Cleaning Livesand

Pio7 · 03/02/2010, 02:24 PM

mean cleaning normal dry sand is easy with the hose and a bucket but... how would you clean live sand like caribsea??? would you just lightly rinse it or would all those organisms die off??? by rinsing i mean rinsing it with tapwater not saltwater... can i just put it directly in the tank???

OUCaptain · 03/02/2010, 02:38 PM

I've always just used water from a water change. But yes... use saltwater.

cloak · 03/02/2010, 02:49 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by OUCaptain

I've always just used water from a water change. But yes... use saltwater.

+1

Just pour the sand into a bucket of tank water, stir it up a bit, and pour out the dirty water. Do this a few times and you should be golden.

tly · 03/02/2010, 03:46 PM

Is the sand in from another running tank? if it is then you can just scoop a top layer with a small contain to seed the remaining clean sand. You do not want to re-use a large quantity of the live sand from other system because it can cause a nitrate spike due to the debris and dead organism in the sand.

Zebodog · 03/02/2010, 05:03 PM

Wouldn't rinsing it defeat the purpose of using "live" sand?

soulsigma · 03/02/2010, 05:05 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Zebodog

Wouldn't rinsing it defeat the purpose of using "live" sand?

hummmm one would think so

cloak · 03/02/2010, 05:43 PM

Whether the sand is rinsed with water taken from an existing tank, or it's freshly made up salt water, it's not going to kill the beneficial bacteria/life within the sand. Just make sure the parameters are within reason though.

03/02/2010, 02:24 PM	#1
Pio7 Registered Member Join Date: Feb 2010 Location: North Florida Posts: 52	Cleaning Livesand mean cleaning normal dry sand is easy with the hose and a bucket but... how would you clean live sand like caribsea??? would you just lightly rinse it or would all those organisms die off??? by rinsing i mean rinsing it with tapwater not saltwater... can i just put it directly in the tank???

03/02/2010, 02:38 PM	#2
OUCaptain Registered Member Join Date: Feb 2010 Posts: 21	I've always just used water from a water change. But yes... use saltwater. __________________ Sadly, I don't own any fish tanks. My fish on the other hand, own a nice people house.

03/02/2010, 05:43 PM	#7
cloak Moved On Join Date: Jul 2000 Location: Stockton, CA Posts: 14,854	Whether the sand is rinsed with water taken from an existing tank, or it's freshly made up salt water, it's not going to kill the beneficial bacteria/life within the sand. Just make sure the parameters are within reason though. Last edited by cloak; 03/02/2010 at 05:57 PM.

03/02/2010, 03:46 PM	#4
tly Registered Member Join Date: Dec 2008 Location: chicago Posts: 16	Is the sand in from another running tank? if it is then you can just scoop a top layer with a small contain to seed the remaining clean sand. You do not want to re-use a large quantity of the live sand from other system because it can cause a nitrate spike due to the debris and dead organism in the sand.

03/02/2010, 05:03 PM	#5
Zebodog Registered Member Join Date: Feb 2008 Location: Mississauga, ON Posts: 692	Wouldn't rinsing it defeat the purpose of using "live" sand?