HURRY

[Jilly92]

Might be a dumb question but, how do you rinse sand without killing beneficial bacteria? Swapping aquariums and wanted to use my sand from previous tank. Putting it together now. I saved a 5 gallon bucket of the aquarium water and have the sand in the bottom of the tank outside with about 2 inches of water. Fast response please its about to rain.

 

[Frogspon]

Can't be done.

 

[lapin]

Rinsing will not remove very much bacteria. Bacteria will stick to sand and rocks like glue. Just like on your hands. It would take a surfactant to break the bond.

 

[Eagle_Steve]

It will not hurt it to rinse it.

 

[Jilly92]

How

It will not hurt it to rinse it.

So how to rinse? Just scoop it in 5 gal and shake it around then pour out water?

 

[lapin]

fill the bucket 1/2 full then swirl with hand and dump water and junk out repeat.4 times

 

[Jilly92]

Rinsing will not remove very much bacteria. Bacteria will stick to sand and rocks like glue. Just like on your hands. It would take a surfactant to break the bond.

Ty. It just really stinks and had some hair algae. Wanted to clean it up somehow

 

[brandon429]

Put in bucket run under tap over and over till clean. final rinse in ro

 

[Jilly92]

fill the bucket 1/2 full then swirl with hand and dump water and junk out repeat.4 times

Ok great thanks!

 

[Pistondog]

Until water is clearish.

 

[Jilly92]

Put in bucket run under tap over and over till clean. final rinse in ro

No way tap would kill the bacteria I believe

 

[brandon429]

Be sure and follow directions exactly so you don’t kill your new setup in ways that aren’t apparent. Customize not/ warning :)

if it helps I can post a fifty page thread on tap rinses.

the reason: if you don’t use tap you run out of rinse water, and putting back half rinsed sand kills your fish. Rip cleans and tank transfers don’t have much customization room if you want perfection in outcome. Eagle Steve is right, and this method capitalizes on his rightness

if you rinse in tap knowing sandbed bac don’t matter your stuff lives 100% of the time, only live rocks carried over bring the needed bac and we didn’t tap rinse those.


people who don’t rinse all sand trying to preserve useless bacteria risk killing all their fish with the tiny bit of smelly waste riding over, it’s ironic agreed.

 

[Pistondog]

No way tap would kill the bacteria I believe

The bacteria will move with the rocks, all you are saving with he sand is some detritus unless you rinse.

 

[Jilly92]

The bacteria will move with the rocks, all you are saving with he sand is some detritus unless you rinse.

Didn't want to save the rocks because if vermetid snails. I got about 10 lbs liverock today but the fish store didn't put water in the bags so idk if that's dead now or what

 

[brandon429]

No it’s fine trust me

i have separate threads on skip cycle live rocks from the pet store, and safe tank transfers, no time to read now trust summary and take pics of your tank so we can use this process in proofing, your new tank will skip cycle if you rinse sand 1000% clear and not 99% and if you bought live rocks from a store they can stay out hours and be fine and not have dieoff.

just set it all up agreed use some old water, no unrinsed sand, set in the live rock and let it all mix an hour before adding fish

match salinity and temp from old tank, only those params.

 

[Jilly92]

No it’s fine trust me

Thank you much

 

[CMMorgan]

cut off the vermatid snails and then crazy glue the holes. Reuse the rock.

 

[Jilly92]

cut off the vermatid snails and then crazy glue the holes. Reuse the rock.

Meh. I will just soak them in vinegar and reuse them later on. I bought some new rock today.

 

[Jilly92]

No it’s fine trust me

i have separate threads on skip cycle live rocks from the pet store, and safe tank transfers, no time to read now trust summary and take pics of your tank so we can use this process in proofing, your new tank will skip cycle if you rinse sand 1000% clear and not 99% and if you bought live rocks from a store they can stay out hours and be fine and not have dieoff.

just set it all up agreed use some old water, no unrinsed sand, set in the live rock and let it all mix an hour before adding fish

match salinity and temp from old tank, only those params

Ahh. Just dumped the last of old water. But I'm sure theres some still leftover in canister filter. Rinsed the sand clear just need to rinse in rodi. I bought the rocks about 1 o clock today so hopefully still alright.

 

[brandon429]

We should use the rest as clean water matching temp and salinity ideally. Canister filter water may not be clean, we are preventing waste transfer in each step, all new is fine. After it’s all set up, reduce the light settings and duration and re ramp, this is bleach prevention for coral. Them leaving the rocks out for six hours is rare lol but an awesome test for live rock. i bet 99% of readers don’t agree it will live, I’d bet all chips it will. We will know by how clean the new tank is in the morning. If clear, success. If cloudy that’s problem.

another reason we rinse sand totally is to have no accessory clouding false alarm for ammonia issues. Take pics pls we use these ordered assembly pics in work threads


here are the two threads your tank is undertaking:
https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/a...kip-cycle-instant-reefs-no-bottle-bac.794146/
skip cycling with live rock. We never listed one time there that air emersion would kill it, we think it won’t.


and sandbed rinsing:
https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/official-sand-rinse-and-tank-transfer-thread.230281/