live sand that smells a little wierd

[cobyb]

so i just bought some live sand off of craigs list to make a deep sand bed and it smells kinda like methane. has anyone ever encountered something like this.

 

[Tureefik87]

Hmmm in that case i would not risk any of your livestock or critters if your unsure or it has a weird smell. Live sand does stink like rotten eggs haha.

Hopefully you didnt spend too much.

Good Luck

 

[returnofsid]

Methane is exactly what a used sand bed should smell like. I'd rinse the heck out of it, before using it. That methane smell is all the nastiness, that accumulates, over time. That nastiness is exactly why you don't want to disturb an established DSB. Disturbing it will release all that nastiness into the water column.

 

[07FocusST]

If it smells nasty like Sulfur then ditch the sand. I lost over $200 in sand because I thought I could leave it in a bucket of water. 4 months later I had a bucket of water, sand, sulfur mix. BTW don't stand around the sulfur too long. It is noxious and will turn your stomach and possibly knock you out.

 

[cobyb]

thank you sid. is thier a certin way i should rinse it out, or should i just spend a lot of time with ro water till it stops smelling like farts. haha
thanks for all your help sid

 

[returnofsid]

No need for RO/DI water. Put it in a bucket, with a slow trickle, from a hose. Mix is all up really well, and dump off the dirty water. Repeat as many times as needed, to get clean water. It'll take forever and you'll lose some of the sand in the process. At this point, you'll no longer have "live sand," but it'll repopulate in time.

 

[cobyb]

sweet , thanks sid.

 

[thatguy559]

agreed except i would you a paint mixer and a 15g tot and put a hose in there and use a drill to stir it all up its so much easier then doing it by hand.

 

[cobyb]

perfect, that sounds like it is worth the 10 investment
thanks

 

[mcoomer]

Do you have sand in your tank now that you're trying to seed? If so, I wouldn't worry too much about putting a couple pounds in one corner of the tank. I don't know how much you picked up but if you're trying to seed a new sand bed, pour a couple pounds into one corner of the tank and rinse the rest.

Mike

 

[cobyb]

no its not for my display tank it going in my fuge.

 

[mcoomer]

You're starting a fuge? I would do the same thing that I advised above. Set aside a few pounds of the live sand and thoroughly rinse the rest. When you're ready, turn off your pumps or cut the flow to the fuge, put the unrinsed sand in the bottom and put the freshly rinsed stuff on top. Turn your flow back on and you've got a freshly seeded DSB in your fuge.

Mike

 

[cobyb]

ok, will a couple pounds under the clean stuff cause a spike of any kind

 

[mcoomer]

How much water volume are you working with, sump and tank total? The short answer is yes, putting that sand into your fuge will introduce some nasty stuff to your tank but covering it with the freshly rinsed sand will cut it off. One you get the pumps running again those chemicals should be quickly dispersed by the biological filter in your tank. You could also siphon the water from your fuge and add some fresh saltwater to removed the fouled water prior to turning your pumps back on. That will prevent most of the stuff from entering your tank and make it that much easier for your filter to handle.

Mike