Adding sand to established tank?

[Jon770]

I have an established 75 G tank and I want to add some sand. I bought one of these 20 lb bags of sand from my LFS, and am considering getting another one (40 lbs total):

It is the Bahamas Oolite type of sand, which is pretty fine. My question is whether I can just dump this whole bag directly in the tank, or will that cause my tank to crash? Should I put in a handfull each day, or do I need to cure the sand in a separate tub. The only time I've dealt with putting this amount of sand in the tank was when I first started it and my tank was originally cycling, so I wasnt too worried about spikes...

Thanks for the help.

 

[MaximusUSG]

I recently tore down my 75g and replaced the crushed coral with sand. Put all the water and live rock back in and then loaded fish. I didn't lose a single thing...

 

[clippo]

may be too late anyway, but buying non-live sand may have been a cheaper method and would have avoided any cycling issue.

 

[HowardW]

Is there any substrate in the tank now or is it a bare bottom?

 

[mthedude]

just added 20 lbs of dry to my existing bed last night, everything is doing fine as of this am, I doubt I'll loose anything since it's dry sand.

 

[Jon770]

There is about 50-60 pounds of live sand in there already. I will be adding another 20-40 pounds of live sand (from the bag, not from another tank). The tank has been up and runing for about 2 years. Bad idea?

Where do you even get dry sand from?

 

[zenzence]

I would go with dry sand as well, I recently added about 20lbs to my 90 and it worked out fine.

 

[HowardW]

I would add it slowly and gently mix it with your sand rather than just dumping it on top of your existing sand bed.

 

[Jon770]

Obviously I would not just dump it upside down in the tank, I would gently lay it down by hand...but my question is whether I can do the whole bag (20 lbs) at the same time, or will that cause a spike?

By 'slowly' do you mean over a period of days, or did you just mean not to dump the whole bag in at once?

 

[Reefy]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=7415084#post7415084 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Jon770
Obviously I would not just dump it upside down in the tank, I would gently lay it down by hand...but my question is whether I can do the whole bag (20 lbs) at the same time, or will that cause a spike?

By 'slowly' do you mean over a period of days, or did you just mean not to dump the whole bag in at once?

As others have mentioned, you can add dry sand with no problem. However, I would be cautious about the "live" sand mix you have there. I have used it, but never on an established system. I take it there is no caution on the bag about causing a cycle?

 

[Jon770]

No, it just mentions the original cycle. It says to add the sand to speed up the cycle, and then to wait 3 weeks before adding fish into a newly cycled tank. Nothing about adding it to an established tank.

 

[HowardW]

<<< By 'slowly' do you mean over a period of days, or did you just mean not to dump the whole bag in at once? >>>


By slowly I meant a couple cups a day and to gently mix it in with your current substrate, and monitor your water parameters daily.


As with most anything in a marine tank, far better to be cautious and do it gradually and monitor any possible change

 

[miracles38]

I have added 20 lbs of live sand to established 72 gallon and also 120 with no ill effects. The live sand is not suppose to cause a cycle, and didn't in my tanks.

 

[delor]

If you end up getting dry sand, I would recommend rinsing it with saltwater (or at least RO/DI) to get rid of some of the dust. This will cut down on the "sand storm" effect.

 

[Jon770]

Thanks.

When everyone says to get dry sand- do you mean Southdown (which I cannot find here in S. Florida)? Do LFS sell 'dry' sand, b/c I dont think I have ever seen that before....

 

[DaveG99]

I added sand to my 50 gallon that was already running. I used a big zip lock bag and filled it with sand and closed it and sunk it to the bottom then opened the bag and moved the sand out with my hands.

 

[sjm817]

I was thinking of an idea to add sand to an existing tank without a sandstorm.

How about making the sand moist, and freezing it into a brick? Put the brick in the tank, it thaws and no sand storm. As long as you didn't put enough in at once to cause a big temp swing, it would work.

 

[delor]

My LFS carries dry sand. It is packaged by the same company of the the sand you have, it just doesn't have all the bacterial juices in it. You can find it on most online sites too, but shipping it sucks...

 

[skidclan]

I added about 30 pounds of live sand to my 90 at about 10 pounds per day. Never suffered any ill effects. I added dry caribsea sand because I knew my existing sand bed would populated the new sand.

 

[v8maro]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=7418781#post7418781 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by sjm817
I was thinking of an idea to add sand to an existing tank without a sandstorm.

How about making the sand moist, and freezing it into a brick? Put the brick in the tank, it thaws and no sand storm. As long as you didn't put enough in at once to cause a big temp swing, it would work.

ice cubes float, it'll storm if it melts at the top. You would need to find a way to stick it to the bottom, nice idea tho.