Adding extra live sand help

[h2pvnus]

Hi i got a bucket of live sand with water from local reefer and it has nitrate and phosphate in there. How can i safely add it to my without the risk adding extra nutrient. Thank guys

[thegrun]

I would not reuse it myself, it would take a lot of work and expense to get it to a point where it is safe to add it to your tank. It will be less expensive and work to just use new dry sand.

[cloak]

+1^

Just rinse the crap out of it before you use it again.

http://melevsreef.com/rinsing_sand.html

[thegrun]

Rinsing alone will not remove the phosphates and not all of the nitrates. You would need to do an acid bath to remove both sufficently. At that point new sand would be a better solution.

[cloak]

Where are the nitrates coming from? The sand bed as a whole I can understand, but once you put the hose to it all of the grains become dispersed, thus flushing out all of the garbage. You'll most likely give the new sand a good rinse before using it as well, so what's the difference between the two?
As far as the phosphates go, wouldn't the tank have to have a problem with phosphates to begin with? I'm not having any problems with phosphates or nitrates in my tank, does that mean my sand bed is still bad?

[smokenax]

I would rinse the heck of it,then run some extra carbon,so it could clean anything that leeches like sulphur.