Free used aragonite.

[Gordonious]

Free used aragonite. My brother is taking down his salt system and starting fresh. I was curious if I could clean and reuse the aragonite or if I should just let him toss it as he was planning to. What chemicals could I use to clean it out? The tanks water levels fell really badly and the tank was filled with hair algae. Is it possible to make sure there is no hair algae in it at all?

Jon

PS Sorry if anyone thought I was giving out anything free. :-P

[jerehmy]

just spread it out on a table about 1/4" thick and let it dry. Also you can boil it

[bertoni]

You could try rinsing the sand, but it might have absorbed a lot of nutrients. I'm not sure I'd be willing to use it.

[Blown 346]

You could boil it to get all the nutrients and other spores out of it.

[meco65]

If it did not get a bunch or nutrients from the ocean the tank should not hurt it. I would clean it realy good put saome in some saltwater and test it if its ok than all would be ok.

[Gordonious]

My tank has never seen hair. The tank started off well, but had a major crash near the start. Since then I've added hardly anything, so only the most hardy stuff survives. I have dried out live rock, soaked it in freshwater, let it dry in the sun, put boiling water on it and freezing water on it to make sure nothing came into my tank. It has run very well and very stable for a long time even though water changes are few and I leave it for weeks at a time having my father feed every couple of days.

[davocean]

If you rinse aragonite in fresh or tap it will soak up nitrate/phosphate that is in the water.
I've wondered about drying it in the sun and rinsing w/ salt or RO water, but haven't heard any responses on that thought.

[bertoni]

Drying it and rinsing won't necessarily remove all the nutrients bound to the sand, from what I understand, but you could ask in the chemistry forum.