Sand or water first?

So I have been maintaining a tank for a while, but it has been a long time since I set up a new salt tank and as such I'm sort of relearning some of the set up procedures. I'm going to be finally adding water and sand soon, and I'm wondering if it is better to add the rock and sand first and then pour water in, or to add the sand to the tank after it is full. I am trying to avoid a major dust storm in my tank, and I want to add my sand after I do my aquascaping, so my rock is resting on the glass. any opinions?

 

ALWAYS add water right after sand. unless you are dripping ro/di water in, you should use a dinner plate or something similar to deflect the water. This will minimize the dust storm.

 

Awesome! thanks, Ill get my rock and sand ordered then, and have one crazy day when they get here!

 

Here is what I did: Placed all rock where I wanted it (you don't want the rocks on the sand, but rather on bare glass), placed the sand, then pumped water using my Maxijet onto the rocks (never over the sandbed). This worked very well and minimized the sandstorm!

 

Add the water after you add the sand. Make sure you rinse the sand very good(until the water is coming out at least some what clear). Also it's good to put a bowl or plate down on the sand bed and pour the water onto it so it wont disturb the sand as much.

 

A plate works well and so does putting the rocks in. What I do is put in a nice sturdy base of rocks on the glass them put in my sand, however deep I want. Then I take the bags the sand was in and lay them on top of the sand (clean trash bag works to). Lay it out flat covering as much surface as possible. Then put water on top of the bag, the water will run under the bag and lift it up as the water level rises, keeping dust to a minimal.

 

I usually add sand after water. For my 210, for example, I mixed the RO/DI and salt in the tank itself and then added sand. Our tanks are never cloudy because we rinse the sand well beforehand.

 

Are you gonna be using live sand? If so don't rinse it at all. Its pretty much personal preference in what order you do this. I prefer rock, sand then water

 

if you only are getting sand first you can line the sand with wax paper, like the whole and bed and when your tanks full tank um out and there is hardly any sand floating around!

 

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