Is old sand okay?

M

mitch91175

Premium Member
I have a bucket of white sand that I purchased from a guy when I bought his tank. The sand has been in the bucket for a few months. I have setup a salt tank and was wondering if it would be okay for me to add the sand to the tank.
 
If the sand in question came from a healthy tank with no pest or algae issues where spores my be present and there were no chemiclas such as copper used in treating the tank then there should be no reason I can think of as to why you cant use said sand in your tank set up.

It would however be very prudent to thoroughly clean and rinse the sand prior to placing into your tank.

Just a suggestion....
 
If the tank already has a DSB, then adding a lot of sand on top of it can smother creatures living there- so don't add it all at once. Add no more than 1/2" at a time, and wait a week minimum between layers to let critters move up into the new layer.
 
This tank just has been setup on yesterday (BB). If I should wait a few weeks before adding the sand I will. I didn't see the tank setup so I cannot comment on the quality of the tank the sand came from. If I did a thorough cleaning of the sand will I have any problem?
 
Ahh, if it was setup yesterday, then yes, it should be fine to add it all at once, especially if well rinsed. Are there any fish or corals in there right now? If so, you might want to use a pvc pipe to put the sand in to keep the sandstorm to a minimum.
 
@mitch91175 wrote:
No fish said:
Then as Scott mentioned, you'll be fine adding it all...

If you can contact the person, I would just double check to make sure no copper or meds were used when the sand was present in that person's tank....
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