Reusing sand... a little help?

[Twink_w_a_Reef]

So I’m starting a betta planted tank for the class pet in yearbook. And I want to use sand to cover the plant substrate. I took some old quartz sand out of my old saltwater tank and rinsed it really good with tap water then drained the water and filled it with H202. After a few more rinses will this be okay to slap in the betta planted aquarium? Or is there any other steps I should take? A few sand grains are covered in green algae which I’ve tried to remove most of them because they subtle on top of the rest of the sand but will that die off in freshwater or from the H202?

 

[ichthyogeek]

Yeah, that should work. Very few, if any, parasites handle the transition from fresh to salt (and vice versa) well. Algae on the other hand is...interesting. Just rinse the sand until it stops being cloudy.

Other methods of sterilization include: vinegar (or muriatic acid, but use vinegar it's safer), sodium percarbonate (H2O2's bigger, more powerful sibling), and bleach. H2O2 should basically "dissolve" any excess algae, but vinegar will for sure kill it (and get rid of any calcium encrusting algaes).

 

[KWT]

You could always boil the sand or put it on a cookie sheet and put in the oven

 

[ichthyogeek]

^^also a great idea. But if you do it, bleach the sand first, especially if you've had zoanthids in the tank. Palytoxin poisoning isn't fun...

 

[Tankkeepers]

Great posts above but stupid question why not just buy a cheap bag of play sand rince it till it clears and use that

 

[Cell]

Probably because he didnt want to spend money on something he already has.

Rinse a couple times and your fine.

 

[Twink_w_a_Reef]

Great posts above but stupid question why not just buy a cheap bag of play sand rince it till it clears and use that

Yeah, as @Cell said. I’m pretty young and don’t have lots of capitol so I’m finding ways to make it work XD

 

[TriggerFinger]

You should be fine. If you want to rid the algae spots you can soak the sand in vinegar and water for a while and rinse thoroughly before use.

 

[Silent]

Search for sand rinse threads. @brandon429 has great knowledge on this subject.

 

[brandon429]

vinegar etching/rinse after nice call there take pics if you clean up sand we'll use the work flow examples in our threads

 

[Twink_w_a_Reef]

Search for sand rinse threads. @brandon429 has great knowledge on this subject.

I’ll check it out!

 

[Twink_w_a_Reef]

vinegar etching/rinse after nice call there take pics if you clean up sand we'll use the work flow examples in our threads

Will do!!