Adding sand to established tank?

[brandon429]

no effects

*its true the vast majority added the sand via pvc pipe or bag dump and the system itself removes floating particles quite well, that could be the case. but any way its sliced, pre rinsing in tap makes all new systems look instantly excellent, no wait, and the missing silt wasn't any harm to the system nor the brief tap water contact.

even though tap ranges in safety area to area, we havent made that distinction and you can see the thread hums along just fine, true patterns emerging- an hour of rinsing and then finally in RO is really low dwell time anyway for tap water concerns.

rinsing existing sand, aged and in place sand, in older tanks allows us to infinitely move or upgrade them without ever having a single recycling event, we dont even test for any params on the whole thread, because none vary when we deal in cloudlessness.

the reason we use tap water is this breakdown:

80% is for the effect of offending the establishment, over and over for years on end

20% reason why is because its endless and we wont run out early, leaving partial clouding in the sand, risking the cycle event (applies to old aged beds, not new bagged clouding, that's just ugly silt)

 

[smallfry]

So just for my own understanding. BRS just went over this whole live sand/Ocean direct thing with Ryan's tank. BRS appears to be pretty honest, and I (possibly naïvely?) believe them. So are they wrong with what they are saying, or are they just unnecessarily toeing the line for the vendor? BTW, I am in no way affiliated with BRS, and get gear from multiple vendors (one of whom is them). I'm just curious.

 

[brandon429]

What’s your impression of the link on post #12

is that honestly 200+ instant sandbed removals on file with follow up, plus we open with fifteen examples of folks who added sand without rinsing and it destroyed the tank for a good while, unnecessarily


brs did it a different way than we did, they were honestly reporting their way, it’s just not the best way in the matter.

 

[Iggy305]

I recently changed tanks and washed all my new, bagged Special Grade sand. Not only was my tank never cloudy, it skipped the cycling (rocks handled that) and my nitrates just now started hitting 2 and it’s been about 1 month. I agree with Brandon429 and followed the recommendations in that very thread.

 

[brandon429]

I know thousands of folks did and do it without rinsing for sure, but we found that pre rinse simply makes everyone have a great outcome at the expense of all that water wasted. So glad your tank work turned out bright and clean


My sandbed is cruddy and pent up with waste since I’ve been putting off cleaning I think it’s time to catch up my own tank I’ll be swapping beds this weekend with a new ocean direct bag + prep rinse

 

[Mandrew559]

I recently changed tanks and washed all my new, bagged Special Grade sand. Not only was my tank never cloudy, it skipped the cycling (rocks handled that) and my nitrates just now started hitting 2 and it’s been about 1 month. I agree with Brandon429 and followed the recommendations in that very thread.

You rinsed in ro? Why not rinse in saltwater?

 

[brandon429]

Rinsing is tap is better than both options, because those options waste costly water vs free tap. There is zero harm in tap rinsing. Make final rinse in ro.

reef tanks do not need and are not linked to the bac in the sand. You can remove anyone’s sandbed to make the tank bare bottom, therefore however you rinse sand with tap can’t hurt, we don’t even need it in the first place / bare bottom tank trend.

in all cases of tank harm during sand removal, it was the cloudy waste from old sand and or light burning in the new setup that caused the loss. Rinsing out new sand is mainly for great looks that clouding isn’t particularly dangerous like used sand can be in a small number of tanks

 

[Iggy305]

You rinsed in ro? Why not rinse in saltwater?

I rinsed in Tap water, basically put the sand in a bucket stuck the hose at the bottom and let ‘er rip. Let that go for about 45 minutes, churning it with my hand from time to time. Did that until basically I would see it clear quickly in front of my eyes. After that poured out the water as best I could, filled with RODI, and added some prime, let that soak over night. Filled the tank the next day. Done.

I was skeptical, but never afraid to try something, worked perfectly and all credit to that thread.

 

[airvicconcre]

So your saying to wash brand new caribsea is tap then ro? U see any side effects adding sand first time to an already established bare bottom

Regarding the label vs the truth: settling over time probably makes it worse, I bet it leaves the bag facility much cleaner.


either way, caribsea missed sending any QA techs to homes buying bags from pet stores and the massive mess that happens about 40% of the time, enough to cause pure fear in many folks, we linked with years of hard work all in one thread


ps: they may have mislead us on bacteria being added at all. We had it tested, showed inert. I too got that wrong for years I assumed anything wet would have some bac

aquabiomics runs a neat dna testing lab for reef surfaces

and ocean direct was disappointing after the survey, ask AB for input details if needed on that part.

hi. i have arag sea live sand in my DT, mt tank is 3 months old so fairly new. i was planning on adding more live sand. would it be safe to add just out of the bag or do i have to go through a process? at the moment i only have fish in the DT. thank you.

 

[brandon429]

Add a handful of unrinsed sand to a clear glass of water, pretend that's your display tank

Then dump out that sample, fill new water in the cup, and add a handful of highly rinsed sand and compare results.

If the captions you provided with detailed reasons to rinse + the context of the thread title didn't fully clarify which way is best, an in- person choice run via clear glass test will surely work.

 

[airvicconcre]

Add a handful of unrinsed sand to a clear glass of water, pretend that's your display tank

Then dump out that sample, fill new water in the cup, and add a handful of highly rinsed sand and compare results.

If the captions you provided with detailed reasons to rinse + the context of the thread title didn't fully clarify which way is best, an in- person choice run via clear glass test will surely work.

thank you. makes sense that way. i will do that.

 

[homer1475]

About the only time I have every agreed with @brandon429. Always rinse bagged sand regardless if it's "alive" or dry.

 

[airvicconcre]

About the only time I have every agreed with @brandon429. Always rinse bagged sand regardless if it's "alive" or dry.

Already did and adding a couple of cups a day. Thanks