Save Sand?

[kaiser]

sent PM on Flame Angel.

[Joe]

PITA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I'm either gonna get new sand or go bare bottom. The sand is still available to anyone who wants it. Doesn't smell bad. What about setting the tank back up with just shells and rubble on the bottom?

[Instar]

Rubble, as in coarse aragonite, crushed shells and bits and pieces of live rock makes a fantastic home for little brittle stars, amphipods, copepods, worms of all kinds other than spaghetti worms and even some tunnel building fish. Rubble as well as bare bottom are not friendly tanks for wrasses that bury at night, scooter blennies (also bury at night), sifters of any kind, nassarius snails, burrowing feather dusters and no doubt a bunch of things I haven't mentioned here like small neon gobies. Too easy for something to sit there and grab them from a hole. Some wrasses in the fairy wrasse family, triggers, angels, butterflies, damsels, clowns, firefish, all of the mouth breeders and groupers would love this kind of tank. My favorite bottom is a combo of from 1/2 inch to 1 inch of white aragonite that is a little larger than sugar fine with rubble piled in the corners and around the base toward the back of the live rock. White sand out in front. Its not fine enough to be a sponge, its open enough for lots of life and thin enough for critters to stir it and keep it clean. Bare bottoms look like wholesalers tanks; sterile and not all that pretty to look at unless they are covered with zoos, green stars, etc. Jims tank had coarse aragonite and fine rubble to the front but was bare under the rocks toward the back. Lots of different methods work. Why not sell the sand and just start the sand bed over again? Since it doesn't stink, sounds like you could save some of it for reseeding a new sand bed. And it also sounds like you got it right since it smells ok. No matter what kind of bottom you go with, you still have to get it colonized with bacteria and microscopic life to keep the tank in good shape. In other words, the culture still has to be there regardless of the media used to grow it on or in.

[Joe]

Thanks for the advice. BTW the sand is not for sale, it is free to anyone who can come get it. Otherwise, it will be thrown away.

[StephenA]

I'd re-use it. As long as it doesn't smell it's fine. I tried keeping mine for 2 months. It got nasty. You could smell it 3 doors down when I tried washing it.