How do I wash my sand?

RussC

RussC

Active member
Parts are beginning to arrive! Getting excited about the new build. Reading a lot about washing the sand. How do folks do that? Should I use regular, ole hose water? Or would it be better to use RO/Di? What am I washing? Am I removing the dust? Or are there phosphates that will be removed? How do I know when I've washed enough? Any tips? I bet you guys have all kinds of suggestions that have worked/failed? This forum is awesome like that!

I have purchased 80 pounds of caribsea aragonite special grade reef sand fro Bulk reef supply. I used a sand calculator to determine about a 2" sand bottom. this sand has a 1.0-2.0 mm size.
 
Put 3-5 pounds of sand at a time in a 5 gallon bucket outside and put the end of a garden hose in the bucket at full volume. It takes a lot of water, but you want to keep washing until nearly all the fines (dust) is gone. After the last rinse you can make a final rinse in RO/DI water if you want, but really if you drain off all the water it will be fine.
 
^^ what i do . Pushing the water hose down to the bottom of the bucked up and down..When we set up our pond . 600 lbs of sand. i rinsed it with my small concrete mixer.
 
Just take the sand in buckets down to the free Scripps institute of oceanography in San Diego, shove the hose down to the bottom of the bucket & rinse it out with NSW!



Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
Thanks, guys. Simple enough! Had 8 boxes arrive tonight from UPS full of kick butt gear! Can't wait for the tank to ship at get to work. The UPS guy looked at me like I was a crazy fool.
 
RussC said:
I have purchased 80 pounds of caribsea aragonite special grade reef sand fro Bulk reef supply.
Click to expand...

I just rinsed the exact same thing 2 weeks ago..
I simply opened the top of the bag and shoved the garden hose in there on fully blast and worked it all over as the cloudy water was spilling out the top..
Just keep plunging the hose around in the sand to get it all stirred up..
After a good 20 minutes or so its running clear and good to go..

Then I put it right into my tank.. I did this about 4 days before I started filling it with RO/DI water.. All is fine.. all fish/corals are happy.. (I moved all rock/coral/fish over from other old tank so I did not have to cycle)

I'm at diatom stage now.. woot.. woot.. CUC is loving it..
 
mcgyvr said:
I just rinsed the exact same thing 2 weeks ago..
I simply opened the top of the bag and shoved the garden hose in there on fully blast and worked it all over as the cloudy water was spilling out the top..
Just keep plunging the hose around in the sand to get it all stirred up..
After a good 20 minutes or so its running clear and good to go..

Then I put it right into my tank.. I did this about 4 days before I started filling it with RO/DI water.. All is fine.. all fish/corals are happy.. (I moved all rock/coral/fish over from other old tank so I did not have to cycle)

I'm at diatom stage now.. woot.. woot.. CUC is loving it..
Click to expand...

McGyver, first, I'm loving the name! My buddies have called me that on different occasions. I've come up with some damn wild concoctions, but they worked!

If you are using 80 lbs of sand, what size tank did you just start? It sounds like you just made the switch.
 
5 lbs of sand at a time, back yard, hose, bucket. Sand and hose in bucket, rinse until clear, dump cleaned sand in another bucket, and just keep washing.
 
RussC said:
McGyver, first, I'm loving the name! My buddies have called me that on different occasions. I've come up with some damn wild concoctions, but they worked!

If you are using 80 lbs of sand, what size tank did you just start? It sounds like you just made the switch.
Click to expand...

80G tank.. (deep blue rimless)
48"x24" I got just a bit more than 2" depth I believe from that 80lbs of sand..

and yes.. Just got it set up over the last few weeks..
It took about a day to not be "hazy" after filling it up..
 
Am I the only one that never washed their sand? I have done it many time and never had any issues. Put the sand first in the tank, fill up slowly with ro water and the water stayed nice and clear.
 
lagatbezan said:
Am I the only one that never washed their sand? I have done it many time and never had any issues. Put the sand first in the tank, fill up slowly with ro water and the water stayed nice and clear.
Click to expand...

I didn't either. I bought live sand and rinsing would defeat the purpose. I used the bio-magnet that came in the bag and the cloudiness settled in a few hours. And when I moved the sand to a bigger tank, I filled the tank halfway first and used a cup to lower the sand to the bottom.
 
IME, you need to rinse it very well to avoid clouding the tank for days afterwards. Tap water is just fine for this.

Here's how I do it:

I use the utility sink in my fish room. I made a standpipe for it that sticks up about 6" from the drain. Put your sand, a few pounds at a time, in a clean 5g bucket. Place bucket in the sink and start the water running. Stir the sand continuously - I use a 4" plastic putty knife. Allow the water to overflow the bucket into the sink. Don't worry about any sand that might go over the top too - the standpipe allows it to settle out while at the same time allowing the fines (dust) to go down the drain. When the water in the bucket runs clear, you are done with the first batch. Pour as much water out of the bucket as you can and then remove the sand to another bucket (the putty knife, again, works well for this). Repeat the process until all your sand has been cleaned. You will have some sand (a lot?) in the sink. Carefully remove the standpipe and allow the water to drain while trapping the sand in a corner and then transfer that sand to the final bucket as well.

Aren't you glad all that sand didn't go down the drain? Not only is it a waste of money, so is the call to the plumber for the clogged drain! (don't ask how I know this, just take my word for it)

If you are really concerned, a final rinse in RODI can be done - I've never seen the point, myself.

hth
 
The old hose in a bucket works as well as anything. Then rinse in RODI water. You cannot rinse too much. No matter how much you rinse, your tank will look milky after adding sand. It will settle out.
 
For my first tank, I didn't rinse the sand well and ended up taking it all out and staring over after 2 days because of the cloudiness and clogged filter floss.
For the second tank I followed the bucket method. My sand was very clean and my tank was barely cloudy, but it took me hours to rinse it and my back hurt immensely.
When it came time for the 350 , there was no way I was going to spend a couple of days moving sand between buckets!
I took some sawhorses and 2x4 s, and created a support for 2'x4' window screen. I placed a piece of plastic tarp and a very large cooler under the screen. There were some areas that did not have cooler underneath, but the tarp handled that. I was able to rinse a 15lb bag of sand in about 10 minutes by spraying the sand as I moved it back and forth across the screen. Smaller grains of sand and the fines fell into the cooler, which behaved as a bucket would once filled with water.
Once all the sand was rinsed, i had about 20lbs of small grit and fines in the cooler. A final hosing on that small amount of sand and I was done rinsing almost 400 lbs of sand in less than 8 hours.
I'm not saying its for everyone, but for a tank larger than 100 gallons it could save time and your back muscles.
 
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