adding more sand to tank which already cycled??

Just curious. I would love to be able to add more sand to my sandbed as a lot of it has disappeared as I've continued to manually pull algae out over the past months. Is this something that I should be able to do pretty easily, maybe it would cover and kill some of the existing algae as it wouldn't be getting the light it needs to grow?? or would adding more live sand start my cycle over or make algae problem worse somehow??

 

Is it just clean crushed aragonite you are wanting to add?

 

Clean aragonite will be fine but add slowly in case. Used can be cleaned and added very slowly over weeks. But make sure to get to the root of the algae problem first before anything. Covering it up and pulling it out is only a very short term solution. There are two threads going on right now about algae control.

 

Just to clarify. The aragonite sand I would buy would it be live sand? My first time around I got live sand. Before I wanted help getting a cycle going, wanted to get some possible living organisms, ect. this time I"m looking more to make it aesthetically pleasing and to have a deeper sandbed for some critters/fish I want to buy.

Oh and yes I've definitely been working on my algae prob. I've bought a new skimmer, put in new lighting, have switched to weekly water changes even tried a does of chemiclean red slime away. And will be going in on the cleanup crew group buy to get more cleaning crew in there.

 

Buy the cheapest stuff that you can get that's pure aragonite. Go more for the grain size that you want. From what I've heard from most people, most get the "sugar" fine grains or just one step above that. Any kind of sand stirring critters will do better in that including sifters like diamond gobies, etc. Stay away from the coarse stuff. Don't pay extra for the "live" stuff as there's a lot of people that question if it even helps at all. It's only used to jump-start your cycle anyway and since you're already cycled, there's no benefit. As Joel said, make sure it's rinsed good and added slowly.

Good luck!

--AJ

 

Thanks for the info. I'm in the process of adding the aragonite slowly. So far it is looking great, so much better! It may be a little more coarse than the live sand that's already in there, but it was the finest aragonite I could find. It's Natures Ocean I think.