sand for my fuge

[vest0830]

I saved the sand from my cube for my fuge for this new tank. It has been just sitting on my back porch for the past month, month and a half or so, with about an inch of water sitting on top of the sand so it didnt dry out.

I just went out there, got rid of the NASTY water that was sitting on top of the sand to move it into my fuge, and when I started diggin through it, some of the sand was gray. Should I use it? Is that a good thing? Should I go get some sand from the beach, maybe seed it?
Why is my sand gray?

Also, I need some chato soon........

 

[fdokinawa]

wash the sand.. get another big bucket and a smaller container. take a scoop of sand with the small container and wash it with regular tap water.. like your washing rice. keep doing that till the water turns clear.. make sure you use your hands to sift the sand around. then dump the clean sand into the new big bucket/container. This is what I did with my sand for my tank. I wouldnt worry about seeding it, but you can if you really want to.

 

[vest0830]

I think I might just start with some new.

 

[Dastank]

Frank, are you trying to put this on your new tank? The gray is a bacteria bloom and if there's a lot of it, it's probably not a good thing to try to use on an established tank. If you were setting something up that's going to cycle it probably wouldn't hurt, just my opinion.

 

[vest0830]

I am going to get some new stuff.

Jeff, where do you get your substrate? Or anyone have any recomidations on where to get some substrate?

 

[Dastank]

Call me Frank and I'll give you a few places!

 

[jeffb3t]

I picked up sand from makuman before. $1.40 for a large bag. You can just wash the old sand out. You have to do it with any sand you buy anyway just to get the dust and dirt out of it.

 

[jeffb3t]

That's what I'm gonna do once this 75 is ready. It's much easier if it's already bagged up as far as transport.

 

[hot4teacher]

Mike would be happy to bag sand for you, just bring a shovel and some bags! (Brews too!)

 

[vest0830]

ahh, so its the same substrate that im running now.

I will just go get another bag of it tommorow or something.

 

[jasalmanza]

where are you getting it? makuman?

 

[vest0830]

yeah, I will probably use the same stuff I had in my cube. I think its the same stuff Jeff and a few others use in their tanks, looks the same, and the way jeff had mentioned it, I think its the same stuff.

its a mixed sand/very fine crushed coral mix.