Old sand

[Christyef]

I have two buckets of old sand from someone’s tank. It’s dry now. Is the best way to rinse old sand just in a pillow case or sheet? And is there a way to cycle it? Like we do with rocks.... put them in a bucket of salt water with a powerhead and thermometer. My new tank is going in the same place as my old one and if I add dry sand to live sand it will cycle. My main goal is to just swap the tanks over in one weekend. If there’s no way to use the old sand, I’ll just buy more new. I already have four 40 lb bags. Just trying to save a few dollars.

 

 

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[+Dogfish]

Using old dry sand might be an issue. There will be a lot of dead stuff in there. You can rinse it "a lot" . I triple rinse new sand. Tap water will work fine. Then you can stick it in a bucket of fresh rodi water with salt. Test it every few days and see what you have. If you dont have any ammonia or po4,  you should be good. Cycle it with some bacteria and ammonia or some live sand or rock if you have it. I have never cycled sand.

[ShawnM]

When I use old dry sand I would always shove my water to the very bottom turn it on and let it run for quite some time let set then do it a second time a day or two later. Probably not the best way to go but I am a cheap skate so I do everything I can to save money


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[Timfish]

What they said.  I reuse old sand all the time.  One consideration though is the same process that requires old media in a calcium reactor to be changed is happening to reef sand.    In marine systems when calcium carbonate is deposited it can be in the form of araganite or calcite.  One distinction between the two is the calcite form of calcium carbonate does not dissolve as easily as aragonite.   Reef sand and calcium reactor media can be a mix of aragonite and calcite so as it ages the araganite component which can help maintain calcium levels disappears.