Advice please! Just removed my substrate, when do I add new??

[Matt]

Had crushed coral substrate (quite coarse) just removed it all (sucked it out with a pipe during water change) - ended up being about 40% water changed out of the system...

I bought a bag of playsand from toys r us (same as Warr uses, nice fine particles and light in colour!)

Do I add it today or wait a few days?

 

[Alfie]

Matt it would not matter when you start replacing. But I would wash it well, place in a drum with salt water and a power head circulating the water. Only put the pump in when everything has settled. When you place in the display use a 110 mm pipe and pour down it to create as little as possible disturbance.

 

[crispin]

alfie, do u need to wash it in salt water, could u not run fresh water thrugh it to clean it, then drain that?

 

[Alfie]

Yes by all means wash it in fresh water and drain well afterwards.

 

[Warr7207]

Guys, some advice, clean the Toys r us sand probably. It is white sand, when you get it, it is beige. Even though it says washed, it has loads of muck in it. I had to clean it 5 or 6 times before it was perfectly clean.

use a large bucket and hose pipe, keep churning then let settle, drain water off and repeat till sand is White

I would hate to know what the brown stuff is and I am sure your tank wouldn't like it either.

 

[Matt]

Yup, when I saw it it looked so cream (compared to warr's), but washed it about 7x with tap water, and did last wash in SW.

 

[Mekaeel]

yeah although it states washed,that stuff is dirty.i washed mines severalt imes in tap water,then allowed it to dry in the sun,then washed several times in RO water before adding

 

[lIghty]

I need for my DSB, but when I call Toys r us and Reggies it didn't state it was silica sand, you think its safe?

 

[Matt]

The playsand they sell at Toys 'r us is safe to use. It looks almost cream in colour but with a GOOD wash, comes out white

 

[lIghty]

shot, must pic some up, what about mixing (say 50-50) with some live sand collected from the shore?

 

[Matt]

Yeah obviously if you seed it with live sand it'll help get your biological filter going, I kept some of my old crushed coral in the tank for this same purpose.