Sand questions...quick response would be great!

[peejfish]

so I just got then salinity of my 40gal perfect but I haven't added water to my sump and don't have my overflow or return pump running atm, should I get those up and running with the right salinity and then add all of my dead sand and then my live sand on top,
or should i add in the bags of dead sand now and wait for them to settle and then add the bag of live sand on top, and then get the overflow and return pump running and add salt as nessisary??
any tips or suggestions are always appreciated
thanks
-PEEEEEEJFISH

 

[soondubu]

being a rookie myself, i can't say fro certain, but i figure the following.
dead sand and live sand together shouldn't make too much of a difference when you add them to a lifeless tank.
any sand will be seeded and turn live eventually, populated by increasing numbers of organisms from the live portions.
all that sand should settle over a day or so.
i started my tank by getting the salinity and temp right, dumped all the live sand in.
then i ran the skimmer.
a few days later i received the overflow and the sump and so it began....
added the damsels( didn't know about the dead shrimp thing) to get the tank going, and a few more days later added live rock...

 

[peejfish]

unfortunatly my heater just exploded...sometimes I think I have the worst luck. good thing i have swfish.com forums to give me motivation!
does the temp hafta be correct before the sand addition etc? and so I should make sure no pumps or powerheads are on, and my lfs told me to add the base sand and wait for it to settle and then add the LS on top?
also I've heard while the base sand is still floating around adding a few pinches of fish flake is good for the cycle..is this true?

 

[entice59]

i added my live sand after the dead sand settled, but it was the bagged stuff on top
If your going to add live rock, the stuff from the live rock will help seed your sand also.
i had my skimmer on and my powerheads on the whole time
i used frozen shrimp to cycle the tank but if you have liverock that should help with the cycle

 

[sailfin]

I agree with most of the advise so far. Here is what I did and would do again:
1. Added "good" water premixed with salt at the right salinity (filled tank and sump).
2. Added heater to system. Check salinity to ensure temperature didn't change it.
3. Added dead sand.
4. Added LS.
5. Added LR.
6. Let everything settle with nothing but skimmer running.
7. Once I could see I aquascaped.
8. Turned on pumps and powerheads.
It would probably be a good idea to have your temperature correct before adding LS or LR. This will ensure less die off and more survival of the goodies. I hope this helped....

 

[peejfish]

thank you very much, it does help