Official Sand Rinse and Tank Transfer thread

[brandon429]

WVU247 rip clean, moved to side of first link in our thread sharing space with Jon, for being so darn thorough.

Algae Identification

its a little different, on our sand rinse thread we dont remove the sand while water is in the tank, we disassemble the entire system down to an empty aquarium. we dont do that to always take the long road its specifically to keep you from clouding up the tank while corals are in there. a 45 is...

www.reef2reef.com

 

[brandon429]

CWentz rip clean
*barely done, in assessment stage now for safe outcome

*challenges with temp matching are noted

*rinse techniques are noted: using a garden hose vs not using one and trying to have enough rinse water on hand without one

Sand/tank RIP clean - During - After - Updates

I’m guessing that’s what this is. So some of you know I’ve posted some threads about diatoms in my established tank. I can’t rid them for the life of me with water changes and 2-5 ppm nitrate and .3 to .10 phosphate. My tank itself is stable and looks good except for this dang brown sand. so...

www.reef2reef.com

 

[Glass Algae]

https://ibb.co/R6k7qKW


Set up my first tank today. Thanks to this thread I had zero silt kick up. This is the tank less than a minute after water pour.

Thank you reef2reef. Patience is the key!

 

[brandon429]

Glass algae thank you for posting!! That is a very clear setup thank you for that shining pic

Live sand instant cycle?

Ok I'm going to bet that the live sand didn't cycle the tank that quickly. My ammonia must have lost alot of potency. I just added third dose of ammonia that's a total of 75ml. So yeah safe to say that the ammonia never reached right ppm. Test #3 for ammonia now

www.reef2reef.com

Live sand tests able to oxidize ammonia

* someone hit us with a post tap rinse test

 

[Gobi-Wan]

Well, I made it through the original post and 6 more pages before succumbing to exhaustion. I can't make it any farther right now but everything so far has convinced me to rinse my sandbed full before my upgrade project for sure. However I have some questions pertaining to my situation, that may have been covered in the many pages I didn't get to so I apologize for that. I am upgrading from 75 gallons to 125, so I am going to need to purchase additional sand. However, I have a couple issues with my current sandbed that I'm not sure how to overcome.
1st- I have a MASSIVE population of asterina starfish that I am afraid will die during a tapwater rinse, and then pollute the new aquarium after they decompose. 2nd issue- I also have perhaps 20-30 nassarius snails buried in the sand that I would prefer not to kill, but I'm not sure how to transfer them.
A related question- I have a diamond goby in very fond of, who is a hard worker than can turn over most of the sand in the 75 in a day. Does anyone have reccomendations on what sand would be best for him when I buy more sand? I have heard special grade reef is a nice size and fairly uniform.
Next question- I was hoping to make rodi water directly into the new aquarium and heat and mix saltwater inside the aquarium before I add anything. Would this be possible, before adding sand? I assume if the sand is rinsed fully it could be added after the water or at least some of the water? I plan to also use as much of the old water as possible to reduce acclimation stress on the fish.
Thats all I can think of for now, I may have more questions before the time comes.
Thanks!

 

[Gobi-Wan]

Wow. once again demonstrating my uncontested ability to murder a thread. I have a question if anyone ever opens this again... if i rinse sand well with tap water, is there any conclusive evidence whether or whether not it will kill ich and/or other parasites? I have recently committed to irradicating ich from my tank rather than managing it, and i am also setting up a 28 cube for my daughter in the near future. wondering how to set it up without introducing ich.

 

[brandon429]

nobody has measured that I know. we just know that if you clean the tank using the right order of ops its 100% safe all the time. whatever can rebound from that must be from mars, and a few strains have been, but not many lol

*they specifically try and prevent ich by using fallow prep methods, and only adding items to the tank that passed through a fallow prep system, and by using QT treated fish.
cleaning the system reduces organics where cryto trophonts can hide, Ive read by Humblefish. the main control for marine ich/crypto is fallow + QT controls, not the actual tank cleaning.

 

[Gobi-Wan]

nobody has measured that I know. we just know that if you clean the tank using the right order of ops its 100% safe all the time. whatever can rebound from that must be from mars, and a few strains have been, but not many lol

*they specifically try and prevent ich by using fallow prep methods, and only adding items to the tank that passed through a fallow prep system, and by using QT treated fish.
cleaning the system reduces organics where cryto trophonts can hide, Ive read by Humblefish. the main control for marine ich/crypto is fallow + QT controls, not the actual tank cleaning.

Ok. That makes sense, thank you.

 

[Gobi-Wan]

Also, for the record, I used the method described here, to upgrade my 75 to a 125. I found that the rinsing goes faster of you have the time to stay with the bucket, pushing the hose up and down in the sand like a probe. I would also keep the bucket tilted so there wasn't a tall water column above the level of the sand. I was able to wash 40lbs of sand at a time in a 5 gallon bucket. If you want to keep all the fine sand you won't be able to get away with washing as aggressively as I did but I dont want the real fine stuff anyway, I'd rather have it settle immediately while my diamong goby is sifting or when the wrasse buries itself. Anyway the swap was a success, but a week later my tang got either velvet or a severe case of ich, and long story short my old 75 gallon is now a long term QT for all my fish while the 125 sits fallow. I will now be getting off the "manage ich" bus and on to the "erradicate ich" bus.

