Reusing Sand (after thorough cleaning)

[Darth Vedder]

Quick backstory:

I bought a 120, stand, sump, etc. off of CL and was there as hey tore it down. The guy from the LFS that was doing the work offered me the sand for free since he didn't have room in his car with the rock and livestock.

I won't be setting this up for about a month as I am getting my fish room in order first and doing all my research and wanted some people's insights on reusing old sand.

I manage a materials testing lab that washes aggregates to test for grain size distribution (among many other things) and I thought I would try to see if I could salvage the 120 lbs of sand. I figued worst case I just pitch it and buy new.

I used my lab washer and washed all of it intill the water was crystal clear (tap water. I then dried It in a few forced draft lab ovens at 200 C thinking that should kill off any nasties from the previous setup. Once dried I screened it so that it is all smaller than 1.18 mm (No. 16 sieve) then rewashed again to remove any lightweight particles or additional bad stuff and dried again at 200 C for over 24 hours.

My only concern now would be phosphates present would leech into my new setup. I was thinking of washing/soaking in RODI water with a phosban reactor in a Rubbermaid container occasionally agitating the sand as I wait the month to set up the new system. This should remove any excess phosphates that could be in the sand and basically give me nice clean new sand shouldn't it?

Sorry for the wall of text but wanted to explain my process

[Playa-1]

I would likely just throw it out and start over with new sand.

[Jandree22]

You'll probably be fine. But you can pick up 120# of CaribSea Oolite sand from PetSmart in-store for $60 right now, or 120# for $45 at ReefRocks.net (they'll add a modest shipping charge at checkout). Pretty cheap, just something to consider.

[Darth Vedder]

Thanks

I will likely just start with new sand, I just have plenty of time before I needed it I thought it may be worth trying, but I definitely wouldn't want any adverse effects just to save $60

[buffalo123]

I have a shallow sand bed almost all of it is open as the rock sits up off the sand. I have two sand sifters that goiing at it as usual . would i be able to reuse the sand in a new setup without washing.
I want to switch aquariums ( replace aquarium with similar aquarium)and will reuse everything in the current setup.
Would i be able to and what problems will i come up against if any?

[Jandree22]

FYI regarding the PetSmart sand, I went in tonight because I actually needed a bag for myself. They had it in stock, however it was listed at $20 for a 30# bag (the normal price). Realizing this, I fortunately had my droid and could pull up the website and show them, so they did a price match @ $15. So you might need to be prepared to do the same or have a printout of the sale price.

...or just go through ReefRocks.net

[allsps40]

Well since my sand bed discovery I would get new sand for sure. I got my 75g from a friend of mine who got it from his brother in law. My friend had it up and running as reef tank for a few years and it was clean and healthy. When I got it I decided to go ahead reuse the sand and just give it a good cleaning with tap water then RODI. The sand I thought was a mix of black and white oolite or similar. So I have been having algae issues mostly on the sand bed and nutrients in the tank is pretty low po4 0.00 no3 10 ppm, even after cleaning the sand...pretty much tried everything to clear it up. On sunday I was cleaning my power heads, placed then in a bucket which had a little sand in it from a water change, pick up a Korillia and saw some particles on the magnet. I right away though to put a magnet in the sand bed to check it out. Sure enough all the black sand is iron! The only thing I can think of is the bother in law got sand from a beach in Cali, I have seen the black iron right sand on nearly every beach out there. So it just goes to show you better safe then sorry, now I have to remove all the rock and corals which are not small to replace all the sand. Not saying you will get iron in your sand, just play it safe.

[Darth Vedder]

Well after my super wash and 200 degree celcius dry in my lab ovens it seems clean and I can't imagine any algae could survive that kind of temperatures.

I am now more curious than anything so I am going to soak in rodi and maybe test to see if any phosphates show up since I have nothing but time to kill before I get to set up my system. I will most likely use new sand to be safe and I only have 77 pounds after I sieved out all the bigger stuff and washed away all the super fine particles

[allsps40]

The sand at Petsmart is no longer on sale. I just went to pick up 2 bags and it was back to $19.99 of a 30lbs bag. Dam missed it by one day.