ok so I have a DSB dilemma

[Borderjumper]

You could buy new sand.. And then over the next few months rinse your old sand and get it cycling in a tote.. Then reuse that sand when you move.

I'm going to rinse out the sand from my broken tank,, it's been sitting in a bucket on the roof for a month... Bet it stinks! And use it along with new, but the tank will cycle for a few weeks before I add any corals to it.


I tried BB once and I could never get my phosphates and nitrates under control. Once I went back to sand I guess it gave more surface for good bacteria to grow.. And nitrates and phosphates leveled out.

[KevinK]

Originally Posted by Borderjumper

You could buy new sand.. And then over the next few months rinse your old sand and get it cycling in a tote.. Then reuse that sand when you move.

I'm going to rinse out the sand from my broken tank,, it's been sitting in a bucket on the roof for a month... Bet it stinks! And use it along with new, but the tank will cycle for a few weeks before I add any corals to it.


I tried BB once and I could never get my phosphates and nitrates under control. Once I went back to sand I guess it gave more surface for good bacteria to grow.. And nitrates and phosphates leveled out.

in case I go for rinsing (i will do some more reading) do we from VIc have to worry about using our tap water, ore would I havve to make 200gal of RO/DI water to rins it out

[Borderjumper]

Tap water is fine for rinsing.. Rinse really good tho.. Remember that fresh water is killing everything in the sand.. I still would let it cycle for a while to get rid of all the trapped stuff you just made dead with freshwater.. I wonder if your going to use it immediately if it would be better rinsing in saltwater as not to kill everything?

[KevinK]

Originally Posted by Borderjumper

Tap water is fine for rinsing.. Rinse really good tho.. Remember that fresh water is killing everything in the sand.. I still would let it cycle for a while to get rid of all the trapped stuff you just made dead with freshwater.. I wonder if your going to use it immediately if it would be better rinsing in saltwater as not to kill everything?

I could in fact put it in a 45 gal drum after rinsing, put a pump on it and heater (even rins it wit salt water),

run it for 2 weeks while stirring it dayly and maybe even refreshing the water in it each 2 ore 3 days to get as much dead stuf out before introducing it back in the new frag tank ( and I can do the introduction in a gallon eacg few days, covering my bsck several ways

[KevinK]

so the solution is:

at can. tire and home dep. thy sell the plastic organiser towers with draws

the draws are 14 inches and 7 inches tall, holding 3.5 gallons

it fits exactly 5 draws beside each other in my frag tank.

each draw will hold a DSB of the 7 inches (3.5 gal x 5 = 17.5 gallon of substrate

fingers X that we sell the house in 2 ore 3 months, I can gust take the draws out of my frag tank, and move them wherever I need to, without disturbing the DSB, as i can gust put them back in a sump ore other frag tank.

this way i can put a new DSB in my tank at this time, and don't have to worry about having to disturb the sanded again when we move