How do you add a sandbed to an established tank?

[wombat1]

Just placed my order for 5 purearagonite.com bags but I have a problem... My tank has 45 lbs. of LR and fish in it for 2 mos. now. How do I put the sand in without having a dust storm in my tank? Taking everything out of the tank sounds like quite a chore... BTW it's just two clowns and a brittle star.

 

[danmhippo]

Are you going to lay the new sand on top of the old, or do you want to replace the existing sand with the new?

 

[Reefguide]

I used a 2" PVC pipe to funnel it to the bottom with pumps off. Worked okay. Better than pouring it streight into the water column.

 

[wombat1]

There's nuthin' on the bottom! just glass, sorry I didn't mention....

 

[EmilyB]

The PVC pipe trick works pretty well, but I found it pretty awkward if I was doing it myself. If you can tackle it slowly, which IMO is best anyway, I found using a ziplock storage container full, lid loose, letting air out and water in, and just dropping the sand slowly, right on the bottom, worked very well for me.

 

[ReefLion]

Although you don't have any sand in there now, you might just want to consider doing this project over a couple of weeks or even months, just adding a few pounds of sand every couple of days. This might help keep dust to a manageable level, but more importantly it will not radically alter your chemistry or flow in a short period of time. I'm not sure if dry sand would do that anyway, even in large amounts, but no need to take a chance.

Tim

 

[reefland]

I'd go for the little bit at a time method myself. Let the bacteria start to colonize it and such. Otherwise you add alot of surface area of calcium precip. onto. Perhaps a bag each weekend. I tried the 2 inch PVC pipe idea - works well for dry sand and a funnel. It is a PITA for live sand that is wet.

Any dust savings gained by using PVC pipe seems to be lost when you try to remove the pipe. Perhaps cap it and toss water in the pipe down the drain.

 

[danmhippo]

I would suggest an improvement over the above mentioned gradual addition method. Cure your sand in a bucket/tub with powerhead blowing over the top. Let bacteria colonize the sand before you put them into your tank. With bacteria coating each tiny grain of sand, addint them to your tank would be a pleasure. The curing process may take over 6 weeks. Just run your fingers into the sand in the tub, when you no longer see prolonged cloudiness when you stir them, you know it's ready.

 

[tinyreef]

turkey baster and an 8 oz. cup. my sandbed dissolves at a rate where i have to add 2~5 lbs almost every 14 months or so (ok, ok, it's really when i notice it low).

i usually add it over one or two days to get it over with. the tank WILL be cloudy for about a day afterwards. i figure it emulates a typhoon or something. the baster also allows an easy directable application of the sand as you squirt it or drool it out in case an area is low or you want to create peaks. although the pvc idea sounds pretty good to me (hmmm... 8) ).

 

[Anonymous]

Do the 2" pipe with a funnel. Tape the funnel on the pipe. The key to minimizing the dust storm is not lifting the pipe out of the water in between scoops. Or like Rich said , cover the end to the pipe and lift it out with the nasty water still in the pipe. That is a good idea that I didn't think of when I did mine. I added the SD that had been colonizing with livesand in a seperate tank. The water was a little cloudy, but cleared up completely within a few hours. Everthing survived just fine.

HTH

Louey

 

[Anonymous]

I too will be adding sand to my tank soon. I really like Dan's idea about letting the bacteria coat the sand before I add it to the tank. It seems to me this would make it heavier and help it to settle faster.

Could we go into more specifics?

My plan is, the next time I do a water change, to save the dirty water in 5 gallon buckets and place about 8inches of sand in each one. (It'll be 4 buckets). Then I'll place a powerhead in each bucket to provide circulation. Should I also add an airstone or would an airstone be overkill? OK, then I'll hand stir the sand everday or so. And when I see that the 'dust cloud' has been reduced to next to nothing, then I'm ready to add the sand with minimum cloudiness to my existing tank? Does that sound about right?

I've been putting this off because I'm scared. Any hand-holding or kicks in the ass will be appreciated.

TIA,
po

 

[SPC]

Po, I would also add a bit of shrimp or fish food to the sand.
Steve

 

[wombat1]

I'm liking this idea too, but here's what I'm going to try: I have a 30 gal rubbermaid container that ends up being the same surface area as my tank. I'll just throw it in there with old tank water and maybe a chunk of LR and a couple PHS. Wait two weeks then put it in. Thanks for the tips!!

 

[Anonymous]

Will do. Thanks Steve.

 

[dizzy]

I too will be adding sand to my tank soon. I really like Dan's idea about letting the bacteria coat the sand before I add it to the tank. It seems to me this would make it heavier and help it to settle faster. po

I was just curious as to what type of bacteria would be coating the sand? Given the fact that good nitrifiying bacteria (previously assumed to be nitrobacter & nitrosomas) are generally present in quantities equal to the amount of load produced by the tanks inhabitants in cycled tanks, I fail to understand how adding more bacteria is preferable to adding well washed sand. I understand the benefits of adding live sand with micro-fauna but I would like a little more definition of the bacteria logic before I got on board with that theory.

 

[Anonymous]

I too will be adding sand to my tank soon. I really like Dan's idea about letting the bacteria coat the sand before I add it to the tank. It seems to me this would make it heavier and help it to settle faster. po

help it to settle faster


but I would like a little more definition of the bacteria logic before I got on board with that theory.

I'm not trying to sell you anything.

po

 

[dizzy]

Actually pojohnny my question on the bacteria was more directed toward danmhippo. I am really interested in learning the best methods of adding sand to a new or existing aquarium. I did attend Dr. Ron Shimeck lecture on sand beds at the last MACNA in Baltimore and it left many questions in my mind. Dr. Ron said the bioactive wet sand in bags is a rip-off. He also stated that the live sand bed did not help to supply calcium to the system.

It all really makes me wonder if there is any long term value to adding the real cloudy, dusty stuff verus rinsing the sand, like some have suggested in other threads. I was under the impression it took quite some time for sand beds to develop the anaerobic layers that are responsible for denitrification. It just makes me wonder if waiting 6-weeks to add the sand doesn't just slow down the process. Also someone in another thread was questioning the benefit of deep sand layers. I find it all very confusing and the word "bacteria" doesn't necessarily conjure up pleasant thoughts in my mind. I think of gram positive and gram negative and cyanobacteria in addition to the good nitrifiying bacteria types. I think it is this lack of a clear understanding of what is really going on that allows manufactures to sell us products we don't need. Skepticism comes easy for me, especially since a lot of wrong information has been passed around in the past.

 

[Anonymous]

Good points to consider there.

Guess I'm just prone to asinine and defensive replies because I don't really know all the variables. Plus I've got this huge fear of crashing my tank in my quest for improvement.

sorry,
po

 

[wombat1]

Rob Toonen emailed me this, RE: purearagonite.com's product:

. The stuff is from the same supplier (Southdown), but they apparently wash it first, so you lose some of the smallest particles. It's still a lot better than anything we can buy from the LFS, though, so that is a good way to go if you're looking to establish a DSB,

Dizzy wrote

It all really makes me wonder if there is any long term value to adding the real cloudy, dusty stuff verus rinsing the sand,

I think the dusty stuff is important for the well being of the critters crawling through it. Rob goes into more detail about the importance of the size of the particles in his articles on Seabay. I'll post it when I find them.

 

[wombat1]

Ok, Rob's articles can be found at http://www.seabay.org/art_plenums_part1.htm
http://www.seabay.org/art_plenums_part2.htm
A very informative read.