Switching from gravel to sand.
- Thread starter Freshwater4Life
- Start date
I've always been too lazy to wash pfs. The filtration and wc eventually takes care of it
I washed our PFS in a decent sized bucket in our utility sink. Just poured some out of the bag into the bucket, turned on the water, and used my hand to sift through it, getting all the way down to the bottom of the bucket and turning over the sand a few times. I would then dump most of the water and repeat the process 4-5 times. Took me about 10 minutes to do a whole 50 lb bag. The sand was fairly clean to begin with, so with washing it first, I had little cloudiness after putting it into our tank.
It seems impossible not to have dust in the sand. It's not as if it's packaged and stored in an industrial clean room. I'd rinse some random samples and be sure it doesn't have huge amounts before I dumped it in my tank. Only because some might have been stored in a relatively clean warehouse while others may have been stored outside. Just look at the windshield of a car that's been left standing outside for a month.
Naturally it is a PITA---no doubt, but if you can't stand seeing a storm of particles flying around the tank, you'd want to at least try to cut down on some of it.
Over time, the smaller particles may indeed be trapped and removed via filtration.
I've used either a large bucket or a larger plastic storage box. Mix it up while the water runs slowly, let it runoff the top, then mix it up a lot and repeat. Dust and the lightest particles should runoff.
Naturally it is a PITA---no doubt, but if you can't stand seeing a storm of particles flying around the tank, you'd want to at least try to cut down on some of it.
Over time, the smaller particles may indeed be trapped and removed via filtration.
I've used either a large bucket or a larger plastic storage box. Mix it up while the water runs slowly, let it runoff the top, then mix it up a lot and repeat. Dust and the lightest particles should runoff.
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Cool. Yea that's the process I'm doing Except in a 5 gallon bucket. It's almost there now. Figure there is gonna be a little bit left no matter what but defiantly want to take as much out as I can.
