How to re-use sand safely?

[whotzler]

I up sized my reef tank three months ago. I really liked my sand (Caribsea Hawaiian Black) but received countless advise on not re using the sand I already had. So I purchased new and found the batch to be very different from what I had. Really strange bought 2 bags both times. My first was shiny glass like small black with white specks (awesome). The stuff I got this time was dull, black with some reddish, like charcoal. I thought I would grow on me, but it has not. So this is not a money saving thing I simply want the sand I have from my first tank, if its possible, safely.

Now the sand has been sitting in the old tank with the old water with no flow or heat for 3 months.. I finally got to cleaning it out last night and rinsed all the sand stirring and sifting by hand for about an hour with tap water. Surprisingly the water nor sand had any stink to it what so ever.

So what should be the next step to making this sand 100% safe to add to new tank?


New tank is 120 gal 30 gal sump , with 40 lbs of new sand and want to add the old 40 lbs. to it. Has 80 lbs 4 month old new dry rock along with 50 lbs. established rock from old tank.

 

[pugcrush]

I up sized my reef tank three months ago. I really liked my sand (Caribsea Hawaiian Black) but received countless advise on not re using the sand I already had. So I purchased new and found the batch to be very different from what I had. Really strange bought 2 bags both times. My first was shiny glass like small black with white specks (awesome). The stuff I got this time was dull, black with some reddish, like charcoal. I thought I would grow on me, but it has not. So this is not a money saving thing I simply want the sand I have from my first tank, if its possible, safely.

Now the sand has been sitting in the old tank with the old water with no flow or heat for 3 months.. I finally got to cleaning it out last night and rinsed all the sand stirring and sifting by hand for about an hour with tap water. Surprisingly the water nor sand had any stink to it what so ever.

So what should be the next step to making this sand 100% safe to add to new tank?


New tank is 120 gal 30 gal sump , with 40 lbs of new sand and want to add the old 40 lbs. to it. Has 80 lbs 4 month old new dry rock along with 50 lbs. established rock from old tank.

I hope I read this right.
First, you have to remove the undesired sand. I'd do it in in thirds - maybe 1/3 each week with a water change by siphoning it out.

Meanwhile at the same time, if you rinsed the old sand and it's clean, I would go ahead and soak it in a bucket with RODI and rinse it even further every few days to once a week. I would think most of the nastiness would be gone the time 3 weeks roll by. By now, the old sand would be gone. I would add 1/3 of this reused sand each week to the old tank.

At the end of the day, you want to minimize the risk of starting a cycle. This is how I would tackle IMO.

 

[whotzler]

I hope I read this right.
First, you have to remove the undesired sand. I'd do it in in thirds - maybe 1/3 each week with a water change by siphoning it out.

Meanwhile at the same time, if you rinsed the old sand and it's clean, I would go ahead and soak it in a bucket with RODI and rinse it even further every few days to once a week. I would think most of the nastiness would be gone the time 3 weeks roll by. By now, the old sand would be gone. I would add 1/3 of this reused sand each week to the old tank.

At the end of the day, you want to minimize the risk of starting a cycle. This is how I would tackle IMO.

Thanks, Is it necessary to remove the "new" sand? I was thinking of just adding to it. Using your advice, maybe 5- 10 lbs. every week or two?

 

[pugcrush]

Thanks, Is it necessary to remove the "new" sand? I was thinking of just adding to it. Using your advice, maybe 5- 10 lbs. every week or two?

I was actually going to say you could try that out if you don't totally hate the new sand. Sounds OK to me.