Adding sand...adding LR...questions!

[dansemacabre]

More questions. But don't ya love it?

I'm about to add the base sand for my new tank. How should I go about washing it before putting it into the tank? I don't want a bunch of "dust" floating around my tank, though if it's not avoidable, I'll live. I can't really run sand over a screen because of obvious reasons...so is there any good way to clean it out, or should I simply toss it on in there and start adding my saltwater?

On the liverock, I was reading on a website (Dr. Foster's/Smith I believe) that they recommend you mix up a small bucket of water with a spec. grav. of ~1.030 or something like that. They then say to put in the LR for a few minutes, and everything inside of it will come running out into the bucket. Then you could place your LR in your tank, and you could then place the critters you wanted in the tank, while throwing out things such as Mantis shrimp or Bristleworms, or what have you. Will this shock kill off any coralline algae, coral, invert hitchikers that I want to keep? It sounds like a cool way to avoid having the mantis shrimp problem, but I'm wondering how safe it is for my LR. Any suggestions/comments would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks again for everything, from everyone. You've really helped me a lot.

[Reefaddict]

For the sand question

Dump sand into a new 5-gallon bucket, filling the bucket 1/2 full with sand.

Add water until the bucket is 2/3 full of water and sand.

Slowly stir the sand by hand until the water within the bucket becomes cloudy with debris.

Discard the dirty water in the bucket, and place the sand back into the shipping bag.

Submerge the shipping bag to the bottom of the aquarium, and slowly dispense the sand evenly over the bottom of the aquarium.

Repeat steps 1-5 until all of the sand has been placed into the aquarium.
HTH

[two11devan]

Your live rock should be fine using that method

Originally Posted by dansemacabre

More questions. But don't ya love it?

I'm about to add the base sand for my new tank. How should I go about washing it before putting it into the tank? I don't want a bunch of "dust" floating around my tank, though if it's not avoidable, I'll live.

The fine debris in the sand is very beneficial. I would urge you not to rinse this out as it provides a good amount of surface area for colonizing bacteria. It might be a PITA for a few days or so but worth the inconvenience.

The LR suggestion from the website may work at removing unwanted critters but it's not a guarantee.

Good luck!
Cheers
Steve