Tropical Play Sand sucks so far...
- Thread starter mujtba
- Start date
nm reef
Active Member
Southdowns popularity is based in part on the extremely fine grain size...each individual grain provides surface area and more surface area allows increased amounts of bacterias to cling to it which in turn makes it more efective. More individual grains(even the super fine silt) allows more bacteria.The fine silt like particles are beneficial and increase the de-nitrification properties of a well established DSB. That is why most hobbyists don't suggest rinsing the silt out. It is a positive part of the product. At the same time the fine silt like particles are why fine grain sands cloud up so easily...and that is why reference has been made to being patient and allowing bacteria colonies to build up to the point it weighs down the sand. That is why over time even a cloudy mess will settle and become much less likely to storm and cloud up.
...at least thats my story and I'm stickin' to it!!!
...at least thats my story and I'm stickin' to it!!!
tony detroit
Active Member
What I did recently for rinsing, with my shallow bed/barebottom tank was ran a garden hose to the tank from a cold water spiggot, filled the tank about a foot, then ran another garden hose on a syphon right out the doorwall to continually drain the tank, and then I started washing the sand, right in the aquarium, mind you with livestock in organized tubs, NOT in the tank.
I did this for about 20minutes until the water was clear, just went back and forth blasting the aragonite with the one hose, and the other hose just kept syphoning the water out of the tank, right outside, and when I was all done, I jacked the tank so it ran all the water to one end and made sure I sucked out as much tapwater as possible, then I added some amquel to take care of the little bit of chlorine/chloramine that may have been residual left on the walls/aragonite chunks, and then started filling with RO water and water from my tubs. There was no cloud and this was the best method I have tried so far. I lost no livestock except an acro frag, which I think got a little beat up from the move, not the sand washing.
As for getting southdown out of an existing tank, without scratching the acrylic and making a mess of things, the easiest way is to get a couple garbage cans, and go to home depot and buy a 2'' diamater braided nylon hose. When you start a syphon with that hose it will suck the sand out so fast, you won't know what happened. I sucked out 570lbs of sand out of my 300gal and had it all out within 30 minutes. The only thing you will need is a pump and a hose on the end of the pump to pump the water back to the tank from the trashcans, the sand will settle to the bottom, but you can pump out 95% of the water back to the tank, or to holding vats while you get ready to add new stuff back to the tank.
I did this for about 20minutes until the water was clear, just went back and forth blasting the aragonite with the one hose, and the other hose just kept syphoning the water out of the tank, right outside, and when I was all done, I jacked the tank so it ran all the water to one end and made sure I sucked out as much tapwater as possible, then I added some amquel to take care of the little bit of chlorine/chloramine that may have been residual left on the walls/aragonite chunks, and then started filling with RO water and water from my tubs. There was no cloud and this was the best method I have tried so far. I lost no livestock except an acro frag, which I think got a little beat up from the move, not the sand washing.
As for getting southdown out of an existing tank, without scratching the acrylic and making a mess of things, the easiest way is to get a couple garbage cans, and go to home depot and buy a 2'' diamater braided nylon hose. When you start a syphon with that hose it will suck the sand out so fast, you won't know what happened. I sucked out 570lbs of sand out of my 300gal and had it all out within 30 minutes. The only thing you will need is a pump and a hose on the end of the pump to pump the water back to the tank from the trashcans, the sand will settle to the bottom, but you can pump out 95% of the water back to the tank, or to holding vats while you get ready to add new stuff back to the tank.
streetdoc
Member
Plenty of critters Kip. Used an Old tank as a QT and got them from the Gulf including a few feather dusters that started to grom on live rock I've had for over a year now. I'm not discounting what you "old timers" are saying, I'm just saying that I've had problems with sand that not rinsed even after several month. I admit that much of the fine silt has found its way to my sump, but I'm not sure of the benefit of it. I do agree with patience, but have tried it and not seen the benefits of it in this case.
dskidmore
Active Member
The people I read were doing the long cure with heaters and circulation were concerned with too many of the fine particles disovling and overdosing the tank with calcium at the start. They weren't trying to remove fine particles, but they wanted to make sure they weren't leaching too fast.
