time to change water, also have new sand, which to do first?

[whysohigh]

its time for my water change and i also just bought a 20lb bag of natures ocean live sand. which would be best to do first? does it matter? thanks in advance.

 

[blackjacktang]

do u already have sand in your tank? and its proboly going to make it really foggy

 

[whysohigh]

i do have sand in my tank already, i have a large funnel and hose i made, when i pour sand in it it delivers sand right to the bottom of the tank with no cloudy mess.
i just dont know if it matters if i add the sand and change the water would i be flushing out and diluting all the trace elements and beneficial bacteria the label on the bag goes on and on about.

 

[whysohigh]

after 21 views and no responses i contacted natures ocean. heres what they recommended and what i did.
drain the amount of water from the tank i normally drain. add the sand, fill the tank. just in case anyone ever has this issue in the future.

 

[stanlalee]

the easy way to add sand without making a mess is turning the flow off in the tank and using a tuperwear container (or the like) with top. fill the container with sand and put the top on it. slowly bring the topped container to the bottom of the tank and slowly release the top. then you can gently poor out the sand without stirring it up. repeat until you've added all the sand. I've done this several times (replacing sand bed and adding sand to the sump) This would be best done during the water change since the pumps would be off already ( hey late response is better than no response).