Can I Seed My New Tank With Reef Sand?

[edshern]

Hi all,
I am starting a new community tank.
I already have a well established marine reef tank.
The question is, To cycle this new freshwater tank, can I seed it with sand and gravel from my reef tank?
or would this introduce something wierd to the freshwater.
Thanks
Ed

 

[Corleone]

No. Reef tanks are teeming with all sorts of organisms, most of which would just die on exposure to fresh water.

Marine tanks have different nitrifying bacteria, but another consideration, many types of marine sand will alter the hardness and pH of a freshwater tank, which is generally something you want to avoid.

 

[waterdrop]

Agree. The species of bacteria needed for salt and for fresh are definately completely different species, not to mention the potential hardness and pH problems Corleone mentions.

~~waterdrop~~

 

[edshern]

thanks guys.
I put in a couple of cubes of frozen mysis shimp to start the amonia cycle, and got some freshwater sand from a friend.

 

[Miss Wiggle]

there's actually very little bacteria living in the sand in freshwater tanks (it works differently to marine set up's) the sand isn't considered to be 'live' in the same way as marine sand is. if you have a friend with a freshwater tank the best thing to get from them is some of the filter media, if you keep this wet and put it into your tank within 12 hrs of removing it from yours then you stand a good chance of the bacteria staying alive. The food you added will kick start the cycle and feed the bacteria but it would be much better to use pure ammonia if you can get hold of it. If you're not familiar with the process of fishless cycling then there's a link in my sig which will explain it all. By adding the media what will happen is the whole process will be a lot shorter, depending on how much media you get and a few other factors you would expect it to just take a week or so (normally it takes 4-6 weeks on average).