Can i re-use my sand?

[nychris351]

Setting up my new 150... I have about 100 lbs of live sand thats in buckets from my old tank.. Which was running for about 9 months.... Can i jus add it.. Or should i wash it.. Or buy new...

[Hop]

Nothing good ever comes from used sand:D

[jtrim123]

Sand is a weird thing. You could reuse it and be fine. However, sand trap detritus and other junk. When you stir it up it will release all of it and cause a major spike. Look at Marcorock.com They are offering 160 pounds shipped for $99 Nice stuff, very fine and very white. Rinse heavily if you go with it and be prepared for sand in the water for a week or so. You can also seed your new sand with a couple cups of the old.

[Misled]

Nothing good ever comes from used sand:D


X2, save yourself the headaches.

[jenglish]

I doubt it has picked up much in 9 months, but in the grand scheme of things it is a cheap thing to get new. I may save about 10 pounds to seed and get the rest dry.

[lperry77]

rinse well till the water runs clear and you would probably be ok, then reseed with real live sand

lee

[DC_40gallon]

I'm a little different on this one. My LFS guy showed me that you should rinse it out. Put it in a bowl and work your fingers through it and get it all mixed up then dump that top water out (that will get out the "junk" if any). Don't worry about it not being live as you can re-seed it. My LFS told me to stop by his shop (and I found you can do this at many locations) and ask for a couple of handfuls of their tank sand from a few of their tanks. This gets all the worms, stars, etc that make sand live. Dump that "barf" (trust me it looks just like vomit) and put it straight in your tank, water and all. all that stuff will fall on top of your "old sand" and you will instantly see all the worms and critters and you will get to watch them dive down into your bed.

Thus you now have a freshly seeded live sand bed! I was told by a several aquarists before that it's best to have a good network of saltwater buddies who you know real well who take good care of their tanks and every 6 months or so, trade off - you get 4-5 handfuls of their substrate and you give them some of yours. Every tank grows different things so it is refreshing to get your bed mixed in with other critters who will get eated, die off, etc from your star fish and crabs and such.

Just my opinion of course. Others might freak with what I just said, but from a personal note and from people 30+ years in the saltwater game I found it was VERY good in my tank and I think that as long as it's good critters, the more critters the better for a universal marine world in my tank and thus they grow in and on my live rock too!

[Hop]

Understand that not only does sand trap particles of detritus in between them, but it also absorbs po4 and other stuff. Can you reuse the sand? Sure... But the timeline compounds between the time to reuse it and the end of it's useful life. So why anyone would want to set up a tank knowing that you are shortening the life of the SB by reusing sand is beyond me. I made that mistake once and I'll never do it again:D

Perhaps if I was doing something under 55 gallons, that is one thing, but when your dealing with tanks that take a couple days to tear down it just changes your method of thinking;) I'm not sure there is a right or wrong answer to rinsing and reusing sand, but I can tell you after reading threads on here for about 8 years there seems to be a common trend among reusing sandbeds and the longevity of tanks. Cheers!

[kkil4life]

what if your sand is sitting in a bucket without aeration or heater for 2-3 days?
is it dead sand?
or would you still say use 2-3 cups of it and rinse the rest?

[nychris351]

Ok well what im trying to do is avoid my tank from cycling .. I would like to be able to transfer my livestock and corals.. So if i add new sand to the tank will it cycle??

[kzickovich]

http://www.melevsreef.com/rinsing_sand.html

from melevs reef site

[thegrun]

I've moved and reused sand beds several times in the past, and as long as you rinse it well, you should not have any issues. I would not try to reuse a deep sand bed (just too much accululated debris) or a sand bed from a tank that you are having phosphate problems with.