 

[brandon429]

I never have factored phosphate, we let nitrate and phosphate balance out as they will just by keeping detritus controlled.

That swap looks sharp!!!

 

[Glass Algae]

Looking good! @sbdiehl88

I haven't had any problems with my tank since I followed the methods on this thread.

I've even mixed my sand up and moved rock around with no silt bloom.

Now happily housing my shrimp and clown awaiting my first coral!

 

[LRT]

Nice thread lots of good info here @brandon429.
The answers are probably already posted somewhere here but my ADD and impatience completely broke my brain.
Im getting ready to convert 2 of my frag tables to mushroom garden tables as it's almost impossible to keep mushrooms on racks and allow them to move around easily and not have to worry about cutting them out of my racks.
Right now I'm totally sandless. Didnt want to introduce sand to my system for pumps sake and maintenance but I do like the look on the black backdrop as well as will just work better for what I'm trying to achieve.
I planned on putting a thin layer of carib sea course sand on bottom of table topped with .5" -3" Argonite rubble rock crushed coral.
This is the sand I plan to use:

I do see fines in the bag so I know I'm going to have to rinse to remove.
Question #1 is:
If you had a choice to rinse with tap water or rodi what would you honestly prefer?
I dont feel comfortable introducing my hard water tap to my system as it never has been. Horrible Arizona water. Everything is fake here even the lakes! And most our water comes from recycled water from waste water recycle plants.
I build them!
I dont care if I have to make 1k gallons of rodi to rinse sand but is it neccessary?
Also what kind of pests should I expect hitchhiking in this sand after thorough rinse and what will I need to combat them?
Am I better off scrapping the sand plan and just crushing up a bunch of crushed coral to achieve the same results?
Which brings me to 2nd question:
What would you suggest I do with crushed coral? Do I soak in rodi? Saltwater? Is it going to leach anything I need to be aware of?
After my recent scare with Nitrate dosing I'm trying to approach everything on a slow and methodic scientific level at this point.
Reaching for answers from seasoned pros that may have similar things going on here.

 

[brandon429]

The reason to use tap water is because the final rinse is ro, introducing nothing to the tank. Also, this thread is tap rinsing 30 pgs works and there's no equal thread using non tap for a host of reasons~ for sure you can add sand and take it away just keep it clean rinsed and it won't be a waste contribution

Tap water is the best pre rinse and best maintenance rinse, very mild organic stripping ability is one reason why and with the final rinse in whatever you want ( wouldn't harm if you didn't final rinse ) means with tap you get unlimited rinse potential, total clarity. There's no benefit to non tap rinsing. The concern about tap water is purely forum made, old timers know the real truth. They've been secretly tap rinsing their freshwater filters for five decades, trading stories among themselves of efficiency and no harm.

We carried that same approach to reeftank sand rinsing since sandbed bacteria are extras only and not core requirements for the system

Filter backflushing is exactly what we're doing, this is what runs zoo exhibits and large display public aquariums, it's a dislodging move

For initial sand it's practice run and best silt clear.

Since the double- edged sword of filtration surface area is retention of waste, we wanted to be the first thread to apply that to aquariums as the filter... not just some box in the back.

We only rinse rocks where applicable in saltwater, their biofilm protects bacteria even with rough handling and time spent in air, outside water. But we hit the sandbed with tap and this keeps results consistent. Rinsing sand in ro or saltwater has same outcome, tap saves money

 

[brandon429]

Sulfuric acid (H2SO4) in reef tanks?

Due to corona my school was shut down and aquarium care was at a minimum. At the time I was an unpaid volunteer and just came by to feed the fish a couple times a week and refill a sump with DI water so it didn’t dry up. Turns out the facility manager was not doing water changes for an...

www.reef2reef.com

amazing tank rip clean, university reef system rebounding from Covid shutdown loss

 

[PanaReefer]

Good stuff here. this weekend I will add sand to my BB tank and will follow the steps

 

[brandon429]

and with that way your rocks wont be stacked on top, it'll be more stable. easy to remove / adjust for cleaning too thats handy approach

 

[PanaReefer]

sand (2 bags of carbsea natural reef) has been added to a 5gal bucket and still cloudy 4 hours now.. WOWWW

 

[brandon429]

yes its the most unrinsed bag of sand marked rinsed ive seen lol. one of these days, someone should make and sell truly cloudless pre rinsed sand it'd be a revolution in the industry.

 

[PanaReefer]

Finally clear, almost flooded my back yard

 

[reefwreck]

I got 220 been running for 12 years mushrooms have takin over rocks I want clean rocks, re aquascape & replace crushed coral with sand any suggestions would be a great help will post pic of tank