Using old dry sand…

[Kooma]

Hey all,

I recently bought a complete system, the owner was running bare bottom and gave me 3x 5 gallon pails of reef sand. Not much info on them, besides it being quite fine sand and that it hasn’t been used in about 15 years.

I’m familiar with rinsing and reusing sand, and this would save me a few hundred in new sand (setting up a 72x30 tank), what would you do?

I’m thinking of rinsing it and then putting it all in a 25 gallon tub of rodi, after a week testing for phosphates and copper to see if I am creating a problem.

Let me know what you think. I’ll add some photos of it tonight.

 

[Idoc]

I think your plan is spot on....

Testing for copper is a good idea.

 

[Monad]

Sounds like a good idea. The mistake I made was using too fine a sand in my tank. It makes a huge mess every time I do a water change and try and clean the sandbed.

How fine are we talking?

 

[Kooma]

Sounds like a good idea. The mistake I made was using too fine a sand in my tank. It makes a huge mess every time I do a water change and try and clean the sandbed.

How fine are we talking?

Feels like play sand, but Ill have to take a closer look. I brought them home and stuck them in the corner of my garage. I dont believe its as course as the arag-alive sand.

One consideration is, this will be a mixed reef peninsula with lots of back flow. I am debating a bare bottom but would like the nice white sandbed and some sand fish/critters for a natural look.