What to do w/used live sand

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scottd

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Apr 18, 2007
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Good Evening.....
.......And thanks in advance for any expert advice you can give me. I just bought a used 75 gallon complete saltwater setup. It had about 80 pounds of Fiji live sand in it. The aquarium had been drained for about 4 days and the sand was still very moist. There was a lot of live rock with it as well. He had a wet dry filter, a protein skimmer, and a UV Sterilizer on it but I think used water that was not RO in it. It had been set up successfully(?) for about 2 years. I will go to the local fish store tomorrow and buy some RO water that has the salt in it allready, but what sould I do with the sand?

Should I try to rinse it with some RO water first and get some of the ???? out of it?

Should I throw it out and start over?

Or leave it alone and add the saltwater?

Or something else?

I don't want to cut any corners but would like to have some money left to buy some fish someday also.
Again, thank you fo rthe advice.

Scottd
 
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Was the sand just moist or still submerged in water?
If submerged, than it is likely still nearly as alive as it was when the tank was running. If just moist, there's probably been some die off of bacteria and other small critters.

In either case, I wouldn't throw it out. When we bought our 90g used, we transfered 1/2 of the guys sand bed in buckets, stored it submerged for 3 weeks, and used it as it was (no rinsing). His tank had been running 5+ years before he tore it down. Because we were only able to take 1/2 of the sand, we of course added new, dry sand to make up the difference. It's been over a year now and we haven't had any problems with nuissance algae.

If the sand had stayed completely submerged, I would say use it as is. If it was only moist and not covered by water, I'd rinse it lightly to get some of the junk out of it. Yes, rinsing it would remove some of the good stuff that may or may not still be alive, but the sand bed can easily be repopulated from the live rock (I hope this stayed submerged) and from the addition of a cup of sand from 1 or more other running reef tanks.
 
All should be fine, even if it is starting to smell. Just remember that you most probably will go through another cycle, obviously the severity will be dependant on the amount of die off that has occurred.

My advice, fill the tank and get lots of flow and make sure you get it at the right temp. Gently disturb the sand by running your fingers through it, don't worry if you get rotten egg gas smell, this is natural, and will dissipate via the water surface. Let everything settle for a couple of days, and just monitor if you get any ammonia or nitrite spikes, and obviously don't add any fish until stable. Once ammonia and nitrite is back to zero, bring your nitrates back into line with some small water changes. All should be good. Keep us posted.
 
Thanks for the good info. The sand was just moist. I have on order a RO system but come to find out the is an RO store close to the house so I have been using them in the interim.
I rinsed it and got 40 pounds more from the LFS. I have not added the live rock because it was NOT submerged. I have it in buckets submerged in RO. The LFS recommended this kent live rock cleaner it is suppossed to help clean off the dead bacteria. I have a 20 gal tank from a long time ago. I thought i might clean it, get some salt water and a pump, put in the 20 for a week and test the water to see if I can use it. Does that sound right? if after aweek it does not have bad water should I be able to add it to the tank?

The new sand, Carib Sea, had these little packages in them to help clear out the cloudiness i the tank. The filter has WD filter has been running for about 7 hours now and still a little cloudy. The only thing in my WD is a bonged filter pad and a sponge?, should there be something else in it like a charcoal bag or something to help it out?

I was up til about 4 this morning try to get the level right in my WD and finally got it!

Thanks again for your help,
scottd
 
Oh, I forgot one of the best parts, I think, there were 2 small crabs, about the size of my little finger nail crawling around. After getting the tank up and running, I see one of them crawling around. This is a good sign, right?

scottd
 
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