Sand - Phosphates? - Stupid?

[Staaan]

Alright.. now this is probably a pretty stupid question.. but I've tried to :google:

it... and well nothing! haha.


So... my stupid question - When I had my 24g Aquapod.. and I used it as a FOWLR before I got into all this reef business.. I used straight tap water. No fancy schmancy 6 stage RO/DI that I have now.

And as you can all imagine... that water was probably "infested" with phosphates (I never owned a phosphate test kit).. but I can tell you that I battled diatom for like 3 months straight. lol

The sand I used was some caribsea live sand, fine white.

I scooped the sand out of the tank a while ago and just left it sitting in a bucket... and eventually over the course of the summer it dried out completely.

I know the sand is definitely dead now... but I was wondering if the inorganic phosphate compound... err residue? could still be in the sand.

And if I'm to rinse it.. I'd have to use my slow 100gpd RO unit to do so...I'm guessing.

Should I use the sand or just chuck it? Do I have to rinse it if I'm going to use it?

I wanted to do the popular/awesomely cheap dead sand seeded with established reef tank sand trick that I learned on here.

 

[pauliwalnuts]

Alright.. now this is probably a pretty stupid question.. but I've tried to :google:

it... and well nothing! haha.


So... my stupid question - When I had my 24g Aquapod.. and I used it as a FOWLR before I got into all this reef business.. I used straight tap water. No fancy schmancy 6 stage RO/DI that I have now.

And as you can all imagine... that water was probably "infested" with phosphates (I never owned a phosphate test kit).. but I can tell you that I battled diatom for like 3 months straight. lol

The sand I used was some caribsea live sand, fine white.

I scooped the sand out of the tank a while ago and just left it sitting in a bucket... and eventually over the course of the summer it dried out completely.

I know the sand is definitely dead now... but I was wondering if the inorganic phosphate compound... err residue? could still be in the sand.

And if I'm to rinse it.. I'd have to use my slow 100gpd RO unit to do so...I'm guessing.

Should I use the sand or just chuck it? Do I have to rinse it if I'm going to use it?

I wanted to do the popular/awesomely cheap dead sand seeded with established reef tank sand trick that I learned on here.

Yeah, you can use it. Just trough it in a big pot and boil it, then rinse it very well.

 

[KathyC]

IMO I'd pitch it. Yes, all the while it was in tap water it was adsorbing all of the nasties fron the tap water.

The Carib Sea dry sand is a good choice and just seed that with some live sand from a healthy/bug free tank and you'll be way ahead of the issues your old sand can bring to your new tank

 

[Staaan]

Thanks Kathy..

I think I'll just play it safe... and get some new "dead" sand... and seed it.

 

[beerfish]

When do you plan on using the sand? You could sit a cup of sand in some RO/DI water for awhile and test the phosphates. Or the easier bet is to chuck it.

 

[Staaan]

Eh. Dead sand is so cheap I'm not even going to go through the hassle, and or potential problems.

Sent from my HTC Incredible using Tapatalk

 

[exodus32]

just getting dead sand would solve the hassle if it isn't too much sand :x