Disturbing Sand

[EGKS]

Hello,

 

I'm getting ready to set up a 8 gallon BioCube for my son and was going to scoop sand out of the refugium to put into his tank and use the water out of the main display (110 Gal w/55 refugium).

 

I've read that it's not a good idea to disturb the sand because you might release gases. Is this true? Am I better off buying a small bag and only use a cup or so from the main? The main display is about 6" deep and the refugium is about 4", but has been shaded due to the thick bed of chaeto.

 

Thanks in advance for any advice.

 

Chris

[Coral Hind]

Disturbing a small area is not bad and you will be doing it in a large volume of water so I think you will be fine. Disturbing large areas can be very bad and can even crash a tank.

[EGKS]

Thanks. Just wanted to make sure before I started digging .

[flowerseller]

seen this title several times and it makes me chuckle each time.'

[treesprite]

I would take it from the surface.

[marinebiologist]

Disturbing the sand in the main tank should not be too much of a problem but there is always a chance you will release nutrients burried in your sand bed and cause a spike and algae bloom in the tank. A side note is that since the sump is only a 4 in sand bed you should not have an issue associated with a true deep sand bed tank of releasing anoxic material and gasses where the deeper layers of the sand bed have gone into anerobic decomposition of the detrital material.

 

Ok well with that being said I will not give my personal opinion. It is a small tank that are setting up just go buy a bag of live sand and use that. Taking from your current display tank will cause the new nano to already have a built up ammount of detrital matter in the sand. So why start a tank with already dirty sand since a new bag is not that expensive and it is worht the risk to the display to stir up anything funky that may have an adverse effect on your tank just to save $20?

[davelin315]

I'd scoop from the display and the refugium but not dig into the sand more than 1/2". I would then rinse it very well in tank water before adding it to remove all detritus. You'll then transfer over some of the life in there but not any of the waste. Also, even if it's only 4" it doesn't mean that you won't stir up some nasties if you dig to the bottom of it.