Keeping sand alive?

[DamonH]

This is probably a dumb question, but I need to move the sandbed out of my tank. How long will it stay "alive" with no skimmer / pumps / etc? I would normally assume not long, but I've seen "live sand" in sealed plastic bags before, so I figured I'd ask. I'm planning on just putting it in a 5 gallon bucket with enough water to keep it barely submerged.

Thanks!

 

[commandertekki]

That's good enough. When we took all the rocks out of the 560 g. We left the sand bed in there just barely submerged for 1 week. once we had hte system back up and running again... The nitrate levels and ammonia levels were at zero. This is because both rocks and sand were submerged. The rocks were continuously skimmed...

 

[newtofish]

I will agree, When I moved my tank I ran into some complications and the sand stayed in buckets for about 2 weeks, I am sure I had some die off but by my levels it was minimal.

 

[hitillidie]

I guess it depends on age of the sand. If your tank has been set up a while. the sand has age, then when you moved you disturb the bed and when you put it back could release phospates. I've seen this happen several time and algae bloom follows. When I did it, my tank had been set-up three years and I move to a larger tank. put sand back, boom! algae bloom.

 

[Ashlar]

@hitillidie wrote:

I don't know that I'd blame that on disturbing a sand bed.. new tank, new lighting, time to re-balance. The whole stoplight effect (red, brown, green) is pretty common with a new tank, even with existing rock and sand.

 

[hitillidie]

cycle? I know. Let me say this cause I skip this point in my above post. When you scooping the sand out, just make sure if you smell sand that is stinky :lol: you'll know, don't put that is your tank. You sometime will find this underrocks and at bottom of DSB.