Info needed - cleaning old sand
 

I have some sand I removed from my other tank 2 weeks ago before I moved...

I want to know the best way to clean it so I can put it in my new 70 set up.


Can I just dump it in and let it cycle over the next month or so... or do I need to wash it?


Any info appreciated.

I'm washing sand I have left over I'm doing small amounts in a bucket, I fil the bucket with water and stir like a madman then siphon out the Water and then repeat a million times lol

If your going to cycle for a month just wash it a couple of times before you put it back in the tank

It will probably leech nitrate and phosphate, so it depends how much you care about that. A perfectionist would "cook" the sand in a similar way to how you cook live rock. Many people will just rinse well and re-use. Personally, I would not use used sand without cooking it as I do not enjoy algae blooms.

Cook?
 

Cook? How so? In my oven???? Boil???

The tank is new so will have nothing in it for the next month... so algae bloom could be part of natural cycle anyhow.

Let me know your process.

planing something out last night, i dug into the old sand bucket thats been sitting for months... it did not smell to bad but there were some pretty black areas in it that cant be to good for reuse without a good rinse, but then it was kind of black when i pulled it out. i would think if it looks and smells healthy and your cycling anyways that it would not be that bad with just a quick rinse.

I think i will try to cook mine then use it to make some frag plugs or some other kind of aggrocreete so its not a total waste.

i think the cooking is sunbaked but im not really sure id like to know myself as i am in no hurry for sand and can afford to let it sit and bake for a time:)

To 'cook' liverock you place it in an unlit container full of circulating heated water with a skimmer and do occasional water changes on it until everything photosynthetic has died off and the water tests undetectable for things like nitrate and phosphate.

Cooking live rock is easier than cleaning live sand, because you can provide circulation around live rock by stacking the live rock properly (Leaving lots of space in between).
Cooking live sand (which I haven't actually heard of before) would be the same principle, but it is pretty difficult to provide circulation around sand that isn't being fluidized.
The cooking process works by both diffusion (using clean salt water) and bacterial turgor where the bacteria on and in the rock and/or sand reproduce, multiply and consume nitrate and phosphate then wind up depositing their waste products to the surrounding clean water. You need to keep changing the water to keep the diffusion process going in the right direction.

I think that was what Myka was referring to, and correct me if I am wrong.



Mitch

you could also get new sand and add some of your current sand on top.