Reusing Live Sand

[awall]

NOOB to the hobby and have a question regarding live sand.

I picked up an used aquarium setup and getting it up and running again is taking me longer than expected.

The live rock that came with it is sitting in rubbermaid tubs with powerheads and airstones inside.

My question is what to do with the live sand that came with the aquarium now that I am close to getting it running. There is roughly 100 lbs of it and it has been sitting in rubbermaid tubs with saltwater, but no powerheads or airstones. It has been this way for 2 weeks. I am aware that there is likely a lot of die off that has occurred.

I have read a few forums, lots with contradicting opinions about what to do with it and now I am a little confused. Seems I have a few options and I am wondering what would be best.

1. Throw it away and get new dry sand and then seed it with live sand.
2. Wash and rinse it with fresh water. Then dry it and seed it.
3. Wash and rinse it with new saltwater.
4. Add it to the tank as is.

My preferred option would be to just add it to the tank so I can get the system circulating and cycling. Wondering if this is a bad idea and if at the very least I should rinse it to get rid of any detrius that had accumulated in the previous setup. If rinsing is needed should fresh or salt water be used and does the sand have to be dried after?

Any advice and help would be appreciated. I would like to get the live rock out of the buckets and get the tank circulating ASAP. I am in no rush to add anything else to the tank though and could wait a few months while the aquarium cycles before adding any livestock.

[Crooked Reef]

At the least I would rinse it. Salt or fresh water would be fine. My concern would be that the sand is full of phosphate and nitrates that will leach out over time causing algae growth.

The best option in my opinion would be to buy dry sand and let the live rock seed it.

You would likely be ok using it again after rinsing it since you are in no rush to stock anything, but I would think that it would lengthen your cycle time significantly and raise the chance of the sand bed going bad.

[gpdno]

I would use it. Rinse it out with fresh water to clean out any leftover organics. The live rock will provide the system with the bacteria anyway.
I use plain old beach sand, collected from the beach. That's pretty much re-usung live sand. I rinsed the sand, added it and some dry (dead) rock and filled the tank. I added one piece of live rock that I bought at my LFS and after 2 months the tank was cycled and stable.
Sand is way over priced, use what you have. It will be fine.

[awall]

Thank you both very much for the input. Much appreciated.

[thegrun]

My vote would be to toss it. There is too much danger of it having absorbed phosphates and nitrates. Nothing will derive you away from the hobby faster than a tough hair algae battle, and starting with possible contaminated sand may lock you into a long hair algae fight.

[cloak]

I would go with option #2. Just give it a good rinse & reuse it.

Just as an example, I would fill a 5 gallon bucket about halfway up with sand. Turn the garden hose on high and really stir the sand up. Keep doing this until the water overflows the bucket clear. It might be a little tedious, but many people have done it this way without any problems. You'll also save a little money. GL.

[davocean]

Originally Posted by thegrun

My vote would be to toss it. There is too much danger of it having absorbed phosphates and nitrates. Nothing will derive you away from the hobby faster than a tough hair algae battle, and starting with possible contaminated sand may lock you into a long hair algae fight.

While I hate throwing stuff like this away, this is probably best.
You have no idea how old it is, and what has been absorbed.
I definitely would not rinse in tap and reuse it, phos binds to sand too easy.

[ca1ore]

Unless you know the prior owner of the tank who can 'vouch' for hai or her husbandry skills, I'd toss it also. If you do use it, then wash it thoroughly with tap water. If you go for new sand, no need to seed it if you are using established live rock.

[behlke]

Test the saltwater holding the sand for PO4 and NO3 to see how bad those values are in the water. If they are high, then the sand will likely be filled with PO4 and NO3 and should be tossed. If they are low, then there is little PO4 and NO3 in the sand and it can be used.

[asmodyus]

Now I am in the same situation I have about 120 pounds of sand from a tank I just bought I rinsed it for a couple days not I am letting the sun dry it still has a smell. I read couple places to cook it basically rinse it in a bleach solution and it should be fine anybody else bleached there sand and how did it turn out?

[gpdno]

Originally Posted by asmodyus

Now I am in the same situation I have about 120 pounds of sand from a tank I just bought I rinsed it for a couple days not I am letting the sun dry it still has a smell. I read couple places to cook it basically rinse it in a bleach solution and it should be fine anybody else bleached there sand and how did it turn out?

Just so you are clear, you no longer have live sand. You just have sand with some dirt in it. All the microfauna, bacteria, worms, creepy crawly thing make live sand and they are all now dead. That's not necessarily bad, just understand what you have.

Dead sand, just call it sand, is fine for your tank. Wash it out first. Place it in a large tub or bucket and stick a garden hose into it until the water runs clear and you will be fine.

Sand is amazingly overpriced when you think about it. Some guy is going down to the beach with a shovel and scoping it up (you could if you live near a beach). He then takes it to a place where he washes all the organics out (same as you can). Lastly he puts in in a bag, slaps a fancy label on it and sells it to you for an extremely high price.

This hobby is expensive enough as it is, save some money, wash out your sand and put it in the tank

[MinnFish]

I wouldn't chance it. Give it a toss.

[asmodyus]

Originally Posted by gpdno

Just so you are clear, you no longer have live sand. You just have sand with some dirt in it. All the microfauna, bacteria, worms, creepy crawly thing make live sand and they are all now dead. That's not necessarily bad, just understand what you have.

Dead sand, just call it sand, is fine for your tank. Wash it out first. Place it in a large tub or bucket and stick a garden hose into it until the water runs clear and you will be fine.

Sand is amazingly overpriced when you think about it. Some guy is going down to the beach with a shovel and scoping it up (you could if you live near a beach). He then takes it to a place where he washes all the organics out (same as you can). Lastly he puts in in a bag, slaps a fancy label on it and sells it to you for an extremely high price.

This hobby is expensive enough as it is, save some money, wash out your sand and put it in the tank

Yeah I agree I washed the sand for a couple of days water is clear but still has an order to It. So I mixed up a bleach solution today and now have the sand soaking until the morning. Than I am going to wash it out soak it in a prime solution rinse it than sun bleach for a couple days. From what I have read over the internet that should pretty much reset the sand and doing this will be saving myself 130 dollars worth of Fiji pink sand. With that saving I can put into the skimmer need to buy for my new setup.

[Bielaz]

i would say you let about 99% of the liver sand outside to sun dry/die, and the 1% leave in moving saltwater and once you have dried the 99% wet and rinse that to get rid of the dead bacteria and once thats been done take the 1% of live sand and sprinkle it all over the 99% once you add it to saltwater. that way you get the whole sand to be a low concentration of bacteria again.