Turning Dry Sand into Live Sand Using Bottled Bacteria - Cycling Sand The Safe Way

Welcome to Simple Reefs. We are a very new website dedicated to showing you how you can have your very own slice of the ocean without breaking the bank. This article forms part of our series on starting a simple, budget, reef. Today we are showing you how to turn Dry Sand into Live Sand using Bottled Bacteria. Otherwise known as cycling your dry sand. In my opinion, this is the safest and best option.

We have been talking about marine aquarium sand, lately. We discussed the pros and cons of a marine aquarium sand bed as well as how you can use Dry Sand to save yourself a bunch of money.

If you missed it, feel free to check out our opening article on this subject – Turning Dry Sand into Live Sand. Where we go over a few methods to transform your dry sand into a welcoming paradise for beneficial bacteria. All of these methods will, also, have the added benefit of turning your dry rock into live rock if you chose to include dry rock in your aquarium. Before we get started, you will need a few things.

• Your aquarium filled with dry sand and equipped with filters and a heater.
• Some bottled bacteria
• A source of ammonia (bottled ammonia, frozen shrimp, or fish food)
• An Ammonia Test Kit
• A Nitrate Test Kit

We go into more detail about all of these things in this article so read on. I will also add that I want every single one of my cycling articles to be self contained. Meaning each article contains all the information you need in detail rather than covering every possible subject in a half hearted manner. Hence why I have a lot of articles covering the subject.

The Nitrogen Cycle

In a marine aquarium, we need to complete, what is known as, the nitrogen cycle before we can add fish or invertebrates and there is a good reason for that. When we add food to the tank or our fish poop. The rotting waste will create a harmful compound known as Ammonia that can easily kill our fish. To deal with that ammonia, we enlist the help of the nitrogen cycle.

The nitrogen cycle basically consists of populating our tank with a type of bacteria that can consume ammonia. This bacteria will transform the ammonia into the less harmful compound Nitrite. A different type of bacteria will then consume those nitrites and turn them into the even less harmful compound Nitrate. Those nitrates can then be removed from the water when we do our water changes.

But where does that bacteria come from? Well, it is all around us. The bacteria will form in the water when there is the presence of ammonia. In turn, the other bacteria we need to remove the nitrites will form once the nitrites, formed by the ammonia removing bacteria, are present in the water. Great! The only problem is that this takes awhile so how do we speed it up?

Grab Some Bacteria

So you started your own marine aquarium and decided to opt for a sand bed. You made the sensible decision of going with Dry Sand rather than Live Sand but now you have hit a bit of a snag. You need to bring that dry sand to life but how do we do that?

Well, if you have included Live Rock in your aquarium, you can simply follow this simple guide right here. If you are looking for a much safer alternative, however, that is guaranteed pest free. We can use a simple bottle of bacteria, that we purchase from Amazon or our local fish shop, to get started.

Remember those bacteria we talked about earlier? The ones that consume ammonia and transform it into nitrite? A bottle of bacteria, basically, contains millions of those beneficial bacteria. Allowing us to get to work processing ammonia straight away and kick starting our cycle. With this in mind, we need to get started by purchasing some bottled bacteria.

I would highly recommend Dr Tim’s One and Only Nitrifying Bacteria, API’s Quick Start (suitable for fresh and saltwater aquariums), Microbe Lift Nite-Out, Seachem Stability, or Brightwell’s Microbacter Start. I have used all of these with great success and they are all readily available here in the UK. You might want to buy a couple of bottles as you may need more than you think.

I think there is some benefit to mixing brands and using a few different types of bottled bacteria to introduce additional diversity into the aquarium. We can achieve this at a later date, however, with other products like Microbacter 7, so that isn’t essential.

Add The Bacteria

Obviously, this article assumes you are ready to go with your sand in the tank. You can take a look at our article on adding sand to a marine aquarium if you need help with this. We need to have our aquarium running, all of our filters on, any powerheads on, our heater running, and the aquarium’s lights off. The lights being off is important as it will slow down the growth of ugly algae.

We now need to add our bacteria to the aquarium. Simply follow the instructions down to the letter. Some of these bottled bacteria only require one dose, others suggest that you dose every day for a week. Some want you to mix the bacteria with tank water before adding, others suggest you just throw it right in. It varies so follow the instructions carefully.

The idea is that these bacteria will be pushed around by the flow in your aquarium and will distribute themselves all over the surfaces of your aquarium. Eventually coming back to life from the dormant state they have been in while suspended in the bottle. They are then going to sit there waiting to be fed and if we don’t feed them they will die. But what do they eat?

