adding live sand

[rickie]

hello, im buying a marine tank off someone this week end and it comes with 2 fish 7 kilo of live rock and 1 inch of live sand, it is a old tank so the sand has been in there for awhile, i was wondering if i would be able to add another inch of live sand which will be brand new from the shop, if i do add it should i mix it with old sand or should just place it over it before i fill the water back up, thank you

 

[huuta]

i would buy all new sand and save a few cups of the old live sand to seed it.Once you disturbed the sand bed,all the detrius and nasty stuff will be release back into the water colume. not worth the headache

 

[Pappy]

Start new and live sand is a waste of $$$ IMO. Just do prerinsed arogonite and you'll be fine.

 

[Pkunk35]

IMO, I think you'd be ok using that sand if its been taken care of and cleaned over the years. I mean, when people move tanks, they move their entire sand bed too, no? If it is really murky just make sure to vacuum debris out of it well.

Since you have 2 fish, i would add the sand in parts over time to avoid too large of a cycle. If no fish, then i would add the new sand at the bottom of the tank and live sand on top of that prior to addition of water.