Reusing sand..a good idea?

[ZoeReef]

I'm setting up a 120sps tank that I am buying from a friend, what has your experience been with using sand from another person's tank?

looking to go with a DSB. It's more than a little pricey to buy new.

Thanks... Andy

 

[owsi]

Moved sand bed=trouble, a cup for starter ok

 

[Pyrrhus]

definitely agree with John. IMO more trouble arises with a sandbed when moved than any other part of our tanks, the O2 gets used up very quickly and massive amounts of life usually die thus polluting the new tank.

If you must re-use the old sand, rinse it, bleach it and allow it to sun dry, before use.

 

[vanmle]

This is what I did. I am not sure if it is a good thing or not.

Set up the new tank with new salt water and nothing else. Over a period of about a month, I added sand from my old aquarium which was still running. I am sure there were lots of die-off but the tank had time to stabilize. I also moved water from the old tank to the new tank and moved water from the new tank to the old. This was my way of acclimating my fish and corals. I lost no fish, coral or inverts when I finally moved everything over to the new tank.

Of course, this assumes that you can have both up at the same time.

Note: Seven months after I set up my tank, I have a major cyano problem that suddenly started about a week or so ago. This invasion was rather quick and I don't think reusing the sand bed had anything to do with it but I am not sure.

 

[ZoeReef]

Many thanks for all posts. Seems some have had good experiences and some really bad. I don't think I am going to risk it..have too much invested.

 

[555wild]

I have moved many tanks and sand beds from one tank to another. The main thing disrupted will be bacteria. Just do 10% water change every three to five days for three weeks. This has been my experience with sand beds.

 

[Siklid]

if your removing the sand from the tank while moving the tank, its useless, wash it. boil it, then wash it again, it might be safe to use then, there will for sure be a lot of crap in the sand that has died, or grown and died during hte washing process, treat like new sand after the second wash, ie wash again,,, and again until clean

if your leaving it in the tank while moving the tank, it will get disturbed during the moving of the tank and i would place filter floss all over the place to catch the lose crap, cycle for a few weeks as per uncured lr


just my 2.5 cents worth

 

[ZoeReef]

thanks for the feedback. Anyone have experience with a light bleach solution?

 

[rljlll]

if you use bleach don't forget to use some tap water conditioner to take out the clorine