storing live sand

illal

Active member
im in the process of breaking down my 125g getting ready for the move..... will the live sand be ok if i just store it in 5g buckets with a little water??? it should only be for a week or 2 ... also right now i only have like 60-80 lbs of sand but im looking to get another 100 lbs or so and i dont wanna spend alot of $$ on live sand when i already have plenty to seed... i guess my other question is what would be a good type of sand to get to mix with what i already have and where should i get it from???? thats is of course unless someone has some they'd like to get rid of at a descent price :D
 
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I would venture to guess that if you put a powerhead in each bucket to keep the ciculation/aeration going, the sand should be fine.
 
Honetly sand is really gross stuff, the older the grosser. I would say that if your tank is even close to a year old, then the best thing to do would to save a gallon bag or two of LiveSand and then rinse out the rest of your sand to get all the crap and debris out of it, then just reseed it in the new tank with the 2 bags of old sand.

For sand, I use CaribSea Aragonite. I like the look, plain simple aragonite sand.
 
so your saying after a year the sand is no good??? I understood that most sandbeds just need to be rejuvenated and more sand added as it disolves eventually over time.
 
so your saying after a year the sand is no good??? I understood that most sandbeds just need to be rejuvenated and more sand added as it disolves eventually over time.
 
I would ditch the sand and start fresh. Dont worry about buying the "live" stuff that comes in a bag with water. Ur live rock will bring it to life. U dont want to reuse sine the sandbed is storing all the crap from ur tank and eventually gets filled up. Thats when people start having nasty algae outbreaks.
 
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=9851355#post9851355 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by illal
so your saying after a year the sand is no good??? I understood that most sandbeds just need to be rejuvenated and more sand added as it disolves eventually over time.

After a year of a tank, especially if it is your first tank and/or you're new to the hobby, or you bought the tank from someone else, your tank is likely to have collected a TON of over-fed dropped food, poop, etc in the sand, and all that stuff that sits in it and works its way down will eventually cause problems with nitrates and phosphates seeping into the tank. I know most people will say that it takes a lot longer than a year, but if you're moving your tank now, it's just easier to do it when you're moving the tank than do it in a year or a few when you really need to do it. I firmly believe that even with proper vacuming and a good cleanup/sand stiring crew, your sandbed will still hold nutrients in it, and eventually leak them back out. Almost anyone with an older tank has gone through it, especially if they overfed or didn't take proper care of the sand bed from the beginning.

All i'm saying, is that it's just good practice to clean it out, and if you've got the tank out and are moving it, why not just hose the sand down and let any accumulated crud run out of it, then just reseed it with a bag or two of your old sand. I just did this last week with a friend's tank when she moved it from someone else's place to hers, figured we might as well do it if the tank is empty then, since it won't be for a long while.
 
Your tank will have to go thru a cycle again once you put back the old sand. If you are going to go that route, it's going to be messy and smelly. After you put the sand back, then you will have to wait until all that ammonia and nitrates have settled and back to normal before you put back all your fish and corals. This will probably take longer than if you started fresh.

IMO, start fresh and seed it with your current live sand.
 
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