Clean And Add Sand To Bare Bottom

[Wagonpitt]

After moving i skipped adding sand because i was more worried about putting fish and corals in tank. its now bare bottom with eggcrate and Liverock. Today i rinsed new dry aragonite sand in bucket with hose until it was clear. Strained hose water with pillow case. Put sand in bucket filled with rodi. Dumped rodi to try to get rid of leftover hose water and refil again with rodi. Now im letting it sit in the rodi. Tomorow i plan to siphon detritus from tank then slowly start funneling sand through long piece of pvc and probably do it little bit at a time over a couple days.

I have fish and coral and cuc in the tank.
Anything im doing wrong or missing ?
Any better way to do it ?

 

[Alexanneka]

Just a heads up your tank may go through a mini cycle as mine did when I went this route.

 

[Shooter000]

+1 above, just go slow

 

[Wagonpitt]

It is "dry" rinsed sand im adding not live sand and there is established liverock in tank already so not sure what would make mini cycle but im still not even year into hobby so i could be wrong.
What kind of cycle ?
Will i have to worry about my live stock? If so what should i do, will using prime for amonia help ?

 

[Alexanneka]

I believe the cycle happens as the sand becomes colonized or live. I never had no Ill effects on my livestock but did have the brown coating (algae?) Appear on the sand and some of the liverock same as when I started the tank. I myself used the prime as you mentioned and everything seemed to play out fine. I added about 2-3 inches of sand across the bottom of my 36l x 12w tank.

 

[Wagonpitt]

ok so just some diatoms im guessing/hoping. Ill test amonia and i have unopened prime sitting there incase i need it. Ill do 1/3 of bottom per day over 3 days and have a waterchange ready.

 

[kapelan]

I've read somewhere that RO water or tap water should not be used to rinse aragonit.
Do not think it is a big deal, but simple experiment will proof that we should not do it:
1.
- find brand new bag of sand
- put it in a salt water
- after about half an hour sand goes down and water is clear
2.
- put the same amount of sand to RO water
- we can wait forever - water will be cloudy, even iafter rinse it several times.
That means some elements from the sand will be dissolved by RO water.

 

[EZMac]

Also if you try adding during a water change. Use the pvc to very gently lower it to the bottom. Once its down add your new water back in. May help to clear the cloudyness quicker. Just fill alow also. I like to add a maxy jet with a bottle and filter floss i find it clears the water quickly also.
Gl.