Adding Sand + Cycled tank = Disaster

I

ihookah

Found out the hard way that adding sand to a cycled tank triggers another cycle... I didnt know this... unfortunately suffered a loss.... what happend was the following:
Levels spiked up after a week
Fish got stressed
Water changes didnt help
Ich
Havoc
$300 worth of fish down the drain
currently its stabilized and no fish show signs of ich however now my Naso tang is breathing a little more quicker than normal
Lesson:
DONT ADD SAND TO AN ESTABLISHED TANK..........
f.m.l
 
If you just added new sand it shouldn't cause your tank to recycle unless you somehow disturbed your existing sand bed. If new, did you add the sand on top of your existing sand or did you try to mix them together? If you moved your existing sand then you probably unleashed a lot of stuff that was buried in the sand. How old is is your existing sand bed? I know it's to late and way unfortunate that you suffered the loss you did, but in the future if you want to add new sand to your tank, clean the heck out of it and you should be able to just add it on top of your sand bed, probably in the middle of a water change when your tank's water level is at it's lowest. I have been having a bacteria on my sand (not cyano) but in vacuuming I'v lost some sand and when I considered adding some new sand, this is what I was advised.
 
@tj51 wrote:
If you just added new sand it shouldn't cause your tank to recycle unless you somehow disturbed your existing sand bed. said:
Agreed! You can safely add new sand however it's wise to add no more than a half inch or so at a time making sure not to move around your rockwork. Having Prime or the like on hand is alway's advisable as it will lock up any ammonia so it's doesn't harm the livestock.

Cheers,
Click to expand...
 
I've added up to 64 oz (Big gulp cup) of new dry sand to my Pred tank any number of times without causing a noticeable water chemistry change.
My stingray disturbs large amounts of sand every single day and the hermit crab sifts even more for food but he usually isn't digging more than 1/2 inch down.

I've seen traces of nitrite in the tank from day one and it has topped 2 ppm at one point. Not from sand, but from a tank overload. However once the ammonia zeroed out it has stayed that way. None of the fish were affected. The big spike did cause some damage to the big green brittle star but once everything was back under control he healed up with no scars.
We always have Seachem Prime in the house. Always without fail. :)
 
I guess we can only guess it was used live sand? If done slowly and using the right new sand that probably should be rinsed some you can add sand to a established tank. Personally I would never put a lot of used sand from another aquarium in any tank, except maybe a cup of live sand from someone I knew to help establish a new sand bed.
 
My bad I probably should have mentioned the amount of sand added... initially i only had about 1/2 inch of sand in there, but i have banded gobies and thought they'd want more to sift through... the sand i used was rinsed thoroughly about 10x's rinsed in my 5 gallon bucket with ro/di water. Only thing i can think of was the amount.. theres about 3 inches thickness now.. i mean its done and over with but im never doing that again..
 
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