adding new sand question

[perryxcore]

My 30g cube has reached the four year mark and i've noticed that my sand bed has become dwindled with most of it in the back underneath rock and the front of the tank being nearly bare (still some sand covering it). I'm expecting the answer to my question to be a resounding no but some experts out there might know better: is okay to add more sand to an already established and stocked tank?

Gimme your thoughts :)

 

[Johnthebaptist]

I have changed out my sand after a tank was up for about 4 years and had no issues. I did a full rebuild just to get it really clean. Not sure on adding sand.

 

[fsu1dolfan]

Tagging along - I would like to know what other reefers think about this as well...i wouldnt mind adding more sand to my bed too.

 

[Wy Renegade]

While I'm no expert, yes you can add sand to an already established reef tank. I personally would add the dry aragonite sand, wet it down with saltwater, and then use a length of PVC pipe and a pump with a hose attached running into the PVC pipe to deposite the sand within your aquarium in the positions were you want it. Add the sand slowly over time (about a week between additions), covering your existing sand with no more than 1/4 to 1/2" of new sand at a time. This insures you don't trap debris and create anaerobic areas within the new sandbed, as well as allowing time for microfauna from the old sand to populate the new sand.

 

[perryxcore]

thanks for the tip! In this instance I feel like the word pump is a little vague, do you mean a powerhead or what kind of pump? Any other ideas floating about? Also should I expect the obnoxious amount of cloudiness or will it be a lot less than when original sand was added?

 

[Wy Renegade]

If you rinse the dry sand well and wet it down good, you should have relatively few problems with cloudiness. I would however, turn all the other pumps in your tank off as you add the sand, give it a bit to settle after you've added it, then turn your pumps back on. Be sure and rinse the dry sand well.

 

[butts182]

I had the same problem in my 30g and I added sand...i added live sand...here's what I did: emptied sand and water from bag into a 5g bucket, add more fresh saltwater to fully submerge sand with about 6" of extra water above top of sand, stir it around with my hand for a minute or so, siphon out the floating stuff, restir and siphon...when adding it to my tank, i just used a beer glass to scoop up sand, drain the water, and placed one or two glasses of sand in per day...make sure that you have the glass full and cover the top of the glass with 1 hand when you put it in the tank, otherwise it will make the tank more cloudy

 

[Reef UP]

If you use live cultured sand is what I've done multiple time over the years, just wash the bag off really good with warm water, then put one end of the bag at the bottom then cut off a corner with a razor blade and slowly dump it out there will be little clouding and I've never had any problems adding as much new sand as I wanted all at once! Also the feedback above is great as well!