Sand
- Thread starter fishstax
- Start date
bang guy
Moderator
I recommend against it. The Phosphates and other organic material produced by the dying sandbed infauna will most likely adsorb onto the sand grains. Washing in an acid will work but then most of the sand would just dissolve.
Live sand needs to be treated just like any other live organism.
Live sand needs to be treated just like any other live organism.
chipmaker
Active Member
I just do not buy that. The lfs here routinely drains a tank and heaps the sand up until the majority of it is dry, and then scoops it out and puts it in a drum or buckets. SOme sticks to high heaven....but its sure not ruined by any stretch of the imagination. For as much as sand costs especially aragonite based, its a sin to throw it away just because it needs a bit of rinsiing and cleaning. At the owrst even if it was all dead and full of nitrate nitrite and phosphates and mody
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remains, a rinse in water be it chlorinated or rodi or salt will remove virtually all of the organics that make it smell, and then placing it in thr tank and initiating a cycle will finish off what the rinse did not complete. Oh and BTW the lfs here has some of the ost beaautiful tanks around most of them created and recreated with sand reclaimed months and weeks after a tank was broken down or reclaimed for one reason or another. They often buy used tanks / etc from folks (really steal em for what they pay for them) and about all they do is put the fish in the tanks to resell along with the corals and liverock, drain out the water, scoop out the sand and "SAVE" it as well, clean tank and sell it along with accessories......Sand just does not wear out or become unuseable from being smelly or setting dry or even in stagnant water. If that was the case then the live rock would be in the same boat that sets around for days and weeks on end as well or even rock that is shipped........Rinse the swand and reuse it, At the worst yu'll have a sand bed without any life but still viable and ready to be seeded from live rock or a cup or two of good live sand or some live rock......and be $$$$$ ahead in not having to pay the prices they ask for sand in lfs's. Odds are by the time a tank is cycled that sand will be ful of life as any other live sand would be .
[hr]
remains, a rinse in water be it chlorinated or rodi or salt will remove virtually all of the organics that make it smell, and then placing it in thr tank and initiating a cycle will finish off what the rinse did not complete. Oh and BTW the lfs here has some of the ost beaautiful tanks around most of them created and recreated with sand reclaimed months and weeks after a tank was broken down or reclaimed for one reason or another. They often buy used tanks / etc from folks (really steal em for what they pay for them) and about all they do is put the fish in the tanks to resell along with the corals and liverock, drain out the water, scoop out the sand and "SAVE" it as well, clean tank and sell it along with accessories......Sand just does not wear out or become unuseable from being smelly or setting dry or even in stagnant water. If that was the case then the live rock would be in the same boat that sets around for days and weeks on end as well or even rock that is shipped........Rinse the swand and reuse it, At the worst yu'll have a sand bed without any life but still viable and ready to be seeded from live rock or a cup or two of good live sand or some live rock......and be $$$$$ ahead in not having to pay the prices they ask for sand in lfs's. Odds are by the time a tank is cycled that sand will be ful of life as any other live sand would be .
sly
Active Member
You can reuse the sand but you need to recure it. Treat it like live rock. Put it in a seperate tank or bucket for a few weeks. Monitor levels and do water changes as necessary. When the dyeoff is complete you can put it in your main tank.
Rinse it off before you start to remove as much contaminates as you can...
You would probably be better off getting new sand though.
Rinse it off before you start to remove as much contaminates as you can...
You would probably be better off getting new sand though.
chipmaker
Active Member
YOu can wash it thouroughly in chlorox, and rinse well and allow to air dry or treat with dechlor. and then allow to air dry. ONce dry yu can then add a cup at a time over the top of what you already have in place without much worry about initiating a cycle or any cycle would be very very small and not of any harm to inhabitants nor would it kill any of the live sand already in place. It would be no worse than adding the wet packed sand to a existing setup that everyone thinks is so beneficial as it has all those so called live bactieria in it. Odds are its a bag of dead sand more than its live sand as its been bagged shipped stored and handled in all sorts of ways contrary to how it should have ideally been kept.
sly
Active Member
IMO bleaching sand can be very dangerous if not done correctly. If done only use VERY LITTLE bleach and rinse HEAVILY. Soaking the sand in clean water for a day and then changing the water will remove any residue bleach. Back when I cleaned my rocks with bleach (I don't anymore) I would soak them in a weak bleach solution for an hour or so and then rinse them heavily. Then I would put them in a bucket of clean water and change out the water once per day for about a week before putting it back in my main tank.
chipmaker
Active Member
Originally Posted by Sly
IMO bleaching sand can be very dangerous if not done correctly. If done only use VERY LITTLE bleach and rinse HEAVILY. Soaking the sand in clean water for a day and then changing the water will remove any residue bleach. Back when I cleaned my rocks with bleach (I don't anymore) I would soak them in a weak bleach solution for an hour or so and then rinse them heavily. Then I would put them in a bucket of clean water and change out the water once per day for about a week before putting it back in my main tank.
Bleach will become inert in no time weather yu get a full complete rinse on it or not. To me rinseing in clean water is more than sufficieint to remove detrius and junk that is accumulated in the sand and that alonoe will remove 99% of any odor. The rest will be absorbed by the mini cycle if any cycle at all occurs. 10:1 is appropriate ratio of water to chlorox for most anay cleaning purpose involving aquariums etc. I use Potassium Permangante myself if a cleaning / oxidizing / sterilizing method is needed, but most times clean fresh water is all thats needed, or salt water if I do not want to kill any more than is already dead on the items.
IMO bleaching sand can be very dangerous if not done correctly. If done only use VERY LITTLE bleach and rinse HEAVILY. Soaking the sand in clean water for a day and then changing the water will remove any residue bleach. Back when I cleaned my rocks with bleach (I don't anymore) I would soak them in a weak bleach solution for an hour or so and then rinse them heavily. Then I would put them in a bucket of clean water and change out the water once per day for about a week before putting it back in my main tank.
Bleach will become inert in no time weather yu get a full complete rinse on it or not. To me rinseing in clean water is more than sufficieint to remove detrius and junk that is accumulated in the sand and that alonoe will remove 99% of any odor. The rest will be absorbed by the mini cycle if any cycle at all occurs. 10:1 is appropriate ratio of water to chlorox for most anay cleaning purpose involving aquariums etc. I use Potassium Permangante myself if a cleaning / oxidizing / sterilizing method is needed, but most times clean fresh water is all thats needed, or salt water if I do not want to kill any more than is already dead on the items.