Cycling ruined - did I kill my live sand?

[Tigerbarb]

While I was adding more water to my tank, which had been up and running with the live sand/rocks in it, my small dead coral skeleton toppled over. I picked it up and set it back up, but then the larger coral skeleton fell. When I was trying to place both coral skeletons back on the aquascape, whatdaya know; the rock in the middle of the aquascape fell which caused the rest of the aquascape to collapse. Since I was using live sand, I really didn't want any of the rocks set on top of the substrate, so I started to clear-out a section of the tank, which immediately clouded the water to the point where I couldn't see anything inside the tank. I continued to try and move the sand out of the way, until I realised that it was no use and began to scoop it into a bucket. So... did about an hour of being scooped/stirred around, the water clouding up like crazy, and the cycling process being ruined, is the live sand okay?
I really wish there was just a button I could press to 'start over' automatically, lol.

[spudbuds]

Unless the sand completely dried out, it's likely fine. There may have been some die off from taking it out of the water, but I wouldn't call it ruined.

- Bill

[Tigerbarb]

That's VERY good to know! Lol, one more problem with that tank tonight, and I would've just thrown it out the window.

[unleashed]

my tank was cloudy for days when I first put sand in, despite the fact that I had rinsed it for over an hour

Nothing to worry about in your case

[Fish4Fun]

It should be Ok, I did a complete tank empty and move, Took over 6 hrs, Fish in Eskys( chilli bins) Sand in 40 Lt tubs. All is Ok and now thriving with Sand worms and Life. It gets frustrating but remember slow is sure , sure is fast. Take it easy and reap the benefits. Ive just had a coral spawn in my tank, very cloudy...

[ILuvMyGoldBarb]

Should be just fine. The majority of your biofilter in a Marine tank is in the Live Rock anyway. The sandbed does add to it but it is not the largest portion of it. Stiring it a bit won't hurt anyway, once the tank is running you should have critters to do that anyway. The only time you would have a problem is if you had a deep sand bed and you stirred that up. That would disturbe the anaerobic areas of the sand and thus somewhat disrupt denitrification, even then though it's not too bad as the Live Rock also provides that as well.

[oldhead]

Should be just fine. The majority of your biofilter in a Marine tank is in the Live Rock anyway. The sandbed does add to it but it is not the largest portion of it. Stiring it a bit won't hurt anyway, once the tank is running you should have critters to do that anyway. The only time you would have a problem is if you had a deep sand bed and you stirred that up. That would disturbe the anaerobic areas of the sand and thus somewhat disrupt denitrification, even then though it's not too bad as the Live Rock also provides that as well.

I agree 100%, the sand should be fine and the cloudiness is no big deal. When I first set up my tank is was cloudy for days. And I rinsed my sand for nearly 2 hours before adding it. Things should be fine.

[Tigerbarb]

Should be just fine. The majority of your biofilter in a Marine tank is in the Live Rock anyway. The sandbed does add to it but it is not the largest portion of it. Stiring it a bit won't hurt anyway, once the tank is running you should have critters to do that anyway. The only time you would have a problem is if you had a deep sand bed and you stirred that up. That would disturbe the anaerobic areas of the sand and thus somewhat disrupt denitrification, even then though it's not too bad as the Live Rock also provides that as well.

Oh, lol, the live sand is the only bio filter currently, as I am going to try and make my tufa rocks come alive.