adding more livesand

[40 galons]

iv searched the forums and decided it is safe to add livesand to an established tank. my question, what should i do if i bought a bag of livesand. should i put it in a cup or so at a time over a couple of days?or all at once?
when i started the tank i put in 2 , 30lb baggs of arrag sand (non live) , i dont think this is enough sand for the pourpose i intended it to be for , i seem to have detrus build up on the sand and the very bottom of the rocks , so im hopeing adding about 10 nassarious and another 20 lb bag of arraga live will fix the problem.
so my 2nd question is since there is a detrious build up on the sand what sould i do to it befor adding the arraga live. or is it ok to put it over the stuff?

 

[reefstar22]

make sure you dont have 2 deep of sand bed in your main display otherwise you could make your own private wasted dump!
Put the extra sand in the sump! ..DSB! ...if you are going to add it make sure you dont do it all at once if its live sand ...you could cause a few spikes...like you said if you add it slowly you should be fine.
Best of luck!

 

[hot883]

If it is live you will not cause a spike. Are you sure the stuff on the sand is detrius and not diatoms?

 

[40 galons]

well it was diatomes at first (possibly form the new sand ) but now they are gone. the stuff on the bottom of the sand seem to resemble greyish looking dirt, so i am assuming its detruius....... and i dont think that the sand is too deep but correct me if im wrong.. the tank is 36 in. long and 18 in. wide with 30 lbs of arrag sand. i think its a 550 gallon tank and i have a 10 gallon sump with just 2 random rockis sitting in it , i maily use it for water changes and equipment.

 

[reefstar22]

Originally Posted by hot883
If it is live you will not cause a spike. Are you sure the stuff on the sand is detrius and not diatoms?

It can cause a spike, it may not be major, but he could have SPS in his tank..and that could be enough to hurt it. Now I doubt this because someone doing SPS would know the answer to this question before its asked...but adding sand can cause a spike...depends whats in it...what his levels are at currently...if its enough sand it could cause the tank to go through a mini cycle.

 

[reefstar22]

Originally Posted by 40 galons
well it was diatomes at first (possibly form the new sand ) but now they are gone. the stuff on the bottom of the sand seem to resemble greyish looking dirt, so i am assuming its detruius....... and i dont think that the sand is too deep but correct me if im wrong.. the tank is 36 in. long and 18 in. wide with 30 lbs of arrag sand. i think its a 550 gallon tank and i have a 10 gallon sump with just 2 random rockis sitting in it , i maily use it for water changes and equipment.

You have a 500 gallon tank?

 

[40 galons]

srry for the mistype its a 55 gallon

 

[gtiguy]

You should check into the greyish areas more closely bc it could be a hydrogen/sulfide problem which would indefinitely crash your tank ...it happened to me about a year ago and will never go for the DSB again...one way to test for it is pull some sand from the bottom and see if smells like rotten eggs if it does you got yourself a problem and i would redo your entire sand bed with about 2" at the most...i have about 1.5" sand bed now...doing great!

 

[40 galons]

ok im about at the 2'' mark what do you have for a clean-up crew for the sandbed. this is the only area im having problems. i bout a dimond back sand sifter, although he sifts great he doesnt cover the entire bottom, currently the only thing i have for a clean-up crew is astrea snails ,@ 30 and they dont touch the sand.

 

[gtiguy]

I have nasserius snails (aka sand sifting snails) as well as a few white zebra hermits (doing a test right now with them) a sand sifting star, and an algae blenny (lawnmower blenny) and a pair of engineer gobies (and thats my cleanup crew lol)...Even with all those in my tank i still have some dirty sand lingering around believe it or not, but i recenlty after 2yrs switched over to Metal Halide lighting and have seen a big difference in my sand surface quality...so ill monitor my tank some more but prob will get some more hermits before the year is through.... :thinking: