Reusing Live Sand

chrisyrn · 10-05-2006, 03:03 AM

I just bought a 120g tank complete. My sister is very familiar with saltwater tanks and has a 75 g reef tank. She bought a 180 g complete from the same individual. We went to the home, drained the water removed the fish, live rock and live sand. Traveling home she called her contact in Louisville, KY to ask about reusing the live sand. He said absolutely not. He said it would release extreme nitrates and ammonia. She called 4 other aquarium stores and they told her it was no problem to use the sand if it was kept moist. We transported the water, set the tank up, put in the sand, rock and water. Everything looked great day one, yesterday the fish weren't doing well. (Sailfin, yellow tang, 2 maroon clowns, a Sally lightfoot? and 3 blennies, I think). Had one individual tell me I didn't need a protein skimmer if this was all of the fish I had in the tank. The set up that came with it was ancient. My sisters contact said to get a skimmer ASAP and also a new return pump, so I did. My sister felt the fish were definitely not going to make it so don't worry about it. She can only help over the phone as she is 2 hrs away. I couldn't stand to see the fish die, So I mised up some salt water, drained the tank, removed the live rock so I could catch them and took them out and put them in new salt h20 with a power head and thermometer. The aquarium nitrates/nitrites are off the chart and I am not sure where to go from here. How long can the fish survive in my 55 gal trash can with a powerhead if I keep changing out the h20? How often should I cange the H20? Was this from reusing the live sand or would this have happened anyhow? Also, I wasn't prepared for the relocation and the water that I have used from home is tap h20, which I have read is definitely not good. My sister knew I should use RO, but like I said we weren;t prepared. Any suggestions?

jd@ga · 10-05-2006, 09:00 AM

Hey! Sorry to here of your problems I probably done the same thing. I think if you moniter the trash can your fish should be fine . One way or another it sounds like you need to cycle your aquarium again. i see you have 2 choices. 1. new sand 2. old sand Me personaly,I would start over with new sand. However , I am sure the old will eventually be good . I`m just wondering if the sand / rocks are going through a curing stage and how long it`s gonna take? Either way should eventually be fine just watch your fish params. and I`m sure you`ll be fine with time. hope this helps.

CrypticAnimal · 10-05-2006, 10:35 AM

Go to the fish store and get a product called Stability by seachom that should help a lot with both the tank and the trash can..It should help with the nitro cylc in the tank and help with stabilizing the trash can but I also would do 20 percent water change with some saltwater from the fish store and try to satbilize the temp at least try to make it stay in range of 78 - 82 degress F...With this product the tank should be usuable within 7 days the bottle will tell you its ok but still wait 3-5 days in my opinion its allways better to be safe than sorry...Hope this helps Can you post paremeters??If not take some water to the fish store and get them to test and post....Wait a day or two for the water change

Loman · 10-05-2006, 12:34 PM

Chrisyrn,
Welcome to the forum. Sounds like you are having a challenging time. I started to transition to saltwater recently so I have not personally encountered the tear down/move problem yet. However, it sounds like the actions have triggered a cycle. I am not sure why the contact would be focused on Ammonia and Nitrates only. I would be concerned primarily with Ammonia and Nitrites to get past the crisis. These two need to be undetectable. Nitrates can be measurable and not harm your fish. You did not share the exact figures which would help. I think the question of the sand largely comes down to the manner it was transported. If the action of getting it from one place to another resulted in a large percentage of the material in the sand (the sand itself is not live) diing off then you will have some problems. If the tear down and transport was done relatively carefully I do not see how that is all that different than getting sand from the store that is wet. You will still have the challenges of a cycle but I do not think that reuse of the sand should in itself be the cause of great alarm. I would start testing regularly in both tanks for Ammonia and Nitrites (as well as the other basics). I would do frequent water changes especially where the fish are to try and keep these levels as low as possible. You may want to look at the use of Amequel to help in the short term with the tank where the fish are. Somehow you need to buy the time for the tank to cycle and establish the bacteria without killing off the fish. Others have used Biro Spiro and said very good things about it.

ahill3780 · 10-05-2006, 07:56 PM

First off, Welcome to FishTankForums!

I would suggest that you read through the sticky on Cycling your saltwater tank so that you have a base understanding of the nitrifying bacteria in your tank and their role in keeping it clean.

Basically when you dug out the sandbed you broke apart the anoxic zones that had developed. These zones are responsible for converting nitrates into nitrogen gas. Without them your tank cannot process the nitrates and they will begin building up in the tank. Nitrates in large quantity can revert back into nitrites, which are very harmful to fish. This explains the current condition of the tank.

All in all the only thing that I can say you did wrong was putting all the fish back into the tank right after you set it back up. After moving a tank the way you did you need to let it cycle again so that the nitrifying bacterial colonies can rebuild their populations. The anoxic zones will take a little longer to redevelop but as long as you have passed the nitrogen cycle you can start restocking the tank.

The fish will be fine in the can for now, but I imagine that cleaning it will be a challenge. Changing the water out is not going to be as important as removing the waste and uneaten food that collects at the bottom of the can.

Don't put anything back in the tank until the nitrites and ammonia register 0, then place the tangs back in first. Wait a week to see if the ammonia or nitrites are going to rise and wait until they die back down before introducing the next batch of fish in. Add in the blennies next and repeat the waiting process of before, and then place the rest back in.

In the meantime what you can do is buy a couple of 10 gallon tanks to house the clowns in one, and the blennys in the other. This will lighten the load in the trashcan.

HTH,
Aaron

P.S. - I'm sure I missed a few of your concerns in this post so please ask if you are unsure about anything else.