live sand s dying!

Hey there, i need help I got a new tank that it has not been set up yet and never had any water what so ever. I was given about 50 lbs of sand from a friend cause after we lost power for about a week he decided not to start back up cause he wont have time (he had a 75 gal reef). Now I got the sand in a bucket and a half but I was not ready to get anything on the tank as of yet. I got my salt and some prime but no R/O or DI water. I have not check the tank for leaks yet(it's a marineland 60 gal cube) I got it brand new from the LFS. What can I do. I was thinking on putting the sand on my tank and mix the salt with my tap water and adding the prime to it. The water in my city its pretty decent I will be getting a filter soon. Please help me! WHAT TO DO HERE I spoted a life snail and a star(may be dead) but not sure of anything else.

 

yeah theres nothing wrng with using tap water, to keep it alive, prime is awesome stuff. just once your ready to stock it I would use distilled water

 

So, I will be ok even if have not check for leaks? what can I do if I find a leak?

 

How long was the sand in the previous tank. If it has been in there for longer then 6 months, then you want to rinse it out anyways. I would strongly recommend rinsing it which will probably kill it anyways, but it will be better for your tank when you set it up. You can always seed it with live sand from somewhere else. Good luck.

You can use tap water, but just be aware of silicates that will promote diatoms. They are part of a new tank anyways and will die off when their supply of nutrients dies off.

 

If you find a leak (hopefully you don't), I would contact your LFS and see if they can redo the silicone for you.

 

I dont know how long he had it for. Probably longer than that. I know there bunch of stuff including snails and dead coral and black sand. All of it was aragonite.

 

nothing wrong with tap just dont make a habit out of it

 

I will hate making a habit out of it. Thanks for the heads up!