live sand or not

[trillyen]

ok about a year ago i had to move and i broke all my stuff down and put my live sand in a rubber maid tub

it endured freezing nights and hot summer days,but i opened it today and it was still kind of moist after around a year it was sealed fairly good and dosent look to have any thing in it like debree, im sure its still ok to use but is it still alive, or should i rinse it out like i plan to do my live rock.

thanks ahead of time, itd be nice if it was still benifical bacteria in the sand!!

 

[james734]

I'd rinse it out really good. It probably contains all kind of bacteria but probably nothing beneficial for a reek tank.

My 2 cents anyway.

 

[trillyen]

Thanks will do and i was kinda planning on it any way but it would have been a nice chore to skip ya know!!!!

 

[ronj]

i would throw it out... that sand could kill everything in your tank!!! the living stuff in the sand is more than likely ALL dead.. putting it in an existing tank would cause a huge cycle and ammonia spike.. you might could put it in an empty tank and let it cycle, but it would still cause some sort of spike when you moved it to another tank..

 

[DonW]

I agree its not going to be worth the trouble. Dead sand is pretty cheap and if your not going to have a real dsb you dont need LS anyways.

Don

 

[Reeferdude]

Here's 3 pages talking about pros and cons of rinsing sand...

 

[trillyen]

Oh my god thats something i really didnt wanna hear, now i gotta spring for some money to buy new sand also on top of all the other stuff man that really sucks

heck if i would have knew that i wouldnt have toated around this 300 pound rubbermaid of sand

lol, i guess ill pitch, but dont my live rock have the same dead stuff in it???

ill be dang if i throw it all away, whats the difference, not doubting you but i was just wondering!!!

thanks

 

[Scooterman]

You can go to Home Depot & get 50lbs of play-sand for about $3 buks, you won't go broke.
Keep all of that rock, It will become live again. maybe seed it with a piece of LR form the LFS.

 

[DonW]

You can go to Home Depot & get 50lbs of play-sand for about $3 buks, you won't go broke.
Keep all of that rock, It will become live again. maybe seed it with a piece of LR form the LFS.

Doesnt silica sand cause issues?

Don

 

[Scooterman]

http://www.advancedaquarist.com/issues/jan2003/feature.htm

I think you trade one algae type for another as far as problems go, probably not the best choice but for the price It may be the only option, unless he wants to rinse & rinse & rinse his old sand & use that?

 

[dailydriven911]

Sand is a one time purchase in most cases better to be safe then sorry...

 

[DonW]

http://www.advancedaquarist.com/issues/jan2003/feature.htm

I think you trade one algae type for another as far as problems go, probably not the best choice but for the price It may be the only option, unless he wants to rinse & rinse & rinse his old sand & use that?

So does that mean the silica is a one shot deal and will go away with water changes or is it going to be a constant ongoing issue?

Don

 

[Reeferdude]

Oh my god thats something i really didnt wanna hear, now i gotta spring for some money to buy new sand also on top of all the other stuff man that really sucks

heck if i would have knew that i wouldnt have toated around this 300 pound rubbermaid of sand

lol, i guess ill pitch, but dont my live rock have the same dead stuff in it???

ill be dang if i throw it all away, whats the difference, not doubting you but i was just wondering!!!

thanks

Yes! Your live rock has virtually the same "dead stuff in it", if it sat under the same conditions perhaps worse due to the porosity of the rock. Your rinsed/re-used sand will typically cycle faster than cured rock as well due to the fact that it's easier to thoroughly clean....

 

[theJ]

Trillyen, you could attempt to rinse it still, just make sure to rinse it real good++

 

[Scooterman]

So does that mean the silica is a one shot deal and will go away with water changes or is it going to be a constant ongoing issue?

Don

Here is a quote from this article, from what I understand it in time would be reduced by the diatoms, just like a tank that had green algae blooms that had little silica. Even rinsing it would reduce it some & he even suggest we dose it but the levels in southdown will be higher than your regular Oolitic sands.

Is it OK to use silica sand? Probably. Many people do so. I also believe that not all “silica “ sands will be the same for the reasons described above relating to processing of the sand and the nature of the mineral inclusions present. So the fact that many people successfully use some (or many) types of silica sand does not necessarily imply that all people can use any type of “silica” sand without a problem.
In subsequent sections of this article I describe dosing recommendations for adding soluble silica. Is silica sand a good way to go from that perspective? I cannot really answer that. It probably provides some silica to reef tanks, but the amount is completely out of the control of the aquarist. For that reason alone, I believe that it would be a poor choice as the sole source of soluble silica for a reef tank. In a tank without any silica dosing, silica sand may, in fact, be more beneficial to the overall tank, at least from a silica delivery standpoint, than calcium carbonate sand. There are, of course, many other differences that might be the deciding factor on sand choice (color, texture, dissolution, particle size distribution, nutrient and metal binding properties of sands, etc). Many of these factors are more aesthetic than technical, and the technical ones are beyond the scope of this article.​

Look at this tank, completely southdown!

http://www.reefkeeping.com/issues/2005-04/totm/index.php

 

[DonW]

Have you ever heard of or seen anyone use safe sand. Its not silica, wonder if its reef safe?

Don

 

[Scooterman]

The one thing he pointed out in the article is even south-down could vary greatly depending on where they harvest it.
Never heard of any sand being called safe.

 

[DonW]

http://www.safesand.com/

 

[Scooterman]

Contains Crystalline silica?

From what I read you will have silica in some form in most all sands, the amount is the thing that supplies diatoms food. If you look at that reef tank I posted from reefkeepers mag, sps & looks awesome, I bet he had issues at first but in time it wasn't no more than any other sands. We could ask Boomer for a better understanding?

 

[DonW]

Contains Crystalline silica?

From what I read you will have silica in some form in most all sands, the amount is the thing that supplies diatoms food. If you look at that reef tank I posted from reefkeepers mag, sps & looks awesome, I bet he had issues at first but in time it wasn't no more than any other sands. We could ask Boomer for a better understanding?

No you clicked the wrong link. Thats the one for HD type sand. Theirs dose not but its mined from something else I dont know what it is.

Don