Another sand rinsing question

Can I rinse the new sand I am going to use with tap water first and then a quick final rinse with ro water? I have also seen some say dont rinse aragonite and some say to rinse it. What if I only rinse half of it? I love last minute questions and anxiety.

 

There's nothing in the sand that's going to hurt anything. If you're starting out a new tank, the "dust" that comes off the sand is the same ingredient in Aragamilk by CaribSea. It's very fine calcium powder, and helps with coralline growth. It'll haze up your water for awhile, but it will clear up.

If it's an existing tank and you don't want cloudy water, and insist on rinsing, I'd do the whole rinse in RO/DI water, but I don't rinse--so it's just an opinion. Why would you want to rinse first in tap water, then a final in RO/DI?

 

I presume its a financial call to consider using tap 1st and then RODI

but I recently purchased a new bag of argonite sand and was surprised how little rinsing it took to be honest so +1 on using all RODI if your going to rinse at all

Steve

 

It was just the cost of buying gallons of water just to rinse the sand. The tank isnt new, it has been going for about 16 months. I am moving and going to change from cc to sand.

 

you don't want to rinse with tap water because aragonite acts as a phosphate wick and will absorb phosphates from the tap water. This could prove to be problematic in the future.

 

Thanks Daniel that was what was wondering. Maybe I will rinse both bags in RO water but not rinse it until the sand is completely dust free.

 

I did not know this. Good info if your starting up a new tank.

 

If you are wanting a functioning deep sand bed do not rinse it at all, you want those fines you are flushing away, they are the best for supporting colonizing bacteria. If its a shallow or decorative sand bed then by all means rinse away but RO or RO/DI is best since it will not contain contaminants.

 

Is it possible to have a shallow sand bed on one side of the tank and a dsb on the other side? I imagine I could control the flow enough to direct the flow toward the dsb side. If I wasnt able to do that what if every three days or so I just built up the one side again? Or would that defeat the purpose of a dsb? On the dsb side if I used egg crate and set my rocks on that and built up a 1" layer of eggcrate would that hold the sand in place enough if after that I went to 3/4 " and then 1/2" and then 1/4" layer of egg crate. I think the sand would fill in the gaps and then cover the surface. But then my question becomes how would a cuc do with all the egg crate below the sand? Could I cut some portions of the egg crate out to make larger area for the cuc to do its job? I am trying to acheive a sloped bottom look. I love these days where I am doing tank maintence while thinking of ideas while surfing 3reef. A perfect Saturday.

 

I think it would be kind of tough as the sand will migrate to the lowest point given time exposing the anaerobic bacteria causing problems. Maybe glue in a short piece of glass or acrylic fron to back? Just thinking here...

I would not want to put it over eggcrate for just the reason you said, sand bed critters would not be able to move around.