank just didn't act the way it had before. I went from a CC setup that had been established for three years and changed to DSB when I moved (went from 55g to 65g). Just now (~4months later) my tank is getting back to normal, i.e., diatoms going away, hair algae retreating, snails procreating, anemonae looking better. The most difficult thing was just LEAVING IT ALONE. Letting everything run its course, constant monitoring of your parameters, in case you need to do more frequent water changes.
Four months later my DSB is getting there, lots of nicely colored bacterial patches below the surface. There were always lots of amphipods tunneling about in the top layers of the sand.
It's a long process if you think about it, and patience is required. I didn't add anything to the tank during this setup time, except replacing snails/crabs as needed. I lost one fish through the process (maybe, could have been old age -- never figured out how long sailfin blennies should live )
Good luck.
Jaret

 

[ocellaris_keeper]

Interesting... When I changed my CC to LS I used 25lbs of Live and 25lbs of fine sand.
I mixed the two together in a 5 gal bucket and over three days slowly (a section at a time(mostly because I was busy and moving the LR around can be tough)) and my tank's ammonia raised to about 5ppm and dropped within a half a day.
I'd say that since your at the nitrite spike you probably are on the back slide and should see improvement within the next three days if all other params are ok.
What type of filtration are you using?