Adding love sand to a 5year old tank

[michaelbog]

Hey everyone,

 

I need to add some sand too both my tanks. I also know this has been discussed before. I do t want to force a cycle. I was going to split a 10 pound bag of live sand between the two tanks. Ones a 35 and one is a 10. So maybe a little more for the 35 gallon. Thoughts on this and problems that may arise. I was going to add the sand before doing a good water change. Thanks for the time. 
 

michael. 

[UGA]

Depends. Is the love sand truly in love? Or are we talking about that high school love? If it’s the more mature type of love sand, this kind will outlast any type of issue it comes across in the long road of tank marriage.

[rough eye]

13 hours ago, UGA said:

Depends. Is the love sand truly in love? Or are we talking about that high school love? If it’s the more mature type of love sand, this kind will outlast any type of issue it comes across in the long road of tank marriage.

it's infused with fish aphrodisiac.

[Jakesaw]

This thread topic is LOVELY!!!

 

 

[jservedio]

In the off chance you weren't actually asking about love sand, it won't cause any issues. The most important thing is that you wash your new sand very, very well. Basically, toss it in a bucket and run a hose into the bucket and let the water overflow for 10 minutes or so while stirring it constantly (or longer if it's real nasty and not running mostly-clear). After that, add as much as you want to the tank and make sure you are running a filter sock or at least double up on the filter floss for a week or two and change it every couple of days to pull out of the fines.

 

Just be careful with your old sandbed if your tank is more than a year or two old. If you keep it clean, you will have no issues at all. If it's really, really dirty you might want to just replace the entire sandbed. To do this in a running tank just siphon out a portion of your sandbed every water change until you are close to bare bottom. Then add in your fresh new sand.

[michaelbog]

Thanks for the replies. Hadn’t noticed what I names this thread. Funny. 
 

thanks a again. 

[michaelbog]

Sand added and all good. Thanks for the advice.