question about sand.
Printed From: Utah Reefs
Category: Help
Forum Name: General Help
Forum Description: The place to ask about pest, problems, hitchhikers, etc.
URL: http://www.utahreefs.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=45281
Printed Date: April 27 2024 at 4:27pm
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Topic: question about sand.
Posted By: Reefboy4life
Subject: question about sand.
Date Posted: December 10 2010 at 9:57am
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I am taking down my 55 gallon and upgrading to a 90, anyways my question is should i clean the sand before i put it in my 90? ------------- 90 gallon mixed reef |
Replies:
Posted By: MadReefer
Date Posted: December 10 2010 at 10:53am
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There are different opinions for this question. Some will say you can't use it ever again. Some will say clean and reuse. Some will say just move it to the new tank.
I like to rinse it with the old salt water at some point during the move and then use it. The goal is to get the junk out. Don't be afraid to waste a little sand to get the sand you keep as clean as you can. There will be some die off, but much of it will still be alive and quickly start helping out the new system.
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Posted By: Reefboy4life
Date Posted: December 10 2010 at 10:59am
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Can i just rinse it with fresh water, last time i did a tank transfer i just put the sand from one tank to the next and everything did fine. ------------- 90 gallon mixed reef |
Posted By: SGH360
Date Posted: December 10 2010 at 12:27pm
| I did not rinse my sand when i upgraded then again it wasnt alot probably around 15lbs on a 75G just barely covering the bottom of the tank. |
Posted By: MadReefer
Date Posted: December 10 2010 at 12:50pm
| I would not rinse it at all before I would rinse it with fresh water. Unless is is really dirty, and then you want to do an extra good job of rinsing it. If you do rinse some of it with fresh water, treat it with de-chlor after rinsing and keep 10-25% live, non-rinsed sand to seed it all. JMO |
Posted By: Crazy Tarzan
Date Posted: December 10 2010 at 12:57pm
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fresh water will kill off any remaining life on the sand. I like the saltwater rinse idea, I plan on using it to help clean out my tank and re-set it. ------------- Was that in there yesterday? Casper--WY windier than ? Down to a 20, soon to double or nothing |
Posted By: Mark Peterson
Date Posted: December 10 2010 at 5:29pm
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This is definitely a good thing to check out. The reason there are different answers is because the best answer depends on a few variables. Have you read some of the recent threads about people having problems when moving or when upgrading? Have you read the thread about moving a tank in the Reefkeeping Tips below? Knowing how long the 55 has been running, what the LS is like and how the sand and the entire tank looks will help us give the best answer. Can you give us that background and post some pics? ------------- Reefkeeping Tips, & quick, easy setup tricks: www.utahreefs.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=9244 Pay it forward - become a paid WMAS member 
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Posted By: Mark Peterson
Date Posted: December 10 2010 at 5:35pm
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Oh and a comment about rinsing a portion of the LS. It is much simpler and easier to rinse it thoroughly with tap water and immediately immerse it back into some LW. There is no need for dechlorination.
------------- Reefkeeping Tips, & quick, easy setup tricks: www.utahreefs.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=9244 Pay it forward - become a paid WMAS member
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Posted By: MadReefer
Date Posted: December 10 2010 at 5:54pm
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Mark Peterson wrote:Posted By: Mark Peterson
Date Posted: December 10 2010 at 10:41pm
Well, it certainly could not hurt anything and, considering that de-chlorinating chemicals actually reduce ammonia, it could be a good thing to have on hand if die off in the disturbed sand causes an ammonia spike a day or two later. Personally, I prefer to light up a bunch of algae to eat up the ammonia/pollution, but have used de-chlorinating products to handle extreme ammonia situations. The reason I believe that de-chlorinator isn't necessary is that our tanks can handle a lot more chlorine than most hobbyists realize. In freshwater tanks I've done 30% water changes with straight tap water with no bad effects. In reef aquariums I've added 10% tap water and saw no bad effects. As usual, hobbyist paranoia was created by the companies that sell the products.   One more thing to think about. The amount of tap water that would be left after rinsing and draining the LS is very negligible and if the rinsed LS is placed quickly back into LW the extra crud/detritus will be gone, opening up the spaces between sand particles. The bacteria that remained on and in the rinsed LS and survived can then quickly re-populate the sand bed.
------------- Reefkeeping Tips, & quick, easy setup tricks: www.utahreefs.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=9244 Pay it forward - become a paid WMAS member
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Posted By: MadReefer
Date Posted: December 10 2010 at 11:08pm
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True. It's probably not needed in this case. But I'll still use it.
It would be interesting to figure out what is happening when you add tap water. It probably killed something, but that something grew right back. Seeing as how it costs next to nothing and I rarely have to use it, I'll always have some when I need it.
I like Prime. I had a leak and lost 80% of the water out of a 60 gallon tank. I used tap water, Prime, and Oceanic salt to fill it up as fast as possible. I only lost the tips of a few corals that were out of the water for over three hours. That is a time when I would not want to run out of it.
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Posted By: Mark Peterson
Date Posted: December 10 2010 at 11:36pm
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Agreed.
------------- Reefkeeping Tips, & quick, easy setup tricks: www.utahreefs.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=9244 Pay it forward - become a paid WMAS member
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