How long can live sand sit in an empty tank

[Baboon7]

Hello, I just got a 90 gallon aquarium and I am going to add water in the morning. The guy is filling the tank at 9am but I work super late and don't think I can wake up to add the sand and rock prior to his arrival. Can I add the sand and rock to an empty tank and leave it over night? Or will the bacteria die that quickly in the sand?

 

[lapin]

Howdy and welcome
The live sand was in a bag or box for how long?
Im sure 1 more day will not hurt it.
I would rinse the sand, unless it just came out of the ocean.

 

[Baboon7]

Not sure how long the LFS had it but I've had it for 3 days but I wanted to open the bags up and lay the sand right before work. So it would be open to the air for about 20 hours

 

[lapin]

Rinse it. You dont want all the dust and dead stuff in your tank. Wet sand in a tank will not dry for a week or longer.

 

[Baboon7]

It's brand new Carib sea sand sealed in a bag

 

[cvrle1]

It's brand new Carib sea sand sealed in a bag

Still dirty and full of dust. Rinse it out, or you will have dust storm in the tank when you add water, and every time you disturb sand in the future.

 

[Baboon7]

Ok thanks for the advice

 

[sharpimage]

Rinse it really good. The bacteria will still be there. Then rinse it some more. Save the headache of the sandstorm

 

[pdxmonkeyboy]

I didn't rinse my sand once... I cleaned the silt of my equipment for the next 3 months...

 

[BullyBee]

Rinse it. I can’t tell you the headache it causes. Like the above poster said he was cleaning stuff for a while after the fact. What happens is all that stuff floating eventually settles at the bottom. Sand can look nice if it falls over rocks (Atleast in planted tanks) but if you don’t it all settles.

If you already opened the sand and put it in I’d run a canister filter For a week.

 

[Fennel]

Live sand? Don't rinse it, use the packet that comes with it to clear the particulates. The packet just weighs the cloud down and it'll clear in a couple days.. the live bacteria dies if dried out, so I read, but it has to get really dry to kill it .

 

[Crevalle]

Rinse it. You dont want all the dust and dead stuff in your tank. Wet sand in a tank will not dry for a week or longer.

You don’t rinse live sand. That defeats the whole purpose of buying live sand.

 

[Sam816]

I agree with above 2 posts. live sand should not be rinsed unless u have loads of RODI water/freshly mixed saltwater available to rinse.. there will be small bag of agglomerating compound that will bind smaller particles together making them heavy enough to settle on the bottom. your dirt cloud will settle overnight. you can also put a fine filter sock to catch anything that goes through the overflow. the bacteria in live sand will be ok as long as it has enough moisture (saltwater) in it. don't let it dry.

 

[KrisReef]

I hope the OP from May 1 will tell us if he rinsed or not this live sand and how the tank fared afterwards.

Followup please & thanks!

 

[PeterC99]

I added live sand and dry rock to my new aquarium without rinsing. Tank cleared up within a few hours and cycled in three weeks.

 

[KrisReef]

Last seen August 1 2020.

 

[lapin]

You don’t rinse live sand. That defeats the whole purpose of buying live sand.

Some do and do some dont. You cannot remove live bacteria by rinsing sand. Bacteria will cling like algae on a frag plug. Scrubbing or killing it is the only way to remove it.

 

[pdxmonkeyboy]

..and "live sand" is nothing more than cleaned and dried sand with bottled bacteria added.

 

[Crevalle]

..and "live sand" is nothing more than cleaned and dried sand with bottled bacteria added.

Depends what live sand you get. That is true for some but not for others.

 

[Brisdude]

Hello, I just got a 90 gallon aquarium and I am going to add water in the morning. The guy is filling the tank at 9am but I work super late and don't think I can wake up to add the sand and rock prior to his arrival. Can I add the sand and rock to an empty tank and leave it over night? Or will the bacteria die that quickly in the sand?

Hi all reading this now I’m confused starting a new Cade 1500 tank and was going to finish the rock scape and putting in Carib Sea live sand and was told not to rinse and told the same by a few people on YouTube but people here saying rinse it ? I thought rinsing in fresh water would not be good for the good bacteria, don’t know what to do now.