Reusing sand and rock, upgrading tank

[borillion_star]

Purchased a tank with some preused sand and rocks and am worried about bad stuff that might be in the sand. is it ok to bake it in oven until it hits 165F or is it ok to just use it?

How do i go about cycling it do I need to wash any of the sand or rock just the normal way?

I plan on moving my 20 gallons inhabitants rocks and sand into it
can i just aquascape and move them all over?

 

[Navyblue]

What are these "bad stuffs" in the sand that you are afraid of that can be removed in the oven? The bad stuffs that I can imagine all come from the rocks.

I'd try to clean them as much as possible in salt water. The only way to know if it would cycle is to test for it. Keep them in satwater with sufficient agitation to minimise die offs.

 

[borillion_star]

Re: Reusing sand and rock, upgrading tank

I dunno flukes, dinoflagelates, parasitic pods and unwanted worms and stuff. Thinking about it freaks me out lol.

 

[maroun.c]

I would worry if the old tank was a deep sand bed or even a shallow sand bed htat wasn't syphoned regularly. That might affect the tank negatively. I would at least wash it very thoroughly in Salt water or even in fresh water with multiple rinses to get it cleaned.

 

[reeftanknewbie]

the old school rule of thumb is to ditch the sand for some new sand and reuse he rocks either by cycling in or out of the tank to kill off the dead stuff. I used a trash can, pump, airstone, and salt water to cycle my rock for a month with weekly partial water changes.

Just my 2 cents.

 

[borillion_star]

Re: Reusing sand and rock, upgrading tank

Ok I dunno how long the sand sat out so I'll wash it with the salt water and then I'll dip the rocks just incase and give them good shakes in fresh water and set the tank up to cycle.

Sound good?

 

[John Blaze]

I recently purchased a used aquarium, I put the sand in a 32 gallon brute garbage can and cleaned it throughly with with my garden hose. Then moved the sand a little at a time into a 5 gallon bucket and washed it again. Drained it well and placed it in the tank. This worked for me.

 

[Navyblue]

Ok I dunno how long the sand sat out so I'll wash it with the salt water and then I'll dip the rocks just incase and give them good shakes in fresh water and set the tank up to cycle.

Sound good?

Use fresh water if you want to kill the stuffs in there.

Use salt water if you want the stuffs in there to live.

I'd do it the other way round if I were you.

 

[borillion_star]

So did it without dipping, threw it all in the tank and poured salt water onto it. Now the water is mostly clear but I have mucus or slime hanging off certain places on the rock and some dead bristle worms swirling around in the moving water from the Koralia's I stuck into there. The water temp is at 79-80 deg F.

There is what looks like large nassarius snail moving around but I took out the other dead stuff that I could find from the sand like the hermits and the dead turbo snail, it was leaking slime that smelled like sewage :strange: at least I think he was dead, Im sure of the crabs thought they where dead as a door nail.

Should I be concerned about the slime? Im afraid its some dieing polyps or anemones or something.

 

[borillion_star]

One more silly question, Im considering having it drilled out for returns and such, will I have to cycle again if I allow it to complete and move the sand and rocks to a big bucket with the water and put a heater and a power head in there with them?

I suppose I should have done it first and then put the stuff in lol.

 

[Navyblue]

Remove as much of the dead stuffs as you can. If ammonia spikes too much you'd kill even more stuffs in the rock.

The rocks will not cycle again if you have sufficient aeration and the temperature is right.

As mentioned the only way to find out if the bacteria have establised is to test for it. It sounds like you have quite a bit of research to do before you should proceed.

 

[borillion_star]

Re: Reusing sand and rock, upgrading tank

I'm seeding from my 20 gal sand and water, I'm also making water changes until it comes to zero. I'm very sure that I didn't kill any of what's in there the crabs and snails where dead on thevsand bed in the tank when I got it. I'm 1000% sure of that. It looks like the rocks and tank had been sitting out for a long time. I'm removing everything that I see that is dead or dying.

 

[borillion_star]

Re: Reusing sand and rock, upgrading tank

Ive had a huge bloom of diatoms and some small spots of hair alge. Can I do a 50% water change and put some hermits and snails in there?

 

[Navyblue]

Yes if ammonia reads 0.

 

[borillion_star]

My ammonia is reading zero, also the same with nitrates and nitrites. I put in some snails and a damsel. Im going to be keeping an eye on the levels and the fish.