Sand!!!!

Alrighty, yesterday I bought 15 lbs of caribsea 1-2mm aragonite reef sand for my biocube 29(not up yet). heres my question: I'd like to add the 15 lbs of sand to my tank to see if it will be enough. Is that ok even though I won't even add water for another few weeks?

Also, if it's not enough can I add 15 lbs of .5-1mm aragonite sand and have a mixture of fine and corse sand?

And finally, can I rinse the sand with dechlorinated freshwater or does it have to me salt? Do I even need to rinse it?

TIA

 

If its not live sand i would give it a rinse. Also i would use regular water to wash the sand. Your gonna go through a ton of RO/DI water to clean that sand.
id aim at least 1 pound of sand per gallon. more like 1.5-2x if your looking for a deep sand bed.

 

Yeah no DSB for me. So just regular tap will do fine?

 

well the sand is dusty and has other decaying particles in it and i just take a 5 gallon bucket, fill it 1/3 of the way with sand. Sit it in a bathtub with the faucet pouring on it, stirring the sand and letting the loose dirt over flow where the sand stays at the bottom. I would only rinse it for about 2-3 hours and let it dry and good to go,

 

Alright I rinsed and added the 1-2mm aragonite sand. The sand bed is about half an inch to an inch. I'm going to add another 15lbs of .5-1" sand on top of the corse sand. I'm hoping the remanding wetness will evaporate so I don't have any TDS problems.

 

Only the water evaporates; any impurities will be left behind. However, it won't be an issue as what little may be there will be heavily diluted when you fill the tank.

 

PHEW!!! The sand should be 100% dry before I cycle in 3 weeks anyways

 

Sand bed Calculators