Adding sand

[katekate087]

When I moved and upgraded my 60cube to a 90 I thought I Wanted a bare bottom tank to help with water chem because I'm super lazy and I hate doing water changes but now that I'm settled and getting back a normal schedule with reef keeping, I'm glad I didn't have sand for the past 6 months because my tank would have gone to total ****, anyways I'm ready for sand now. Any tips on adding it without my tank crashing?

 

[cloak]

There's really nothing to it, just make sure to rinse the sand thoroughly before you do add it to your tank though. A funnel and a PVC pipe will work, or you could just fill up a zip lock bag full of sand and sink it to the bottom. (pour it out) Have fun.

 

[RockOn681]

I like using a large cup filled with sand, slowly let that fill with water and bring it down to the bottom and dump it our around where you want it placed, very little sand storm created this way.

 

[tzylak]

I'll second the part about rinsing thoroughly. And even with that, you might get a cloudy water for a day or two.
I used a plastic jar to submerge the wet sand, quickly flip it over and let it gently flow out directly onto the bottom.
I added mine 10 pounds at a time with a weekly interval to minimize the impact and have a gradual bacterial increase.
Have fun!

 

[katekate087]

So I'm really afraid of an ammonia spike or something spiking... I'm not awesome with my tank and knowing too much about anything :/ I actually feel kinda dumb when it comes to tank talk, I'm learning but I feel kinda dumb. All I know is that if I keep up on water changes everything looks bright and happy. That being said you guys would suggest to add a few pounds slooooowly and then do a water change, add a few, change, add, change and so on to keep the bacteria down. I don't want my tank to cycle again. I just don't want to kill everything.

 

[billdogg]

If you use dry (but well rinsed) sand, there will be nothing to cause an ammonia spike. I prefer the large diameter PVC pipe used as a long funnel to get it to the bottom. You will still cloud the water a little bit, but you can either wait it out (a few days) or hook up a spare canister filter stuffed full of polyester pillow stuffing (my personal choice - pillow stuffing because you can get it at wallyworld for a couple bucks and its the exact same stuff as "filter floss" from your LFS)

 

[Sk8r]

Trust your critters to move it where they want it. Just pile it in the most accessible corner and I'll guarantee it will get distributed pdq.

 

[katekate087]

How do I rinse the sand? Put it in a bucket and shake it around a little in some clean new salt water then dump out cloudy water? I'm only asking because I'm a visual learner and that's what I'm picturing...

 

[cloak]

Fill a 5 gallon bucket about halfway up with sand and then use the garden hose to rinse it. Just keeping stirring it up until the water overflows the bucket clear. Drain off as much of the water as you can and then add the sand to your tank. Piece of cake.

 

[Jritter02]

I rinsed out probably 40-50 lbs of sand last week. It was from an established tank. Someone gave it to me for free. The sand was filthy with a lot of fine silt. I sat in my driveway for about 30 min rinsing it out good. As stated above, use a water hose and keep stirring the sand around getting all the loose fine sand and dirty stuff to float in the water. Then dump the dirty water out. Keep doing that until the water us clear.