Adding dry sand to an established tank

[kkarvelas]

Hi everyone, I’ve had my tank up and running since around last may. With water changes and a cyano episode ive sucked out a good bit of sand. I have a packet of dry fine sand I want to add to the tank, I’ve added live before in the past with a previous tank but never dry.
Any risks in doing this? Anyone have a tips tricks or advice ? I haven’t heard much about reefers adding dry sand and want to check with this forum first :)

 

[lapin]

Rinse it a lot before adding. No worries

 

[kkarvelas]

Rinse it a lot before adding. No worries

With r/o right?

 

[lapin]

I find tap is fine. If worried just add some declor in the last rinse

 

[Supurderek]

I would do Rodi if you have it. But if you do use tap water, do what Lapin says.

 

[JCTReefer]

Rinse thoroughly with tap until clear. Or mostly clear. Then do the final rinse with Ro/DI. You’ll find that when rinsing sand with tap, you’ll get it pretty clear. Then once you do the final rinse with Ro/di, it’ll cloud up a bit more than with tap. The ultra pure nature of Ro/di is the reason for this. Definitely don’t waste Any more Ro/di than you have to.

 

[Billdogg]

I'd just use tap water, but that's me.

When you add it to the tank, I find it goes best (least cloudy) if you either use a long piece of large diameter PVC as a funnel or put the sand in a plastic dish, slowly allow it to fill with water, then carefully take it to the bottom and pour it out.

 

[homer1475]

Definitely rinse the bejesus out of it. Other wise it will cloud up the tank.

I just use a ziplock baggie. Put it in the tank, let it fill up with water, then dump the sand in.

 

[Hilltopreef]

Just added new dry sand to my several year old reef Last week. Rinsed with well water with no problems. Probably would worry about city water but luckily have well water. Livin in the boonies has some benefits. Used a wide mouth canning funnel taped to my 24” python vacuum tube. Just poured about a cup at a time into the funnel with the tube at the bottom. Just move the tube around wherever you need more sand.

 

[ca1ore]

Such a small amount of water remains after washing sand. Inconsequential.

 

[Drewbacca]

I put a few cups of sand in mesh filter bags and throw in my sump where no light hits it...then when I need to fill spots in.. I have a bag of seeded sand ready to put in DT. Then I replace bag in sump with new sand. I'm no expert on bacteria but I just thought it logically made sense to help it not grow algae or effect anything when added & mixed with DT sand. I would love to hear educated thoughts on this.
Thanks!

 

[brandon429]

sounds good to me. it'll work.