• Looking to buy a cephalopod? Check out Tomh's Cephs Forum, and this post in particular shares important info about our policies as it relates to responsible ceph-keeping.

Recycling Sand

Joined
Apr 2, 2010
Messages
286
Hey all,
It has been quite a while since I've been active on Tonmo, but I'm back!
I had a quick question that I am pretty sure I already know the answer to, but I thought I'd ask just to make sure. A friend has offered me several 5 gallon buckets full of dry sand from his FOWLR tank that he just took down. He dosed copper on several occasions in this tank. I am looking to set up another tank for cuttlefish, and was wondering if this sand would be safe to use after thorough cleanings, or if copper could still be present in the sand and it would not be ok to risk. My guess was that it wouldn't be safe. Is this correct? What are your thoughts?
 
We are uncertain if there is any way to clean a siliconed tank, let alone any way to clean something like silicate substrate. IMO it is an absolute no. Clean, dead sand would be a better option and is all that I use.
 
You prefer dead sand over the live sand? Why is that, when I find very little difference in price at the LFSs? It has always been my knowledge that live sand was "better" and since dead sand was only a few bucks cheaper for a 20lb bag, the live sand made the most sense.
 
I use live rock as my primary substrate and biological filtration and ignore the bottom substrate for this purpose (I even change out the sand every couple of years) because IMO it harbors more nitrates than any good the surface layer might provide. This won't show so much on a new tank but mine are a minimum of 4 years old (several much older) and nitrates are an on-going battle for the messy cephs.
 

Shop Amazon

Shop Amazon
Shop Amazon; support TONMO!
Shop Amazon
We are a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate program designed to provide a means for us to earn fees by linking to Amazon and affiliated sites.
Back
Top