I have done this. I am no expert, in fact far from it, but I have set up and cycled about 7tanks. Once I used regular "buy at lowes" silica sand for a 65 gallon tank. I ended tearing the tank back down and changing the substrate about three weeks into the cycle. I dont know if the sand was the cause but I will not do it again. From about three days into it, I had a brown
diatom bloom which proceeded to get worse and worse. The bloom measured about three tenths of an inch deep and covered the entire sandbed. The rest of the tank was covered also but not to that extent. I delt with it hoping things would get better but they did not. I came home from work one friday to a horrid sour smell coming from my tank. I dont know what caused it but im blaming the sand. It was so bad I tore the tank down that evening and started back over replacing the sand with crushed coral. The tank cycled fine the next time.
