Reusing sand
- Thread starter Dmac
- Start date
I went through this exact situation about 2 weeks ago. Don't do it. It is not worth the hassle. A few bags of new sand is way less expensive in the long run than the problems that may be caused by starting a tank with putrid sand
People believe that if you dont regularly agitate all of the sand bed there is a build up of nutrients in the sand. Especially in the places that you can't get to when doing your tank maintenance. So when you disturb it to move to the next tank all of that built up nutrients gets released. But there are also videos out there that say you can clean out the sand and re-use it. So just like anything in this hobby there are a million and one ways to do something.
You can rinse it in a bucket. If you put the hose on the bottom and fill the bucket about half way with sand and flush it letting the water overflow till it runs clear.
I would just rinse it or consider going bare bottom.
If I didn't love wrasses, I would take all of the sand out of my tank...its such a pita.
If I didn't love wrasses, I would take all of the sand out of my tank...its such a pita.
I'm starting out bare on the new tank but to me a tank just doesn't look right without sand. We'll see if I can learn to like it or if I end up putting some in.
I'm gonna predict you add sand
Had a bare bottom for three months and hated it
I cannot do bare bottom either. For me, half the allure of my tank is that white sand that reminds me of the beach!
Yeah, I didn’t enjoy the bare bottom tanks either. The biggest downside for me was the appearance/aesthetics, but also detritus still collects in mini dead zones all over the place. It always just looks dirty.
That said, if I had some sweet chalices, favias, and other encrusters to fully cover it, that would be interesting. Nonetheless, I support you brother! We each have our own preferences, and sometimes we have to try it in order to learn those preferences.
That said, if I had some sweet chalices, favias, and other encrusters to fully cover it, that would be interesting. Nonetheless, I support you brother! We each have our own preferences, and sometimes we have to try it in order to learn those preferences.
have you been to a beach without sand?
for me i must have a few things in the tank regardless of the size: clowns, diamond goby, and sand!!!
for me i must have a few things in the tank regardless of the size: clowns, diamond goby, and sand!!!
If it were a glass tank it wouldn't even be up for consideration, the acrylic aspect scares me. Although Rusty @outdrsyguy1 has sand in his 1000 gallon acrylic tank and he says he's had no problem. Several guys on R2R, like ca1ore have sand too. So I'm finding highly unlikely I'm going to be looking at coralline covered acrylic.
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All true points.
I like the look of sand but can’t keep mine white or sifted. Diamond gobies hate my tank and have all committed suicide. I’ve also tried a conch and that guy is the worlds laziest and most inefficient snail.
So I’m manually sifting my sand at this point.
My frag tank is mostly bare bottom and I’ve got the powerheads aimed just right so all the poo ends up in the back corner and gets sucked out with a turkey blaster. But I can see how this would be an issue in a larger, deeper tank.
I like the look of sand but can’t keep mine white or sifted. Diamond gobies hate my tank and have all committed suicide. I’ve also tried a conch and that guy is the worlds laziest and most inefficient snail.
So I’m manually sifting my sand at this point.
My frag tank is mostly bare bottom and I’ve got the powerheads aimed just right so all the poo ends up in the back corner and gets sucked out with a turkey blaster. But I can see how this would be an issue in a larger, deeper tank.
I re-used the sand when I upgraded from a 29 gallon to a 72 gallon. The 29 had been up for about a year, and I transferred the rock, sand and livestock, adding more dry rock and sand also. I rinsed the sand pretty good while still in the 29 tank water. I don't regret it at all, the 72 developed absolutely no new tank uglies, i can't say for sure but I believe the cycled sand helped.
I think the issue here was the sand sat for some time in buckets so probably had a lot of die off. If its being moved from one tank to the next pretty quickly, a good rinse would probably have been enough and like @Steve Burton said above, probably would help with the cycle.
I have also re-used old sand and gravel many times, rinsing well in a bucket like Adam said. If I'm not going to use it right away I spread it out on a towel to dry well before storing in a bucket. You can also soak in bleach or vinegar before rinsing.
Yes exactly. I may have misinterpreted the op when he said it was fallow for 2 months. @Dmac was the sand removed from the water for those 2 months?
The sand from my old tank is in sealed buckets and when moving I didn't have time to dry it out.
I'm dreading opening those buckets... lol At this point I'm thinking that the buckets are going to be opened outside on a windy day and the sand filler in the yard.
