Sand

[Ncreefer]

Fixing to tear down my 150 and put everything in the 265. Everyone says use new sand and can switch that day since everything has been established in my old tank. Who sells the cheapest live sand. Amazon seems to be cheaper for the 40lb bags. Like figi pink or medium sand. Need 7-8 bags.

 

[Big G]

Just removed Fiji Pink from mine. It was a dirt magnet and blew around way too easy. But I suppose the blowing around depends on your configuration. Switched to Special Grade. Looked at Amazon but BRS was cheaper at the time.

 

[xxkenny90xx]

If it's an established tank transfer go with dry sand. Live sand will just cause problems

 

[JimSRT4]

Wouldn't established sand be a better route? I've always transferred sand from existing systems to new ones. I make sure to rinse it in some saltwater first, but I can't recall ever having an issue.

 

[xxkenny90xx]

I have done the same after throughly cleaning it in saltwater (to save $) but it is usually recommended to use new dry sand and maybe a little bit of your old stuff to seed it.

 

[Ncreefer]

I have done the same after throughly cleaning it in saltwater (to save $) but it is usually recommended to use new dry sand and maybe a little bit of your old stuff to seed it.

So use dry sand? Don't want to crash all my sps and livestock

 

[xxkenny90xx]

Yes. I'd probably rinse it but dry sand is the way to go. Bagged "live sand" is full of mostly dead stuff imo (not alot can survive being stored for a long time in a sealed bag). This dead stuff will help cycle a new tank but adding it to an established tank will just cause problems

 

[Ncreefer]

Yes. I'd probably rinse it but dry sand is the way to go. Bagged "live sand" is full of mostly dead stuff imo (not alot can survive being stored for a long time in a sealed bag). This dead stuff will help cycle a new tank but adding it to an established tank will just cause problems

Probably will have a ammonia spike is expected. Going to use a ammonia badge and have 200 gallons of water on hand

 

[Nicholas Scelzi]

Nature’s ocean live sand is a great choice. Use that in all my tanks. There are better prices than amazon for it ! Actually Petco has the 20 lbs bag for 20 bucks. 1 dollar/ lb isn’t bad I don’t think. And the shipping was only 3 days

 

[Ncreefer]

Nature’s ocean live sand is a great choice. Use that in all my tanks. There are better prices than amazon for it ! Actually Petco has the 20 lbs bag for 20 bucks. 1 dollar/ lb isn’t bad I don’t think. And the shipping was only 3 days

Does it blow around? Fine? Will have 6 mp40s running

 

[Flippers4pups]

Just replaced some of my sand. It's a slow process. As @xxkenny90xx said, dry sand is cheaper and with most sand, live or dry, it will need to be rinsed to remove the dust/fines. So.....I recommend, as @Big G said, Dry Caribsea special grade aragonite. It's cheaper, very uniform, doesn't blow around easily and is wrasse friendly.

I removed, a small amount at a time the sand I had. It was sold by Marco rocks sometime ago and was not very uniform. Weird colored chunks and caused me to fight diatoms constantly.

Rinsed the special grade with tap water, drained well and using a PVC tube, dumped it in small sections at a time. Worked well and didn't upset any of my corals.

 

[Ncreefer]

Just replaced some of my sand. It's a slow process. As @xxkenny90xx said, dry sand is cheaper and with most sand, live or dry, it will need to be rinsed to remove the dust/fines. So.....I recommend, as @Big G said, Dry Caribsea special grade. It's cheaper, very uniform, doesn't blow around easily and is wrasse friendly.

I removed, a small amount at a time the sand I had. It was sold by Marco rocks sometime ago and was not very uniform. Weird colored chunks and caused me to fight diatoms constantly.

Rinsed the special grade with tap water, drained well and using a PVC tube, dumped it in small sections at a time. Worked well and didn't upset any of my corals.

Not replacing sand in existing tank. I'm tearing my 150 down and transferring everything in to the 265 in a day or two. If live sand will work and not cause problems I rather do that. If it will causes problems or more likely to cause a crash I'll use dry. Will be sps dominant with lots of flow. Have alot of sps that will be moved.

 

[Flippers4pups]

I've used dry sand before in a tank upgrade years ago. Never any issues with corals. I personally think live sand is a waste of money, as dry will become biologically seeded pretty quickly with established live rock and corals. To each their own, respectfully.

 

[Big G]

If live sand will work and not cause problems I rather do that.

"Live sand" works pretty good, but I "fallowed" the tank for 76 days to make sure to starve out velvet or Ich encysts when I first started up the tank with Fiji Pink.

 

[Mastiffsrule]

I don’t see a reason to pitch the sand. The only reason I would say toss it is if you had a disease issue. Or if you didn’t like it.

If not why not just rinse it and transfer. I recently did similar. I used a 3/4 inch hose and put it on the sand bed and vacuumed up small section at a time into a bucket. Then I rins3d the sand a few times with tank or freshly made salt water. I did it until the water was clear and then put into tank. This way only have to buy few bags versus 200 pounds.

Save money and removes any detris from the sand, no reason to transfer nitrate with the sand. Same with rock. If transferring rock blow them off with a baster or small pump with a hose in salt water.

And do a build thread