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Amy406
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Also, I failed to ask this earlier, but after this, my sand is going to a mess, I’m not so sure I can save it, especially since it’s not being taken care of his properly as everything else is. I know I’d have to have a little sound bad for my Wrasse but does anybody else have a bare bottom aquarium? Any suggestions?
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Amy406
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We actually tried this when my local guy first installed the aquarium three years ago. He ended up going through three aquariums cracking and breaking before we finally gave up and put in an aquarium with a built in overflow. He put in hundreds of aquariums this way, and said, by the time he got to my aquarium the materials changed in the drilling doesn’t go as easily as it had it in the past.
Amy
I subbed to this thread solely to see how transferring rotting sand to the new tank was going to affect your transition
now that you asked how to process it, I would like to chime in with this
50 pages of prepping perfect sand across hundreds of tank transfers. if you want to skip cycle, you'd better rip clean that sand.
www.reef2reef.com
rinse your sand as we did there in every job. don't partial rinse, nobody partial rinsed there, those are 100% all total rinse cleaning
study several links there, do what they did, verify your prepped sand using a glass container to ensure your sand has 0% cloud before you use it anywhere / in holding or for the new tank.
do not use 1 handful of old sand in the new tank, I write on page 1 above to never do that
simply do what we did, you don't have a lot of sand anyway that's lucky. if you would have moved old sand you'd have massive algae and cyano outbreaks in 2 months. I wasn't going to say anything until you inquired because rip cleans sound intrusive, but in reality they are the only safe means of handling sand. its how we got to page 50 with perfect outcomes never using ammonia testing or bottle bac, merely sand rinsing the right way.
I subbed to this thread solely to see how transferring rotting sand to the new tank was going to affect your transition
now that you asked how to process it, I would like to chime in with this
50 pages of prepping perfect sand across hundreds of tank transfers. if you want to skip cycle, you'd better rip clean that sand.
Official Sand Rinse and Tank Transfer thread
If you are reading this thread to cure a tank invasion from a link I sent you, we do not need to identify your type of invasion here we do not need you to test anything at anytime regarding nitrate, phosphate etc Above all, we do not need to see a microscope slide picture of your invasion at...
www.reef2reef.com
rinse your sand as we did there in every job. don't partial rinse, nobody partial rinsed there, those are 100% all total rinse cleaning
study several links there, do what they did, verify your prepped sand using a glass container to ensure your sand has 0% cloud before you use it anywhere / in holding or for the new tank.
do not use 1 handful of old sand in the new tank, I write on page 1 above to never do that
simply do what we did, you don't have a lot of sand anyway that's lucky. if you would have moved old sand you'd have massive algae and cyano outbreaks in 2 months. I wasn't going to say anything until you inquired because rip cleans sound intrusive, but in reality they are the only safe means of handling sand. its how we got to page 50 with perfect outcomes never using ammonia testing or bottle bac, merely sand rinsing the right way.
the thread above is the proof
here's the quick condensed mode so you don't have to read for hours
take all your sand out without scratching the tank if you're going to re use the tank, I would not do that. I'd have a new tank for sure. I would not re use this tank.
rinse it for hours on end in sections, in tap water in a bucket outside, until it rinses clear AND testing in a clear glass of water proves each subsection was rinsed clear. do a final rinse in RO water, to evacuate tap, and you'll have cloudless perfect sand that cannot cause you a mini cycle. you can then set your stuff right back on top and not cycle: that's all 50 pages.
reef tanks do not need bacteria from sand, it is merely tolerated extra bioloading, which is why us blasting it out with tap water made tanks better vs worse. Old cycling science has it wrong when referencing how sandbed biology works, rinsing them to complete clarity and not 99% clarity is what works and always will work.
the more you rinse the sand to get the waste out, the safer your transfer will be.
the less you rinse sand in order to retain bacteria, the more dangerous your tank transfer will be. old cycling science is literally backwards from the truth, it is designed to sell you extra bottle bac. new cycling science is designed to make your tank transfer work perfectly and not sell you anything.
here's the quick condensed mode so you don't have to read for hours
take all your sand out without scratching the tank if you're going to re use the tank, I would not do that. I'd have a new tank for sure. I would not re use this tank.
rinse it for hours on end in sections, in tap water in a bucket outside, until it rinses clear AND testing in a clear glass of water proves each subsection was rinsed clear. do a final rinse in RO water, to evacuate tap, and you'll have cloudless perfect sand that cannot cause you a mini cycle. you can then set your stuff right back on top and not cycle: that's all 50 pages.
reef tanks do not need bacteria from sand, it is merely tolerated extra bioloading, which is why us blasting it out with tap water made tanks better vs worse. Old cycling science has it wrong when referencing how sandbed biology works, rinsing them to complete clarity and not 99% clarity is what works and always will work.
the more you rinse the sand to get the waste out, the safer your transfer will be.
the less you rinse sand in order to retain bacteria, the more dangerous your tank transfer will be. old cycling science is literally backwards from the truth, it is designed to sell you extra bottle bac. new cycling science is designed to make your tank transfer work perfectly and not sell you anything.
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That seems a bit strange in my opinion if he is an aquarium professional...
As an amateur, I've drilled a 75g, 90g, 40g, and several 10g tanks with no issues aside from amateur mistakes on a couple of the 10g tanks. I'm not saying it is infallible, but it seems to me that tank drilling should not be that troublesome for a professional.
