sand or not

[unforgiven]

Hello' can someone please let me know if it would be safe to use my old sand from my tank ? I had to tear it down cause I had a big out break of algae it took over everything my live rock and even got into my sandbed,so I cleaned the entire tank. I had it for about 4yrs and never had any problems with it. I don't want to buy all new sand if I don't need to cause am poor...what can I do please help....

[GeorgiaMan]

what type of algae? there will probably be algae spores left but with low nitrates and a good cleanup crew will probably help

[Pineapple]

Is it old dried sand? I think this is what you mean by tear down.

[Crown Royal]

If you want to be 100% sure, bake the sand.

No joke, an hour at 350F should kill anything and everything. The key is getting all the moisture out so all that's left is warm sterile sand.

[DansMarineTank]

Could i do the same (bake) a live rock with aptasia do you think?

[unforgiven]

so how do I cook my sand ? cause I got around 90lbs. and I had the green,brown hair algae in it was all over my live rock and in parts of my sand bed.oh I scrub it off my live rock and now I got the live rock setting in a 32 gal trash can with some water and a rio moving the water around its been in thier for the past 3 weeks.any way how do take care of my sand and how safe is it ??
? thks I will post some pic this weekend.

[Pineapple]

You can set it out in the sun if you live in a warm climate. You will have to rinse it really well until the water is clear, you can use ro/di or distilled. Once it looks clear run fresh saltwater, pump and tests. You will probably see ammonia either way you choose.
Change the saltwater once a week until parameters read 0. Phosphate, ammonia, nitrite, and nitrates kits will be needed. I have sand in my sump I change out once in a while. I will test this out to see if this is feasible. It’s about that time to change it anyways. You may have to add more sand and reseed it for the loss.

Cooking live rock is somewhat the same concept. You could use saltwater to rinse but if the sand is bad it may take a lot of salt.

[Crown Royal]

There's a difference between "cooking" your sand as described by Pineapple and sterilizing it by baking it.

You should "cook" your sand and live rock if it's become algae infested and is clogged with detritus. You'll lose any photosynthetic organisms, but beneficial bacteria will still be abundant. Virtually all algae disappears because you have denied one food source (light) and it will have either used up or have washed away its other food sources (nitrates and phosphates from decaying material). I've used this technique with success myself, but understand that it takes a long time (a couple months AT LEAST) and your family members will give you funny looks every time you tell them you're going to the garage to wash your rocks.

Sterilization of sand by baking it is a more extreme measure used when you believe that you may have some disease or parasitic organisms situate in the sand. You'll loose all life and beneficial bacteria, obviously. It's best done in the summer. I set out my sand (which was stupidly in my q-tank when my Hippo Tang came down with ich) in several shallow pans out in the sun. Over the course of a sunny dry week, most of the moisture had evaporated from the sand. I then baked the sand in each pan as I explained earlier.

With respect to aiptasia, the best method is to target squirt each anemone with your own kalk paste mixture or a product called "Joe's Juice" (which is probably just kalk paste). There's also techniques involving boiling water and lemon juice. Use sparingly and only do a few at a time to lessen any chemical impact on your tank. One way of drawing the aiptasia out for more effecting delivery and the satisfaction of seeing it die before your eyes is to put a few drops of Selcon or some other liquid food by the aiptasia a few seconds before blasting it with the kalk.