Semi-live sand question

[bimmer01]

Short story: I have 20lbs of dead sand inside a bucket filled with my my water change saltwater and couple LR. Both heater and pumps were running for 3-4 days. Is it safe to put the sand into my cured reef tank?

 

[KathyC]

I'd suggest running an ammonia test, nitrate, nitrite & PH test on it first.

Has it already been rinsed out?

How old is your tank..and what size is it?

 

[Dre]

Add the sand slowly to prevent the water from looking too milky/dusty.I the dust is not an issue add it all as long as the bottom portion from the bucket doesn't smell like rotten eggs.

 

[KathyC]

Actually, if you turn off your pumps and use a NEW long funnel to add the sand directly on the bottom, you shouldn't have a sand storm at all

 

[bimmer01]

I'm not concerned with the sandstorm. More-so putting dead sand into a tank full of corals and fishes. The tank has been running for 6 months. It's a 20gal DT with 20gal fuge and 40 gal sump.

But I took my parameters last night and below are the results:

PH: 8.3
Ammonia: 0
Nitrite: 0
Nitrate: 10
PH: .1
Cal: 400
Mg: 1100
Alk: 7.8
Salinity: 1.024
Temp: 79.8

 

[KathyC]

You should be since you have corals & fish in there. The sand will be everywhere unless you use the suggested methods and will irritate your fish & corals and end up all over your rocks.

Your phosphates are on the high side - are you running a phosban reactor?

I was asking for the parameters on the bucket of sand

 

[greenycrew]

I would add it slowly... Using the funnel method. Depending on the length of time the sand was in the bucket adding too much may result in an ammonia spike when stirring it up. I personally would add a little at a time. Check the ammonia the next day. If there is no change I would add a bit more sand. Repeat. Thats just me, but I tend to be very cautious.

 

[bimmer01]

Actually, I already placed the sand inside my tank with a siphon late last night. No cloudiness. The test results are from the water in my DT with sand in it. I'm running 2 Phosban reactor, one for GFO and one for Phosphate media.