cbshark
Member
Kip,
After reading your somewhat smart -alec remarks to my post, I am convinced you feel that you are always right and anyone that does anything different than what you recommend will undoubtedly fail. I used the method that I described to mujtba about a year ago and i have had no nitrate problems or had my sand bed crash. I don't use a DSB, I only have about 1 to 1-1/2" of sand in my tank. I depend on my LR and fuge for nitrogen removal. My nitrates are under 5 ppm and very stable. As it has been stated in the past, there are many, many different equations in this hobby that lead to success. I feel that I have been quite successful with my tank and I thought that maybe I could help out a newbie in need with some info. I thought that is what this boarc is about. People come here to get differing opinions and try out what works for them. Maybe your tank does great with the set-up you have but it also works for others with a completely different set-up. I do not have any SPS coral and only a couple of LPS corals. What I have is softies, anemones, inverts and fish, and they are all thriving. I have always valued your opinion and I wasn't trying to take a swipe at you. I am just of the opinion that there are alot of people on this board (i didn't specifically say you were included by the way) who have success with a certain practices that swear that it is the only way it can be and have no real basis for their beliefs other that it works for them. I know many reef keepers and many times what works for one doesn't for another. It all depends on the water you use, where you live, what you add, where you buy, etc.. If someone finds a system that works and would like to offer input to a new hobbyist, they shouldn't be ganged up on for differing beliefs than others on the board. All I wanted to do was let mujtba know what worked for me. If you feel that I am wrong, fine, but if it's working for me, then i'm not wrong, and for that matter, neither are you. We just have different opinions, different systems yet we are equally happy with the success that we have been able to achive and would like to share it with the rest of the people here. I would have to say that if it wasn't for this board, i would be struggling with my reef. But thanks to hte help of people here like you and Brookly Johnny and many others, my tank now is awesome and I like to share my experiences with others in need. Your posts have been very helpful to me in the past and it kind of irritated me that you shoot down something I post that may be of some use to others. I can tell by some of the other posts in this thread that i am not alone in my opinion of rinsing sand, many things can and do work for many different people.
After reading your somewhat smart -alec remarks to my post, I am convinced you feel that you are always right and anyone that does anything different than what you recommend will undoubtedly fail. I used the method that I described to mujtba about a year ago and i have had no nitrate problems or had my sand bed crash. I don't use a DSB, I only have about 1 to 1-1/2" of sand in my tank. I depend on my LR and fuge for nitrogen removal. My nitrates are under 5 ppm and very stable. As it has been stated in the past, there are many, many different equations in this hobby that lead to success. I feel that I have been quite successful with my tank and I thought that maybe I could help out a newbie in need with some info. I thought that is what this boarc is about. People come here to get differing opinions and try out what works for them. Maybe your tank does great with the set-up you have but it also works for others with a completely different set-up. I do not have any SPS coral and only a couple of LPS corals. What I have is softies, anemones, inverts and fish, and they are all thriving. I have always valued your opinion and I wasn't trying to take a swipe at you. I am just of the opinion that there are alot of people on this board (i didn't specifically say you were included by the way) who have success with a certain practices that swear that it is the only way it can be and have no real basis for their beliefs other that it works for them. I know many reef keepers and many times what works for one doesn't for another. It all depends on the water you use, where you live, what you add, where you buy, etc.. If someone finds a system that works and would like to offer input to a new hobbyist, they shouldn't be ganged up on for differing beliefs than others on the board. All I wanted to do was let mujtba know what worked for me. If you feel that I am wrong, fine, but if it's working for me, then i'm not wrong, and for that matter, neither are you. We just have different opinions, different systems yet we are equally happy with the success that we have been able to achive and would like to share it with the rest of the people here. I would have to say that if it wasn't for this board, i would be struggling with my reef. But thanks to hte help of people here like you and Brookly Johnny and many others, my tank now is awesome and I like to share my experiences with others in need. Your posts have been very helpful to me in the past and it kind of irritated me that you shoot down something I post that may be of some use to others. I can tell by some of the other posts in this thread that i am not alone in my opinion of rinsing sand, many things can and do work for many different people.
cbshark
Member
Kip, Thanks for the reply and I too apologize for ranting. I noticed that there is a "reporting posters" post here and it's people that that post is directed to that really get to me. I've been the victim of some unwarranted attacks in the past ans I hate when people jump on a negative post and string it out. Thanks again for all your help in the past and good luck as well!
Craig
Craig
