southdown or live sand

[jibbittyflibbit]

there is a nice amount of southdown at my home depot.. more than enough for my 30 gallon im converting to SW.
im wondering if i should get 50 lbs of southdown, then 30 lbs of LS, or just just 100lbs of southdown, and a live sand activator kit that has bristleworms and pods in it.
from a few things ive seen, the live sand can contain either alot of 'bugs' or hardly any at all.. and some people say the LS looks like CC, with lots of shells, ect.
just wondering how to go about it.
ill order the LS or kit and aquacultured rock at the same time, and hopefully i wont have to have 2 cycles.
any comments?

 

[bang guy]

IMO if you're not in a great hurry the 100 pounds of Southdown plus live rock will work fine. After a few months buy a few pounds of live sand or an activator kit with bugs & worms.

 

[wamp]

Agreed... You could also mix your SD with some LS from this site and you should be good to go...

 

[jibbittyflibbit]

hm.. i could go either way.
with regards to cycling, should i put everything in at once... or try and buy half of my LR now, then after it cycles, the other half?
i really wouldnt want to buy 50 lbs of LR and then have the cycle kill half the stuff on it.
for a 25 lb box of LS from this site, its 60 bucks.. id spend the same amount on a package elsewhere that definitly has pods, bristleworms, ect... then i wouldnt have to deal with the quaility of the sand i recieve.
plus 125 lbs of sand in a 30 gallon is a bit much.
still, any ideas on the cycling thing? i think ill go with 25 lbs of LR from this site, and 25 of the flordia aquacultured stuff.. that way i have a nice mix of reef rock and rock with lots of life. - im just concerned about adding it all at once and having the ammonia spike kill it off
regards,
jib

 

[bang guy]

If you only add half the first time you may get another cycle after adding the second half. I would suggest putting all of the LR in and keep the ammonia level below 0.5 using water changes. You'll need a lot of water but it will be worth it IMO.
A bag of Southdown followed by a box of live sand from here would also really work as a viable option. If it were mine I would add live sand after the ammonia level drops during the cycle.
* * opinion mode * *
A lot of people believe that a high ammonia level will create a better cycle. I'm not one of these people. You need some ammonia to feed the bacteria but IMO if there is a detectable amount then there's enough.
Another opinion is I believe in just letting the algae take over during the cycle. It's ugly but it consumes excess nutrients and gives more surface area for bacteria. I also believe it sequesters any toxins released from the dying animals in the rock.

 

[jibbittyflibbit]

thanks bang guy
i guess ill try to get everything to arrive as close together as possible, and dump it all in.
since im probably not going to want alot of die off, ill just have to do more water changes.
im not worried about the algae, just food for the snails later on!
regards,
jib