Reusing Old Sand Bed

[neoburn1035]

Hello All, it has been  long time since I have posted anything, I had really been preoccupied with life and kids and let my 28gal Nano get out of control and long story longer it crashed and everything is lost, I have gone through and cleaned the tank and equipment and they are ready to get going again. 

 

I have a question that I have not found a clear answer on. Should I reuse the old sand bed? I plan on rinsing it clean, I am worried though that it would not be enough just to rinse it.

 

I do not want pests to survive, aiptasia, worms, or bad algae, can these survive a good rinse? Is there anything else I should be considering win resetting this tank up?

 

Thanks in advance for any help. 

Neoburn1035

[Tired]

Bad algae is inevitable. It'll get in on frag plugs and snail shells. The way to keep it from going wild is to establish helpful algae on the rockwork, which outcompetes the pest algae. Aiptasia is best kept out by not adding any, and killing them promptly if you see any. Many of the worms you'll see in your tank are beneficial scavengers, you want them in.

 

I would replace the sandbed, if possible. And keep it very shallow, an inch or less. 

[Superdave]

If you want to reuse the sand, you totally can.  

 

The more you rinse and dry it, the "safer" it will be in terms of avoided pests/algae.  

 

You definitely do not need to go to that much trouble.  You could start out with the wet sand (not sure what the "status" of it is at the moment based on what you posted) but keep in mind you might need to wait longer for it cycle/stabilize and or accept remnants of any sort that might survive.  There could still be some bacteria left in it so that would be a good thing.  

 

In sum, if you want zero risk, rinse it like crazy with fresh water (you could even boil if you have large enough containers) and then let it dry in the sun.  No pest/algae will survive the sunlight in dry sand.  

[Murphs_Reef]

Yeah replace it. Or at the least wash the crap out of it very well... It's just a gunk fest after a while and at best it takes a long time to clear the water... Worse it can led to all kinds of nitrate spikes 

[mcarroll]

It's cheap to replace so it's hard to argue for putting a ton of effort into cleaning it.   But I've never had a problem reusing my sand.  Depends a lot on how nasty it was to begin with, and if you have access to buy more sand.