Reusing live sand

Hi All,

I moved an aquarium and all the nasty stuff under the crushed coral bed got kicked up and spiked the nitrate levels in the tank. I decided to remove it and currently running on a bare floor. I also took out the live sand in the sump and placed it in a bucket. Now I feel like I should have moved it in the aquarium instead.

Question:
Can I rinse the live sand and put it back in the aquarium without worrying about it carrying a high nitrate load? Is there a way to rinse the nitrate out? Its been sitting in the bucket with about 2 inches of aquarium water for about 5 days now.

Thanks in advance
JD

 

Well live sand means it has bacteria and other type of animals in it...if u do rinse it out it will become reg sand...correct me if iam wroung. If u start a new aqaurium just let it go through the cycle...u should be up and running in a 2-3 week span. For somepeople it mite take longer. And if the sand has been sitting in a bucket for 5 days with no circulation in it i would assume thats where all the nitrate came from...stuff dieing out. Depending on how big your tank is just buy a bag or 2 of live sand and then little by little added the old sand after u have rinsed it off. I would use a screen of some sort something similar to a window screen and just run water by it...mite do the trick...i bet people here have a better way of doing so.

this is my advice i mite be wroung, but this is what i would of done.

Goodluck
-tony

 

Thanks Tony,

The sand is still sitting in the garage and I plan on rinsing it this weekend. Im running bare bottom right now with lots of live rocks and circulation. I'm thinking about just adding sand in the refugium to help keep nitrates in check.

--j

 

that sand will be tough to use without a spike!