Soaking sand for a month and silicates

Just John · Jan 4, 2023

I am going to add some sand to my established tank and don't want to get diatoms as a result. I was thinking of putting it in a bucket with a bubbler to get rids of any silicates first. Will this work?

sixty_reefer · Jan 4, 2023

Are you also adding a silica absorbing media to it? Make it live by adding ammonia and bacteria to the sand should help minimise the effects of diatoms imo.

nothing_fancy · Jan 4, 2023

Yes I believe that works. I was asking a similar question some months ago when some of my sand was depleting. I had some fairly old "live sand" I wanted to get some use out of and was concerned about upsetting my system because in the past I tried adding live sand post cycle and it did indeed cause some issues. For me I can say this likely worked because I did this several months ago and have yet to see an issue and I did this twice over the course of 2 months: After a water change keep the discarded water in a 5 gallon bucket, put the sand you're looking to use in there, put a strong enough pump in there to move the water very well, let it sit for a week or 2 weeks. I also added a small dose of prime to the water. Ive also done this with dry rock when introducing new pieces of dry rock and never had a problem. Maybe overly cautious.

brandon429 · Jan 4, 2023

not needed. we dont get any diatoms adding new sand to tanks in the sand rinse thread

rinse the high surface area flash silt out of it, then add.

brandon429 · Jan 4, 2023

*capping off waste factors too, the ideal way to add it is to add it on top of cleaned vs sinked up sand

Just John · Jan 4, 2023

brandon429 said:
*capping off waste factors too, the ideal way to add it is to add it on top of cleaned vs sinked up sand

Thanks for the help as always. Do you mind if I tag you in a contest thread (you know that get another entry thing)?

brandon429 · Jan 4, 2023

hey for sure I like to see all kinds of builds and goodies going on, thanks tons John

Randy Holmes-Farley · Jan 4, 2023

Just John said:
I am going to add some sand to my established tank and don't want to get diatoms as a result. I was thinking of putting it in a bucket with a bubbler to get rids of any silicates first. Will this work?

Is it silica sand or aragonite sand?

Both may release a little silica but generally not enough to cause a diatom problem.

I would be wary of using an unnatural/ground up sand, like sand blasting sand, as it may have a lot more readily dissolvable silicate.

Just John · Jan 4, 2023

Randy Holmes-Farley said:
Is it silica sand or aragonite sand?

Both may release a little silica but generally not enough to cause a diatom problem.

I would be wary of using an unnatural/ground up sand, like sand blasting sand, as it may have a lot more readily dissolvable silicate.

It's aragonite live sand I have had sitting around for a couple of years. Dead sand now, I guess.
Just looked at the tank and it looks like I may have dinos (have not confirmed yet) starting on the sand even though my nitrates and phosphates have been kept up since I got rid of them over the summer. Phos last week were .09 and nitrates 3. I guess I'll be getting out the microscope. But that's another issue.

Randy Holmes-Farley · Jan 4, 2023

Just John said:
It's aragonite live sand I have had sitting around for a couple of years. Dead sand now, I guess.
Just looked at the tank and it looks like I may have dinos (have not confirmed yet) starting on the sand even though my nitrates and phosphates have been kept up since I got rid of them over the summer. Phos last week were .09 and nitrates 3. I guess I'll be getting out the microscope. But that's another issue.

I'd rinse it to avoid hydrogen sulfide, but there's no risk of diatoms from it.