I enjoy DIY, so I would probably attempt the repair if in your situation, but I would first just replace the tank if possible so I could have the peace-of-mind not worrying about my repair abilities every time I saw the tank. I'd then try to repair the old tank and use for a different purpose, lower-risk. This might be easier for me to say, though, since I run multiple tanks and have a dedicated basement fish room where house damage is not really a factor in event of even catastrophic tank failure.
South Carolina reef
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Flexseal
the sum total takeaway for your sand transfer is you need to get someone to help you rinse the sand in prep for the new system or add a couple hours to your job so you can make the sand perfectly clear. it's not too big of a side job but it's a critical one that's for sure.
I can't recommend using any non reef safe verified sealants for your job. simply get a new tank.
I can't recommend using any non reef safe verified sealants for your job. simply get a new tank.
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Amy406
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I actually thought about that, I just didn’t think it would be livestock safe
hahahahaha oh I would too
thats safe agreed.
*it can still cloud for days though if unrinsed, but only in about 5% of cases. in 95% of cases it clears in a day or two. on page one of our thread we collected about fifteen examples where new unrinsed sand totally opaqued out the tank and had to be redone (first pic in the thread)
it's taking a risk not to pre rinse, but only about a 5% one
when using new sand. new sand was a good move. if the wrasse dives in it, expect recurring clouding for a good while but it's just cosmetic / does not crash reefs like old sand clouding does.
*it can still cloud for days though if unrinsed, but only in about 5% of cases. in 95% of cases it clears in a day or two. on page one of our thread we collected about fifteen examples where new unrinsed sand totally opaqued out the tank and had to be redone (first pic in the thread)
it's taking a risk not to pre rinse, but only about a 5% one
when using new sand. new sand was a good move. if the wrasse dives in it, expect recurring clouding for a good while but it's just cosmetic / does not crash reefs like old sand clouding does.
That seems the best option to me!
...and you are still going to try to fix the old tank, right? Starting MTS (Multiple Tank Syndrome) now if it has not already started?
WestMI-Reefer
Active Member
I have a different idea than anyone else has posted. 2 part epoxy. It will bond to glass or acrylic better than silicone, it goes on like liquid filling all gaps and gets harder than steel, its reef safe after proper cure time. I used it on a tank I drilled, it needed bulkheads in bottom of a weir box and the drilling went poorly so I blocked the bulkheads and poured epoxy all around them into the bottom of the box about a 1/4 inch thick to seal up the mistake. It’s be running leak free since that. Highly recommend. Ive worked with a lot of epoxy projects and feel the aquarium world has largely overlooked epoxy applications.
cracks / no flex /dangerous in this setting
bulkheads aren't carrying the pressure that seals do
saltwater slowly erodes epoxy after setting as well. goes brittle over time = cracks
Amy
take some of the new sand and put it in a clean cup of water, that's what the tank will do upon fill
you can at least know a little about the clouding with a cup test vs just hoping for compliance. not getting compliance and getting a ten day cloud on new sand would be heartbreaking...rinsing solves that, for eight straight years we did perfect setups using this back alley rule.
bulkheads aren't carrying the pressure that seals do
saltwater slowly erodes epoxy after setting as well. goes brittle over time = cracks
Amy
take some of the new sand and put it in a clean cup of water, that's what the tank will do upon fill
you can at least know a little about the clouding with a cup test vs just hoping for compliance. not getting compliance and getting a ten day cloud on new sand would be heartbreaking...rinsing solves that, for eight straight years we did perfect setups using this back alley rule.
we are doing two brand new jobs in the sand rinse thread and they will be using new sand
we are for sure pre rinsing them even though that seems like a waste of time. it's how we get and keep perfect results on every page, all the time. not pre rinsing sand = this risk:
pdxmonkeyboy opaqued tank. that's new sand from a bag marked 'no rinse required' from caribsea. taken from a post about why unrinsed new sand clouds so badly for some. the majority of bags don't do that, but some do, pre test in a cup to know how you want the display to look once you fill it all up.
another reason we pre rinse: when you set up the new tank if it goes cloudy independent from the sand that's a signal of a cycle, something went wrong in your transfer steps, and the clouding gives you time to intervene
if you purposefully cloud up your water with unrinsed sand, we immediately lose the ability to gauge clear water as a skip cycle proof. not rinsing only has risks, it requires luck vs command to win.
rinsing is commanding a win every single time.
we are for sure pre rinsing them even though that seems like a waste of time. it's how we get and keep perfect results on every page, all the time. not pre rinsing sand = this risk:
pdxmonkeyboy opaqued tank. that's new sand from a bag marked 'no rinse required' from caribsea. taken from a post about why unrinsed new sand clouds so badly for some. the majority of bags don't do that, but some do, pre test in a cup to know how you want the display to look once you fill it all up.
another reason we pre rinse: when you set up the new tank if it goes cloudy independent from the sand that's a signal of a cycle, something went wrong in your transfer steps, and the clouding gives you time to intervene
if you purposefully cloud up your water with unrinsed sand, we immediately lose the ability to gauge clear water as a skip cycle proof. not rinsing only has risks, it requires luck vs command to win.
rinsing is commanding a win every single time.
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