I have some questions about replacing sand- is this the right place to post?

[Jennyw]

Okay, so we struggle with high phosphates, and our sand is disgusting. I would love to clean the sand.

Today we had a problem- we accidently used RODI water instead of salt water so the salinity is really low. I have moved everything except sand to a bucket and I am drip acclimating to get them back up to an acceptable salinity.

My tank is empty except the gross sand and some water. Can I remove the sand, rinse it well, and put it back in? It is 3/4 inch deep. If I remove most of the water first, can I replace that water (and add salt to that?)

Thanks,
Jenny

 

[brandon429]

yes, we have a 25 page thread on exactly this approach. the summary of all 25 pages is this

-live rock instantly handles bioload needs if sand is removed, flipped rinsed, boiled, whatever. sand bacteria are incidental and not required unless you use no live rock. if you use any live rock, thats enough to run all your fish and animals safely. rinse without a concern of the bac

-under rinsing causes loss and recycles, leaving in cloud. underrinsing as a fear that too much bac are removed, we use tap water so that we have enough rinse water and can return the sand totally cloudless. Final rinse after tap was in ro. nothing dies or causes a recycle in the new cleaned tank if you simply dont move over waste, either kicked up from partial sand work or the -rocks- there are some systems where the rocks are loaded with detritus, rinse those too if applicable but in saltwater only, not fresh. fresh is for sand where we do not need the bacteria.

we do this routinely on multi thousand dollar systems full running with sps and many fish, you can run it on an old or a new tank. under rinsing is your only concern, never lack of bac. You dont have to purchase nor add bottle bac as well. if you want to see the work its in the sand rinse thread, we do the job all at once.

 

[MERKEY]

+1 If there is no live stock in the tank yes you can. Read his thread it's a good one

 

[Big G]

Hi Jenny. I removed the sand in my 90 a few months ago. Siphoned out the nasty Fiji Pink and replaced with a bit larger grain size. Much easier to keep clean. I did about 25% of the sand at a time so as not to upset the fish and corals too much. Used a hose to siphon the sand out and used a large PVC tube to drop the new, wet, cleaned sand down to the bottom of the tank. Worked pretty good.

 

[Jennyw]

yes, we have a 25 page thread on exactly this approach. the summary of all 25 pages is this

-live rock instantly handles bioload needs if sand is removed, flipped rinsed, boiled, whatever. sand bacteria are incidental and not required unless you use no live rock. if you use any live rock, thats enough to run all your fish and animals safely. rinse without a concern of the bac

-under rinsing causes loss and recycles, leaving in cloud. underrinsing as a fear that too much bac are removed, we use tap water so that we have enough rinse water and can return the sand totally cloudless. Final rinse after tap was in ro. nothing dies or causes a recycle in the new cleaned tank if you simply dont move over waste, either kicked up from partial sand work or the -rocks- there are some systems where the rocks are loaded with detritus, rinse those too if applicable but in saltwater only, not fresh. fresh is for sand where we do not need the bacteria.

we do this routinely on multi thousand dollar systems full running with sps and many fish, you can run it on an old or a new tank. under rinsing is your only concern, never lack of bac. You dont have to purchase nor add bottle bac as well.

Hi, thank you. Id love to read the 25 pages. Where do I find that?

 

[brandon429]

ok heres the work

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

skimming the before and after pics is a fast way to see them applying it, take pics we want to link yours too

B

other consistencies: no testing for ammonia, we dont accept misreading ammonia tests we already know clouding causes ammonia and no other factor.

we dont add bottle bac, that would imply bac needed our assistance or that cleaning is an antibacterial event

no full tank recycles. all transferred ok. I routinely rip clean my own system in the thread, and leave it drained for 30 mins just to show how strong bac are, just to participate though nothing is wrong with it/this is a life extending and regenerating action its not harmful at all.