I'm also a noob at the sand. What is the recommended way to thoroughly rinse the sand? a bucket, water, and time?
Sand
- Thread starter Aribenlaw
- Start date
pool filter sand is what i use its finer than playsand is all and i rinse mine through a pillowcase lol
I use pool filter sand. I cleaned it by dumping a 50 pound bag into a garbage bin in the bathtub, filling it with water and then dumping, did that for about 20-30 minutes for each bag. The tanks were still a bit cloudy but were starting to clear up within 3 hours and were pretty clear after 6 hours.
you gotta let the water run into the bucket, and shuffle your hands thru the sand to get the small particles off the bottom, with the water running into the bucket the small particles flow over the side and down the drain, eventually you are left with the heavier particles of sand that dont cloud your water as easily. not hard to maintain, looks great. have fun
I did this yesterday with a pillowcase. I spent a good half hour with a hose and then in the tub. The tank was still murky as hell.
I had play sand in my tanks a few years ago and I hated it. It gets so dirty looking so quickly. Now I just use black sand which is so much nicer and my tank stays looking good. Also, this sand never made my water cloudy. It's so cheap too. Only $2 per bag and I bought 2 bags, but used just one in my 75 gallon.
I use heavy pool filter sand and a bucket and hose to clean. Dump sand in, get it really soaking wet with the hose, and then stir the sand with the hose and your hands. Bucket will overflow, taking a LOT of stuff with it. Keep going until water is clear. When you add the sand to the tank, I've done all of mine (2 10s and a ~40) with the tank full. Keep the sand wet in a bucket, scoop with a plastic cup and pour it onto teh bottom from an inch or so up. No clouding, etc. assuming your sand was clean and wet to start with...
I just converted my tank from gravel to sand. I used the 50 lb bag of silica sand from lowes ( im sure home depot has it also). I rinsed it once in a 5 gallon bucket with some dechlor and my tank was a little cloudyat first but it cleared within a couple of hours. I left my filters off for the first hour to make sure that none of the sand would get into them. I think the sand looks awesome! I would highly recommend the silica.
