I'm looking to put sand in the tank soon, What is the best way to pre-wash the sand? I will likely be using play sand from lowes. Thanks.
Best way to wash sand?
- Thread starter Chubbers
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This is a slow painful process but works...
Method 1: fill tank with sand / Add water to halfway of tank / stir sand like crazy / siphon out cloudy water and repeat...
Note: if you have 2 hoses, one to fill the tank and one to empty, you can fill the tank half way with 1 hose, then while you keep filling the tank while stirring up the sand, use the other hose to empty the tank
Method 2: place some of the sand in a bucket, add water to bucket, stir up sand, pour out cloudy water and repeat till water is basically clear... Then place sand in tank and then repeat process with more new sand
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Method 1: fill tank with sand / Add water to halfway of tank / stir sand like crazy / siphon out cloudy water and repeat...
Note: if you have 2 hoses, one to fill the tank and one to empty, you can fill the tank half way with 1 hose, then while you keep filling the tank while stirring up the sand, use the other hose to empty the tank
Method 2: place some of the sand in a bucket, add water to bucket, stir up sand, pour out cloudy water and repeat till water is basically clear... Then place sand in tank and then repeat process with more new sand
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Thanks! About how much would I need for a 36x18x1.5 footprint?
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Hello; I have bought construction sand which is very cheap. I dry sift the sand thru some sort of screen or sive and discard the fine stuff, this makes the washing much easier. Depending on the size of the screen, you can have some control on the size of the final sand particles. I like the coarser sizes for planted tanks and the coarser stuff does not cloud up a tank so mich and does not get into the filters and do damage so much. I then use a bucket, hose and mop handle to wash the sand. Use the power of the hose and the stirring with a stick to stir up the dirt and then pour the dirty wate off while it is still stirred up. Repeat untill the stirred water is clean to your satisfaction or your back gives out. Any stick with a smooth or roundedd end will not damage a bucket.
If you decide to clean in a tank, be aware that the glass can be scratched by the sand and it is possible to crack a tank.
If you decide to clean in a tank, be aware that the glass can be scratched by the sand and it is possible to crack a tank.
clean in yard in bucket,using waterand stir with stick then would boil sand b4 puting it in my tank,
do you guys really go thru all that???? all i do is pour a 5 gallon bucket half full of playground sand, run water in it, pour the water off the top of the sand and repeat making sure to push the hose down to the bottom of the bucket to rinse thru all the sand. i do that 2-3 times per half bucket and that works great.
if you already have water in the tank make sure the water level is low enough it wont over flow from adding the sand also make sure your filters stay off till the sand has settled some.
its only once and well worth the bit of effort any thing can walk on sand b4 it gets to you, rats piss, dogs at least if its boiled u kill all that
Yeah, I think boiling is overkill.. I would just use the bucket method like many have suggested and be done with it.