Adding Sand

[brewercm]

I'm wanting to add a little more sand to my aquarium and had a question. The tank is around 4 years old so will this cause any problems with the existing sand that is in it as far as the biological filtration goes? I did change over from CC to the existing about 6 months ago and lots of worms (spaghetti and bristle) are already in the sand bed.

Right now I have the medium size aragonite sand and am looking to add the aragamax sugar size on top of it. Will add through some PVC to keep from making a monster cloud I hope.

Thanks

[witecap4u]

From what I read, you should only do about 1"Max and they wait a week or two, and do more...cs

[Tim Marvin]

Too much too fast will make the deeper sand anoxic! This will end up wiping out the entire tank possibly. I would try one inch every few months.

[matt]

Depending on how deep your current sand bed is, I'd consider mixing what you have with the new stuff; probably this is only a good idea if your current sand bed is 2" or so or less. I think with a shallow bed you're unlikely to have anaerobic spots, so it would be okay to mix it. Ultimately, this might be better because you want the finer grain sand at the bottom of your sand bed for more anaerobic bacteria growth. I'd also do part of the tank at a time, maybe 25% or so, rather than an inch over the whole bed. You're gonna get a cloud no matter what you do, I bet. If you rinse the sand in RO water before using, it shouldn't be too bad (famous last words)

Just my thoughts
Matt

[Tim Marvin]

I'd have to agree with Matt.