Sand questions

[Brando’s Reef]

I have a 20gal long Fowlr, it’s been up and running for about 7 months. I’m moving the set up to 65 gal. I bought two more bags of caribsea live sand, I didn’t realize it had a little bit green algae in it till I got home. My question is, is it safe to use as is, or should I rinse it really good, or not use at all? I think I’ve read when adding new sand, add a little bit once a week. Just not sure what to do, only been in salty world for about 8 months. I just don’t want to have a crazy algae bloom or anything happen to my little buddies.

 

[JumboShrimp]

I’m a bit surprised to hear about algae in the bag. How much are we talking about? And larger pieces, or little specs throughout? A photo might help...

 

[Brando’s Reef]

I’m a bit surprised to hear about algae in the bag. How much are we talking about? And larger pieces, or little specs throughout? A photo might help...

 

[Brando’s Reef]

It’s just on the bottom of the bag where it was exposed to light from the store

 

[JumboShrimp]

If it’s minimal I don’t know that I’d be overly concerned. How would you strain/wash only the algae out? But if you choose to give it a try, you could just throw a $20 bottle of bacteria into your washed sand, and you’ll basically be back to where you were in a short amount of time.

 

[JumboShrimp]

I see your photo now. I wouldn’t blink twice at that. Just going through the typical ‘ugly’ stage you are going to see a lot worse in your tank before it gets better. Full speed ahead, and don’t forget to have fun! And welcome to R2R!

 

[Brando’s Reef]

If it’s minimal I don’t know that I’d be overly concerned. How would you strain/wash only the algae out? But if you choose to give it a try, you could just throw a $20 bottle of bacteria into your washed sand, and you’ll basically be back to where you were in a short amount of time.

Ok. I really don’t know how, tap water i guess. I will be adding the 40lbs of sand to 20lbs of all ready established sand, so would there be a need to use a bottle of bacteria ( if I was it )?

 

[sfin52]

It looks like green cyano i have used bags that looked worse and no issues at all. You will love the oolite very fine. Sand dwelling creatures love the oolite

 

[Brando’s Reef]

I see your photo now. I wouldn’t blink twice at that. Just going through the typical ‘ugly’ stage you are going to see a lot worse in your tank before it gets better. Full speed ahead, and don’t forget to have fun! And welcome to R2R!

Ok, thank you so much. Thanks

 

[DrufusReef]

Don't wash it. If you do it's not live sand anymore. Most likely upgrading to a new size tank you wont have enough nutrients to sustain it. If by some chance it continues to grow just do water changes until it goes away. No need to wash out all the good stuff from live sand

 

[JumboShrimp]

Seeing the photo I agree with @DrufusReef — don’t rinse it over that. Are you up on the basics of cycling a tank? If not, all you’ll ever need to know can be found on R2R.

 

[brandon429]

Official Sand Rinse and Tank Transfer thread

If you are reading this thread to cure a tank invasion from a link I sent you, we do not need to identify your type of invasion here we do not need you to test anything at anytime regarding nitrate, phosphate etc Above all, we do not need to see a microscope slide picture of your invasion at...

www.reef2reef.com

I claim it’s not possible to investigate the effects of pre rinsing and not pre rinsing moreso than we do there, and that’s only referring to the first post not the actual fifty pages of testing in reefs


on post number one, twenty examples of cloudy hated reefs who didn’t pre rinse and for all pages thereafter, only happy aquarists who pre rinsed all sand that went into their tank…in addition to the old sand it was capping off.


conclusion drawn: rinsing sand in tap water is awesome. That sand you show in post #3 comprises all the examples of bad outcomes on post one, if you skip rinsing. I think it might be the cloudiest dirtiest new sand ever created, glad they wrote no rinsing needed on the label heh.



following no thread advice gets you a ~30% chance of this:

https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/so-i-didnt-rinse.592624/
https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/sandbed-stirred-up.544852/#post-5723606

https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/very-cloudy-water-after-sand-and-rock.559386/#post-5735864
https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/question-about-vacuuming-sand-bed.616059/ https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/new-tank-milky-cloudy.616519/

 

[sfin52]

Don't wash it. If you do it's not live sand anymore. Most likely upgrading to a new size tank you wont have enough nutrients to sustain it. If by some chance it continues to grow just do water changes until it goes away. No need to wash out all the good stuff from live sand

Seeing the photo I agree with @DrufusReef — don’t rinse it over that. Are you up on the basics of cycling a tank? If not, all you’ll ever need to know can be found on R2R.

I agree don't rinse

 

[Brando’s Reef]

I agree don't rinse

I have 20 long running now, I’m moving the rock and the sand from that tank to a 60 gallon. The 20 long has been up and running for about 7 months, so it’s fairly established. Starting to get coralline algae on rock. My main concern was not to cause a huge headache for myself

 

[EricR]

@brandon429, after reading all I could about this (by you and others), I'm at least a "believer" enough to go with (for tank transfer):
(1. Rinse all old sand (tap then RODI) and swish (saltwater) all live rock <--detritus removal.
(2. Most of the beneficial bacteria is on the live rock so bacterial loss from sand rinse is acceptable.

Accepting the above, I have the following opinion so curious what you/others think (or what I'm missing):
There's no benefit to buying live sand (if you're just going to rinse it in tap water anyway).

 

[Aqua Man]

No need to wash out all the good stuff from live sand

What good stuff ? I’ve never used live sand in a bag.

It’s just on the bottom of the bag where it was exposed to light from the store

I have seen that before. At big box LFS. Makes me wonder what is actually in this live sand that it’s already growing algae. I don’t need any help in that department!!

 

[brandon429]

I still buy this sand anyway vs the dry, agreed I don’t think it will matter in the end Eric agreed. I like the wet stuff hoping it has a little better flocculation tendency by at least being wet in holding, vs powder dry sand, agreed same ends we don’t need sandbed bacteria in reefing its merely extra bioload the tank handles, it’s not the locus of filtration old rules made sand out to be.


yet another

Tank cloudy after adding live sand

I added some more sand to my tank that has been running for 6 months. This has caused a lot of cloudiness.. will this be detrimental to the fish and what are the best ways to solve this?

www.reef2reef.com

 

[sfin52]

I have 20 long running now, I’m moving the rock and the sand from that tank to a 60 gallon. The 20 long has been up and running for about 7 months, so it’s fairly established. Starting to get coralline algae on rock. My main concern was not to cause a huge headache for myself

You won't I did the same. I went from a 75 to and 90 and added 50 lbs of sand for my leopard wrasse. A couple of the bags looked worse than yours. Its just cyanobacteria no real cause for concern

 

[DrufusReef]

What good stuff ? I’ve never used live sand in a bag.

I have seen that before. At big box LFS. Makes me wonder what is actually in this live sand that it’s already growing algae. I don’t need any help in that department!!

The good stuff is bacteria. Whether you use live sand or dry sand all sand and rock will become live after a time. We need the beneficial bacteria in our tanks because that's what the cycle is. In it's most rugged form good bacteria eating bad bacteria.

 

[Flame2hawk]

There is little reason to pay for “live sand” if one destroys and bacteria by rinsing it. I like a little algae in my tank as it is natural and good for grazing livestock. In moderation green algae is sign of a healthy tank. Don’t stress use it and enjoy!