Letting sand sit with no flow

[fisherc92]

hello all im in the middle of moving my livestock from one tank to another. Im going from barebottom to sandbed as well. My currrent setup has been running a year and 3 months. Besides some hair algae and aptasia and a couple bubble algae im clear of the bacteria blooms. On my new tank im waiting for a couple parts to finish the build.

Last week and added my sandbed with id say 5 gallons of my established tank water to fully submerge the sand. I used caribsea aragalive special grade. I planned on getting the tank running sooner, and i also set it up my new tank in case of emergency (current tank is damaged) tolet the sand settle so its clear when i add the rest and for a little leak test. But my media basket and light mount arent here yet.

My question is am i in anyway "harming" the chemistry of the sand or the water sitting immobile. I have had no flow going thru, no lights into the tank. Just sand and saltwater. The tank is also almost airtight with the lid on the tank. Fluval flex 123. There's some moisture on the glass. And some bubbles on the glass on the waterline.

Will i be good to just continue to add my DT saltwater and flow and it will run just fine?
Should i drain the water above the sand and just add new water when ready to run the tank?
You dun goofed... get rid of sand and water and start over?

 

[Saltyreef]

This should be fine as long as its semi sealed from dust and debris.

I would recommend to rinse the sand clear of all the clouding silt before proceeding to set the tank up.
Ive let used RINSED sand sit wet (not completely submerged underwater) for up to a year without any bacteria die off.

 

[fisherc92]

This should be fine as long as its semi sealed from dust and debris.

I would recommend to rinse the sand clear of all the clouding silt before proceeding to set the tank up.
Ive let used RINSED sand sit wet (not completely submerged underwater) for up to a year without any bacteria die off.

Thanks for the reply
I didn't rinse as you can see. I could drain the water that contains the silt. It might be less then 5g and I have plenty more in my other system. Thinking that could get rid of almost all of it.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

When I moved a tank, the sand sitting wet in a bucket became anaerobic and produced a ton of hydrogen sulfide (it stank).

 

[Saltyreef]

When I moved a tank, the sand sitting wet in a bucket became anaerobic and produced a ton of hydrogen sulfide (it stank).

I believe it.
Guessing you didnt rinse.....
This is why you dont stir up a sandbed that hasnt been cleaned.
My 10 year old rinsed sand sat wet for a year sealed in a tote.
Smelled like fresh ocean air when i finally opened it.

 

[KeepSwimming12]

hello all im in the middle of moving my livestock from one tank to another. Im going from barebottom to sandbed as well. My currrent setup has been running a year and 3 months. Besides some hair algae and aptasia and a couple bubble algae im clear of the bacteria blooms. On my new tank im waiting for a couple parts to finish the build.

Last week and added my sandbed with id say 5 gallons of my established tank water to fully submerge the sand. I used caribsea aragalive special grade. I planned on getting the tank running sooner, and i also set it up my new tank in case of emergency (current tank is damaged) tolet the sand settle so its clear when i add the rest and for a little leak test. But my media basket and light mount arent here yet.

My question is am i in anyway "harming" the chemistry of the sand or the water sitting immobile. I have had no flow going thru, no lights into the tank. Just sand and saltwater. The tank is also almost airtight with the lid on the tank. Fluval flex 123. There's some moisture on the glass. And some bubbles on the glass on the waterline.

Will i be good to just continue to add my DT saltwater and flow and it will run just fine?
Should i drain the water above the sand and just add new water when ready to run the tank?
You dun goofed... get rid of sand and water and start over?

How funny, I’m looking to get the Fluval Flex 123 myself soon. Seems like a great tank. I’ve honestly heard some terrible and positive things. On one hand, many people say why bacteria are resilient and can go ages without feeding, a lack of oxygen can cause a die off. I think it’s okay for a little bit but I personally wouldn’t do it for any longer than a few days. I did that accidentally in a freshwater tank and caught an ammonia spike. I know Dr Timothy Hovanec, the most well known marine aquarist, doesn’t like live sand because if it sits for too long, it may cause an ammonia spike because of die off. If you can’t see any ammonia after 3 days or anything you’re totally fine. I don’t mean to scare you of course but I’ve personally had experience with that so I’d hate for it to happen to someone else

 

[fisherc92]

How funny, I’m looking to get the Fluval Flex 123 myself soon. Seems like a great tank. I’ve honestly heard some terrible and positive things. On one hand, many people say why bacteria are resilient and can go ages without feeding, a lack of oxygen can cause a die off. I think it’s okay for a little bit but I personally wouldn’t do it for any longer than a few days. I did that accidentally in a freshwater tank and caught an ammonia spike. I know Dr Timothy Hovanec, the most well known marine aquarist, doesn’t like live sand because if it sits for too long, it may cause an ammonia spike because of die off. If you can’t see any ammonia after 3 days or anything you’re totally fine. I don’t mean to scare you of course but I’ve personally had experience with that so I’d hate for it to happen to someone else

appreciate your response

 

[brandon429]

I like the ranging reports of sandbed status in threads like these. its shows a spread, a variance in presentation across tanks

this is why we rinse every single entrant for fifty pages in the sand rinse thread in tap water until the grains run cleaner than the best snowglove you ever beheld

final rinse in ro. then you can dry it, store it, use it, let it sit a while and its just grains in water pretty much.
it doesnt matter whose tanks would have been ok in skipping a rinse, what matters is fifty pages and no fails.

aligning all tanks for required success by having cloudless sand, that's the whole trick to making the thread work.




that evenness of rinse all makes literally every job we do a skip cycle job logged. insane huge tank moves, for pages, using multiple huge tubs to hold thousands in corals/all skip cycle we do not dose bottle bac, nor prime, the sand whether its new in bag or old is tap rinsed for hours in prep, and we don't want anyone's api data for total ammonia wrecking confidence lol

seneye owners, post anything you have we want your digital data.


80% of the work in the thread of six yrs running is tap rinsing currently living reef tank sandbeds that are invaded with dinos, cyano etc. That works in any reef on this board because we don't need bacteria from the sandbed, we can do without it. Ive never seen anyone here ever post a reef that ran too low on live rock to be a bare bottom. The one reef that got darn close had full grown sps colonies weighting six pounds perched atop fist-sized live rock, but in that weight and position, mid column main display, the corals themselves are the active surface area for filtration bacteria.

We simply do not need sandbed bacteria, its the strongest myth ever perpetuated in reefing other than a display tank can fail to control its ammonia, and ride for days at .25.

that one is the worst myth of all as it sells millions of dollars in repeated unnecessary bottle bac sales. Its the most false and angering status claim I've ever seen a reef retailer do, to claim that we have displays where bacteria are 75% compromised and adding a bottle of nitrifiers reestablishes control. its never happened in any reef on the planet, they either crash or they run at seneye reported levels, anyone interested can seek out data from seneye and see what displays run at--both sandbedded ones and bare bottom ones run the same ammonia turnover averages.


this is why rinsing sand isn't harmful. bare bottom reefs do not oxidize ammonia slower or weaker than a sandbedded system, they're both the same. changing from sand to no sand doesnt change the nitrification rate, contrary to polls 100% of entrants would vote the other way. that's the effect of the false bottle bac sales machine at work.