USE LIVE SAND, TO USE OR NOT TO USE THAT IS THE QUESTION?

[texascwby430]

I purchased a 72 gallon Bowfront aquarium which came with 100 pound of LR, and 80 pounds of LS. These have been in their tank water with fans since being removed.

I am new to the hobby and would like to use the LS, but should I? I know there is a lot of opinions on using and not using, but wondering what my MAAST community could offer as ideas.

Thanks in advance.

Jason:shades:

[Zack]

I personally wouldn't use old sand because theres no telling how much of it got stirred up in the take down/ move

[allan]

Use it and let it cycle? There will be some die off.

Or remove it all and rinse the heck out of it. Rinse rinse rinse.


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[BBQHILLBILLY]

I have an 8ft tank that is 5 inches of reused sand doing great and a dsa65 that has reused Hawaiin lava sand and its cycling for sure right now.
I have never rinsed sand so I dont know if it will cycle faster or not.

[allan]

Rinse it!!!

Please don't let the success of one convince you that it's a good idea not to rinse.

If you've got a used sandbed you will have crud within the sandbed that will wreak havoc on your system. Rinsing will let your tank cycle faster. And really, do you want the waste of another tank to be something that you will have to deal with immediately or in the near future?

I've rinsed many buckets of sand and was able to initiate a new tank without a cycle (using established rock and alive rock) with not much more than a few hours before setting up the new tank with fish and coral. Had I not rinsed I would have been relegated to waiting out toxins and cycling of the new sand.


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[Fracture]

Yes always rinse IMO

[BBQHILLBILLY]

if the sand is not dead your ok. I transferred sand from tank to tank no problem. if it is dead you will have big cycle. Like I have right now. ughh
Ill have to make some ro/di sw and do some water changes.

[allan]

if the sand is not dead your ok. I transferred sand from tank to tank no problem. if it is dead you will have big cycle. Like I have right now. ughh
Ill have to make some ro/di sw and do some water changes.

As Shane has pointed out, rinse it. Moving it will cause a die off that will result in a die off. Just disturbing a sand bed will cause problems you don't want.


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[BBQHILLBILLY]

heres a pic of cycle where live rock gets covered in yuky stuff. if you dont take all the warnings and your live rock will look like this

[texascwby430]

Thanks everyone, wanted to use the LS, prior person took it out and into a storage container with water from tank, and has had fans on since then. I was unsure of the rinse but felt it was the right thing to do, but unsure of lost benefits when doing so. I will rinse, rinse, and then rinse some more. The LR also from same person the tank came from, also in circulating water, is there a need to also rinse these off as they go in, or just as they are?

[Scutterborn]

I would shake off any crud off the rock as I pulled it from the old water. You don't want to destroy the nitrifying bacteria that's colonized on the surface of the rock. Keep it in saltwater that is temp controlled.


- Ben -

[allan]

Ditto to Ben.

Also, the sand. This is the way I did it after taking advice from others.

Fill a five gallon bucket about 3/4 with sand. Push a water hose into the sand. The water will come up dirty as heck. Then as the water clears move the hose to other areas. You really want to be able to run the water hose throughout the sand without dirty water coming up.

Don't start over grass, however I would move mine when I felt there wasn't any more significant amount of salt remaining.


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[texascwby430]

Thanks everyone, I took your advise and RINSED RINSED RINSED.
Sand is in, and looks great, pulled out all the little shells and pieces, and looks much better in the tank.