Need opinions quickly. Live rock/Sand

There's a guy in my area unloading all his live rock and sand from his 150gal tank. I was going to buy his live rock and sand. My question is this tank has been established for seven years, if I use his sand will it screw up my tank? I have crushed coral and am looking to replace it. Thanks for any replies

 

I'm not as experience as many others in here but I have heard that the substrate should be replace every 10 years. Another thing you should consider is the amount of ammonia and deteriorated matter that is on that sand and if you put it in your tank it may "cycle" your tank and cause more harm than good. Now, with that being said, I believe that if you rinse the sand really well before you put it in your tank you should be good. Yes, it will "kill" the sand but with the "live" from your rock and already(I assume) tank the sand should become "live" in no time with no set backs.

I may be wrong tho and if I am I hope someone set me straight before you follow anything I say.

Good luck.

 

Sounds about what I was thinking.

 

yes, I would maybe keep a cup of your existing substrate to seed the new and rinse the heck out of that sand before putting in your tank. If you rinse it really well, you should be good. Using the live rock should be ok but you want to check it really well for any unwanted stuff like aiptasia, majanos, unwanted hitchhikers......he probably can pinpoint these for you since he's had it so long.

 

Hitch hikers are a big thing. He can QT the rock and keep an eye for unwanted pests. If it was me I'll keep them in a QT tank and after I dip them in some revive and add a piece at the time so existing bacteria populate the newer rock. But again that's me.

 

Also the live rock might have been exposed to different quantaties of Nitrate and phosphate so if your tank is up to snuff the rocks will seek equalibrium and some of those leached components might be expelled throwing your chemistry out of wack.

 

I would ditch the sand. You will stir up all kinds of nasties when you move it. Better to dump it and get new (with a cup of seedings) or go no substrate at all.

 

Don't buy either Imo. What comes with the rock could leave you where he's at, selling everything. Always buy dead.

 

I didn't get anything from him. Dennis from here texted me and told me the same as you all did. Plus the guy was an A*hole anyway.

 

Funny how many differing opinions we all have. I would have no issues using old sand as long as you know he didn't copper it. That's easy to test for at any rate. Some of the sand we have here must be over 15 years old by now. When we tear down a tank, we rinse and reuse. We've done it a bunch of times.

Buy it, rinse it well, dry it out and reuse. There's no a need to toss perfectly good sand if you know it wasn't coppered.

But if he sucked as a human being.... he doesn't deserve your money anyways.