What is the best way to wash sand?

[MACATUA]

I was wondering, what has been the easiest way people have found to rinse large quantities of Southdown? I am moving my 55 into a 120 and doing the remainder of the sand in Southdown. I have read to rinse it first, so is there a convenient way to do this?

 

[fishfreek]

You could not rinse it also. Rinsing will aid in the southdown clearing faster but your left with less of a particle size diversity.

The easiest way I have seen is to put sand in a 5 gal bucket about 1/2 full. Then use a garden hose to fill the bucket with water. You dont want to spray water in the bucket but just have it filling the bucket. Use a large stick or something to stir the sand. The lighter particles will float away as the bucket overflows with water where the heaver particles will remain in the bucket. After a few min of doing this remove the hose and gently tip the bucket to remove a bulk of the water. Then repeat 4-5X. You will notice the overflowing water being less cloudy each time you repeat till your happy with the results and then you move on to the next bucket.

 

[MACATUA]

neat idea