Adding new sand to old

[4angel]

I posted this on another sight and got some good feed back and I would like to have some more opinions on this. I will be moving and I have to drain my tank in order to move it. Because my SB was on the light side to start I want to take this opportunity to add some additional sand.
The general consensus was that I take My new sand(25lbs.bucket of ESV) strait from the bucket and lay it on the existing SB. Take a plastic garbage bag lay over the SB(to keep the dust kick up as min. as possible.)and re-fill the tank. keeping circ. as min.as possible for a few days and skimming the residual stuff out. I always rinsed. What do you think.

 

[nio]

sounds like a great plan to me, too. don't be too disappointed if you still have cloudy water for those few days even with all the precautions, as what helps settle the tiny sand particles down seems to be organic molecules that form over the course of a few days or few weeks rather than just mechanical filtration. good luck and let us know how it went! about how many # of existing sand is there? is this (going) in the main tank or a sump?

i am contemplating adding a sand bed to my 75g dedicated sps reef tank but it will be in the sump. planning to keep it shallow, prolly just an inch or two. want it there just mainly as an additional mineral and buffer source, as im not running a ca reactor yet.

 

[4angel]

I have about 30# LS in my 40 brd. no sump. Its the LS they sell at the LFS(packaged I forget the brand).Do you think placing the new sand on top (basically burring the live) would be problematic.

 

[The Great Rupert AKA AM]

First let me say I have never tried this and don't know if anyone else has.

Try straining it out like normal and even place it in an emply tank (or bucket or tub) with old saltwater from a water change and use a mechanical filter. Every day put a little of the new sand in the current tank and mix it up a bit. ad the sand to different places every day so one spot isn't disturbed more than once a week. I feel this will have little impact on the sand bed. does any one else think this would work?