Add some sand

[moneymm]

my tank is a bit over a year old. i have 5 fish, no corals yet.

over the year i have sucked up some sand during water changes, and i never had as much as i wanted to begin with.

its looking alittle scarce right now, i have about 3/4 of an inch on average around the tank, and i want another 1/2 or so, i have a 46 gallon bow tank.

how much sand do i need to buy, and should i get live sand or dry sand, is there any cons to adding sand? like does it need to cure or anything before adding it?

 

[cloak]

Buying dry sand would probably be your best bet, but because you don't really want to add all of it at once you might want to start off with about 10 pounds and see how that looks. Also, because the sand is basically inert, your not running the risk of a spike of anything. As far as rinsing the sand goes, just put it in a 5 gallon bucket or something similar and use the garden hose to rinse out all the dust. You basically want the water to run over the edge of the bucket clear. You can add the sand using a funnel and some pvc pipe. Just spread it around, but not too deep though. You don't want to smother the life already within your sand bed right off the bat. GL.

 

[A1t2o]

I like to use a cup and drop the sand right where I want it. Like cloak said above, use dry sand and rinse it real good, but then I like to scope the sand in a cup, let it fill with tank water then carefully place it. I did this with corals though, so I had to be more careful because of them. Just don't knock anything over in the process.

 

[moneymm]

should i use RODI water to rinse the sand? or is hose water ok for this process if i let it dry afterwards?

 

[cloak]

The hose is fine and no, you don't need to dry the sand out before adding it. Just make sure to pour off as much of the water as you can though.

 

[danil]

Buying dry sand would probably be your best bet, but because you don't really want to add all of it at once you might want to start off with about 10 pounds and see how that looks. Also, because the sand is basically inert, your not running the risk of a spike of anything. As far as rinsing the sand goes, just put it in a 5 gallon bucket or something similar and use the garden hose to rinse out all the dust. You basically want the water to run over the edge of the bucket clear. You can add the sand using a funnel and some pvc pipe. Just spread it around, but not too deep though. You don't want to smother the life already within your sand bed right off the bat. GL.

+1. PVC & funnel - nothing works better. Don't use super fine grain and use aragonite sand (not silica based one). The amount is totally up to you as long as you use it for decorative purpose.

GL.