Let’s Feed The Bacteria

The bacteria in our tank now wants to be fed ammonia. This process is exactly the same as it is with any other form of aquarium cycling. In short, we have a few different ways we can go about this. We can feed the bacteria the old fashioned way which is to go and buy a piece of frozen shrimp. Yep, the kind you would eat in a prawn cocktail or curry.

You then want to take that shrimp and throw it into the water. That shrimp will then rot in the aquarium. The rotting flesh will produce ammonia which will feed the bacteria. Allowing it to get fat and reproduce. This method is super hands off as the shrimp will rot on its own and you won’t need to add more until it vanishes.

You can, instead of the shrimp, add fish food in the form of flakes or pellets in a process known as “Ghost feeding”. Throw a few flakes in every day as if there were fish in there. The fish flakes will rot, producing ammonia which will, in turn, feed the bacteria. Set a reminder so that you don’t forget as you don’t want the bacteria to starve. You need to do this every day until your cycle is complete.

Both of these methods will produce a fair bit of waste so be sure to clean your filters. The shrimp, in particular, will be quite messy. If you want a cleaner solution, there is a shortcut that we can take.

Feeding the Bacteria Using Bottled Ammonia

The cleanest way of doing this is to add actual ammonia directly to the aquarium. This cuts out the middle man as the bacteria will consume this ammonia straight away and begin reproducing. The question is, where do you get ammonia from in the UK?

You could use some additive free ammonium chloride for this task but it has to have no dyes or emulsifiers. The safer way is to grab a bottle of Dr Tim’s Ammonium Chloride. It is fairly cheap and guaranteed aquarium safe. It also comes with handy dosing instructions and a dripper for accurate dosing. I always use this product and it makes life so easy.

Simply follow the instructions on the bottle, noting the number of drops for the size of your aquarium relative to how much water is in there. Set a reminder and add the required amount of drops to your aquarium every single day until the cycle is complete.

Start Testing For Ammonia

We are going to need a couple of water testing kits to do this. I would suggest Salifert as they are affordable, reliable, and easily available in the UK. Once you have added your bacteria and added an ammonia source, be it frozen shrimp, food, or bottled ammonia. We are going to give it one week to settle.

After the one week mark, we need to grab our ammonia test kit and test for ammonia. Take a pen and paper and jot down the ammonia reading that you see. We now need to start testing for ammonia every day and comparing that level to the previous day’s level. What we are looking for is for that ammonia reading to start coming down.

It may take a few weeks for the ammonia levels to really start dropping but carry on testing every day. I would suggest that, if you are adding liquid ammonia to the aquarium, do your ammonia test before you add that day’s supply of ammonia or it will throw the reading off.

Test For Nitrates

When that ammonia reading comes right down and you finally receive a negative reading. Wait one day and then test again. If you receive another negative ammonia reading, it is time to test for nitrates. Use your nitrate test kit and take a look at the result. If the test confirms the presence of nitrates in your water, it means there is now bacteria in our sand that can process both Ammonia and Nitrite. Our cycle is done.

You may notice that your nitrate reading is very high. Don’t be alarmed. You probably still have low levels of nitrites in your water which will throw off the nitrate test result. Nitrites are a problem in freshwater but, in saltwater, the presence of the salt interacts with the process that makes nitrites deadly. Meaning they are nowhere near as toxic in Marine aquariums. I never test for nitrites anymore and a lot of other people don’t either.

You Are Ready to Go… But Slowly

When your ammonia test level is zero and you are seeing nitrates in your water, you are ready to go and can add a resident. Your dry sand has become live, at least partly. The complete process of becoming live will take around 6 months.

I would suggest starting with a few hermit crabs or clean up crew and waiting two weeks. You will need to spot feed them algae wafers, or pellets, but this food will keep your bacterial cycle expanding. The hermit crabs will help when the uglies start, as well. Consuming some of that algae.

Remember to keep adding ammonia to your aquarium until a few days before adding your new residents, be it through ghost feeding or liquid ammonia. We don’t want to lose our bacteria to starvation. Once we have new residents, stop adding ammonia to the tank.

Go very slowly when adding fish. Add one or two small fish and wait at least another month before adding more. Your aquarium’s cycle is never truly done. It just expands and contracts to manage the level of waste in the water. Meaning it will take time for the aquarium to adapt to your new residents as more bacteria will need to be present. Be patient! It is cruel to introduce living creatures into an ammonia filled environment.