how do you rinse new sand?

[smom1976]

I have seen many posts on here to rinse new sand and rock to avoid cloudy tanks.. exactly how do you do that? can you do it with non salt water and then rinse again with salt water? I don't have a water distiller at this point and am buying pre mixed salt water from the LFS at 1$ a gal.. tips appreciated.

[jskim4]

$1 a gallon is steap i grabbed water from a buddy that was doing a water change in his 350g tank so its live already just have to watch nitrite and ammonia

[shaginwagon13]

I use RO/DI water.
I placed all my sand in a 50 gallon water container and rinsed all the sand until it ran clear. I'm not sure how large your tank is going to take or how much sand you have to clean but you can do the same thing with a 5-gallon bucket.

I wouldn't use tap water, but thats just me. I would use RO/DI water if at all possible.

[seanb]

I also use RO/DI. I put sand in 5 gal bucket add water, stir, drain water off top, repeat until water clears.
I know some people who use tap water and then do final rinse with RO/DI.

[immortl]

You'll be fine rinsing the sand with tap water. That's all I have used to rinse my sand and it has worked out fine. So far most of the replies to this thread have suggested RO/DI water, but overall, my sense is that most that answer this question use tap water. Use the search function and search for "rinse sand" and you'll find all sorts of additional input from when others have asked this question.

[CoralReeForrest]

Just a question, how many gallons is your tank?

[SoLiD]

A buddy turned me on to this.

Go buy white cotton pillow cases. Stuff it with a reasonable amount of sand and rinse it out with tap water until the water runs clear. Repeat until all your sand is clean. Use tap because you will go through quite a bit of water.

[SoLiD]

You can do a final RO/DI rinse if you'd like afterwards…

[billdogg]

I use a 5g bucket in my slop sink and tap water. I use a 6" piece of pvc in the slop sink drain to act as a standpipe. Put 15 or 20# of sand in the bucket and fill with watyer, allowing it to overflow into the sink. Keep the water running and stir the sand until it is clean. Repeat until you've worked your way through the total amount that needs cleaned. You will have an impressive amount of perfectly good sand in the slop sink. Carefully remove the standpipe and allow the water to drain, taking care to not let the sand go down the drain. Transfer all that sand into the 5g bucket and rinse it well.

Doing it this way will keep you from clogging the plumbing with sand. I figured this method out after having to call rotorooter to open the drain from the house to the street. The only thing in it that was causing a problem was - you guessed it - sand.

hth

Oh and rinse with ro/di if you are really that paranoid, but I never really saw the need.

[dkeller_nc]

If you're talking about "sand in a bag" from CaribSea, and it's a new tank, it isn't necessary to rinse it. Yes, your tank will be cloudy for a day after you put the sand in, but it will rapidly clear, even if you're not using any mechanical filtration.

[downbeach]

When setting up a new tank, I just add the sand as is, and let it settle with time. When I add sand to my existing system, I use a 5 gal. bucket, fill it about 1/3 full of sand, and add enough clean water from my tank during a WC to fill it to about 2/3 full. Using my hand, I churn the sand until I think it's been fully turned over a couple times, let it settle for a few seconds, then pour off the cloudy water. I'll do this a few times for each batch. I then scoop the sand out into 1 gal. freezer bags. I place the freezer bag(s) in an area I want to add the sand, and slowly pour it out. Or, store it until I need more in my system.

[cloak]

I've always just rinsed the sand off with the hose in the back yard. Fill a 5 gallon bucket about halfway up with sand, put the hose in, and then just stir it up until the water overflows the bucket clear. Piece of cake.

[smom1976]

im setting up a 36 gal bow front