Topping off a sand bed!!

[monkeysee1]

Hi again everyone! :beachbum:
Over the past couple of weeks or so I've noticed that the sand bed in my tank has gotten thinner, obviously from over three years of weekly / biweekly water changes.
I would like to add some more live sand to beef it up again, but I'm not sure how to do this without making the water really cloudy and potentially obstructing the gills of my fish, and I DON'T need a whole 50 pound bag!
Any insight into where I can get some live sand in small quantites and how to carefully and SAFELY add it? And I want to be SURE it's free or HITCHHIKERS!! :hmm2:

 

[Diana A]

pvc pipe and create wide funnel out of aluminum foil.

 

[monkeysee1]

Thanks, Diana!
I'll give that a whirl after I locate a small amount of live sand from a TRUSTWORTHY source!

 

[matt1444]

As long as your sand is established no real need to use live sand. Put in sand,life from your sand enters and viola live sand!!

 

[RobZilla04]

I agree some dry sand would be better. You can wash it thoroughly with RODI to reduce the cloudiness. Also the suggestion of a PVC tube and funnel is an excellent one. I believe Amazon sells dry Carib Sea special grade reef substrate in 20 or 25 pound bags.

 

[Sk8r]

Dry sand should be washed, washed, washed. Washing the sand for my 100 gallon tank took me all day in the back yard with hose and bucket, and mostly the runoff was white as milk. Took a lot of water to get it clean.

 

[davocean]

Yep, dry is best, well rinsed, and either add only a half inch at a time, or add to one side, then the other a few days later, this keeps you from burying the live critters in your existing sand bed, they will seed the new sand fairly quickly.
I also use PVC, cover one end w/ a baggy using a rubber band, place where you want, use a long handle of some kind to slip off baggy and rubber band, they will float up, and this allows sand where you want it w/out a dust storm.

 

[SirToadie]

excellent post, I was thinking about the same thing