Live sand question

[nato2k]

I am about to setup a new tank and am trying to understand. Is the only benefit to using all live sand that the tank cycles faster? If i use 20 lbs of live sand and 60 of normal aragonite will it be the same in the end? How much longer will it take? We are trying to save money and dont mind waiting the extra time.

From what I understand the same works with live rock. The tank I got had 100 lbs of rock that unfortunately was left to dry. If I buy a couple peices of live rock and add it to the tank it should cycle to the currently dead rock right?

Thanks in advance.

[tamableanimal]

I have set up tanks using just aragonite with a cup of live sand from an existing tank. You can do the same with live rock and base rock.

[Reefscape]

I am about to setup a new tank and am trying to understand. Is the only benefit to using all live sand that the tank cycles faster? If i use 20 lbs of live sand and 60 of normal aragonite will it be the same in the end? How much longer will it take? We are trying to save money and dont mind waiting the extra time.

<<Dont waste your money on the bagged live sand...its a rip off in my opinion. I really dont see how much life at all can still be in there when it actually arives in the consumers tank....>>

From what I understand the same works with live rock. The tank I got had 100 lbs of rock that unfortunately was left to dry. If I buy a couple peices of live rock and add it to the tank it should cycle to the currently dead rock right?

<<Your not cycling the rock per say, your cycling the tank as a whole..You could use a couple chunks of live rock to see the base rock, but i would suggest it would take about 7 - 8 months before you could reply on the live rock itself to provide the filtration alone>>
Thanks in advance.


Added a few comments in red