Old sand

[mgobyman]

Starting a new system up 180 gl and a friend offered to give me his sand. Should I use it? What treatment should I do to it?
His has been in a bucket for a year in water!

 

[ReefNomad]

Don't use that... deep sand in a bucket of water becomes a wasteland after a couple days. The process you'd have to go through to sanitize whatever was left in that sand after the months of stagnation and anoxic conditions would be more of a chore than it's worth. You'd be better off using cheap, dry aragonite sand than trying to reclaim old sand stored wet in a container...

 

[outy]

Rinse the sand in fresh water, and it will be more then fine to reuse.

I have been reusing sand for 25 years and never had a single problem.

Just rebuilt my 215 using old sand by removing top layer that was hardened.

 

[outy]

The process you'd have to go through to
sanitize ...

You do not have to sanitize anything. Just rinse detritus out if any.

anoxic conditions

All DSB have this condition, size of particulates dictates how deep said layer starts.

. You'd be better off using cheap, dry aragonite sand than trying to reclaim old sand stored wet in a container

Use your nose here.

If it smells sulfuric one should rinse until its gone, I would dry it at that point and rinse afterwards, or just chuck it at that point. I just turned up a DSB that had 2" of sand that had turned to stone. After removing the hard part to get to the good sand under it, I simply mixed it all up and there was no smell. Good to go. All corals are thriving and I had the typical brown diatoms of new sand for a few days.

Any sand turning black should be chucked.

 

[on the spot]

Location: Grand Rapids, MI

Hey lookit there, a westie. :wavehand:

I agree it can be used - let your mood be your guide. keeping sand around is usually a hassle for me but if you got it it'll be fine to use. smell or no smell. I'd suspect you could treat it like rock. very tiny rock. rinse it clean and move forward.

HTH

 

[JUNBUG361]

How fine is the sand? If in doubt don't use, buy new sand

 

[ReefNomad]

I reuse sand all the time, but I rinse it clean first, and then dry it out to store it. In my experience, sand taken from a system and stored wet in a compacted state gets simply gross. Add in the fact that it's donor sand from an old system, and to me it's worth a few bucks for new sand, versus hoping I get the old junk rinsed clear.

Also, it is true that anoxic conditions occur in standard bio-filtration, but they occur in a stablized, running reef with water flow, gas exchange, and two layers of cycle working in conjunction to export the byproducts. What's happening inside a bucket after a week is black nitrogenous decay.

 

[10Seconds]

I have several buckets in my garage that i plan to reuse. No reason not to IMO. Clean and rince it if it makes you feel better but Should be fine.

 

[Crusty Old Shellback]

It's my sand he is asking about. It's actually Hawaiian beach sand iff the beaches of Hawaii. They sell it in the Home Depot over there.
It's been sitting for over a year since I tore the tank down. Didn't smell when you pull the lid off the can. Never had any issues in the tank. Plus anything living in there is dead by now one would think.

 

[outy]

Hawaiian beach sand .

Id chuck it if its volcanic sand, and get aragonite.

 

[Crusty Old Shellback]

Nope, it's arroganite. Or dead Coral, what ever you prefer to call it.

 

[billdogg]

Just rinse the heck out of it (just like you would have to with "new" dry sand) and use it up. Some of the sand in my system is at least 25 years old and has been it 5 or more tanks over the years. Ditto with rocks.

 

[outy]

Just rinse the heck out of it (just like you would have to with "new" dry sand) and use it up. Some of the sand in my system is at least 25 years old and has been it 5 or more tanks over the years. Ditto with rocks.

Yep same here. I ended up getting 3 - 5gallon buckets of used sand for my 215 build on top of all that marco soft sand, plus some of the sand from my original 100 that goes back 25 years.

If it wasn't for doing 1 water change a year for 5 years due to amazing growth, it might have lasted longer before needing maintenance.


people blame old sand on DSB issues, I have found you only get a 5 year life span before the whole sand bed needs turned and cleaned.

Mine always turns to rock where I cannot reach it. Which ends up being the whole tank when the coral overgrows the tank.