How long can live sand sit in an empty tank

[Azedenkae]

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.

That is correct, rinsing in freshwater ain't exactly good for the bacteria. However a lot of people here don't really think bacteria in live sand (if any is still alive) does much good, so they'd rather rinse the sand to get rid of debris and stuff instead, because they'd rather 'less live' sand rather than deal with problems caused by not rinsing.

Personally I don't care that much about rinsing. With a new tank, turmoil is probably gonna happen at the start regardless, so to me it's just adding a bit more chaos that could breed for resilience down the line.

 

[reef4now]

What about sand from an old tank that’s been sitting around for a while,like months,can that be still used?

 

[Azedenkae]

What about sand from an old tank that’s been sitting around for a while,like months,can that be still used?

Yep! A lot of people would not re-use sand because it may have a lot of detritus or decomposed matter and all that, which is fair enough. But that's a personal preference of what one wants to start with.

I always re-use my sand knowing and expecting cloudiness or elevated nutrients, because I don't mind that one bit when setting up a tank. My motto has always been 'from chaos births resilience', so to me it's cool.

 

[reef4now]

Yep! A lot of people would not re-use sand because it may have a lot of detritus or decomposed matter and all that, which is fair enough. But that's a personal preference of what one wants to start with.

I always re-use my sand knowing and expecting cloudiness or elevated nutrients, because I don't mind that one bit when setting up a tank. My motto has always been 'from chaos births resilience', so to me it's cool.

Thanks for the input, I was concerned messing up the balance of my tank.