A couple of months ago I traded a guy who was returning to reefing a couple of cups of LS for a 50# bag of YardRight (Southdown). When I met him with the LS he'd left home without the YardRight and we finally managed to connect with each other last week. I've never added sand to an established tank but I remembered reading about the funnel and tube method and thought that it sounded like the best way to add sand to an established tank. I didn't have any extra large diameter tubing or an extra funnel laying around so I stopped in the hardware store and bought them. I decided to add my first cup of same last night. I got the tube fixed on the outlet of the funnel and added about a cup of sand to the funnel. The tube was curled and as I tried to straighten it to get the sand to flow through it and go where I wanted it to go I PULLED the tube OFF the funnel. As soon as that happened a bunch of the sand came out of the funnel and into the water. Then I reacted and jerked my hand holding the funnel and got sand in my hair, on the floor, in my tote of supplies, etc, etc, etc! What a BIG DUMB mess!. My tank is cloudy and despite vacuuming my floor is gritty. YUCK!
I was using a 3/4" flexible tube with a pretty big funnel. Luckily I had only put about a cup of sand in it. I don't know what kind of mess I would have had if I'd filled it up!
just a tip, it you run really hot tap water through the tube, it will soften it up, then let it cool straight, it will have less of a tendency to curl up on ya after doing that..
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Chuckle, that is funny. I also do stupid things all the time even though a little voice tells me whats gonna happen if I do. If I had a camera pointed at me all the time I'd be a millionaire.
__________________ ~David~
300+gal multitank, seagrass, mixed reef, clown anemone, refugium, and sump.
The way everyone talks about Southdown, I thought it was the holy grail of substrates until I used Southdown for the first time on my refugium. Aragonite. Nice and clean. New. Cheap. And NEVER AGAIN.
I must have washed that stuff for hours and it wouldn't come clean. I finally switched to a HOT Magnum filter with the micron cartridge and ran it in the fuge tank and stirred it twice a day. After 4 days, it would still cloud at the slightest disturbance. After 2 weeks of twice daily stirrings and daily filter changes, it mostly settled so that a pump wouldn't continuously kick up a cloud. Then, and ONLY then, did I attach it to my main circulation system after which it has been fine.
Frankly, the cost savings over buying Carib sea just isn't worth the time and I'd never add it to a running tank because of the cloudiness. It's too fine grain, IMO.
Just my opinion, but the experience was so strong, I thought I'd share.
__________________ George
Smyrna, GA
25g reef
Coming Soon: 60g Ocea Cube (24"^3)
Oh, I knew all about the sand storm potential. You can take a look at my tank journal if you want to see how I learned. That was one of the reasons I intended to add it a cup at a time using a funnel and tube. It just didn't exactly work as planned.
BIG Dumb Mistake 
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