adding more sand

[Caige]

I have a 28g solana aquarium... During my Cyano outbreak I have been siphoning it out which also took out a lot of the sand bed. How do I go about adding more sand to the tank?

Also, in the middle of sections of the sand bed it is really brown - do I just leave this? what do I do?


Thanks

 

[DJLiquid]

Brown is usually the Diatoms. As far as adding sand you just add it. Turn off your powerheads so it doesn't fly everywhere. I don't know why your removing it. Your going to do this everytime you have a cyano or algae outbreak? Just minimize your feedings and do more PWC's.

 

[melosu58]

To minimize the sand storm you`ll get I would rinse out the sand really good and then I would get a piece of PVC pipe and put the sand in it and aim the bottom of it where you want the sand and let it slide down to where you want it. It will still cause some cloudiness but not as much as it would have been.

 

[Caige]

thank you both -- Excellent advise regarding the PVC pipe!

 

[MsBeanCtr]

Gotta throw in my 2 cents here too.....I did the exact same thing myself during water changes to remove the cyano. When I finally got rid of the cyano (less feeding and changing resin in ro/di unit) I added my sand. Rinse, rinse, rinse.....and then rinse again. I just used some quart ziploc bags....filled them with the rinsed sand....pressed out all of the air and put the bag in the bottom of the tank and dumped it out. I didn't have much cloudiness after.

Good Luck!

 

[Caige]

Thanks MsBeanCtr - May I ask how you rinsed the sand? did you use sw or rodi?

 

[austinsdad]

I think fresh water will easily do for the rinsing. It's gonna take a lot of water.

 

[MsBeanCtr]

Yup, just what he said......I just used a large bowl and rinsed, rinsed, rinsed (right from the tap)