how to rinse sand?

[jessicafish]

I bought some sand for my next tank and I'm wondering how I rinse it!

 

[dragonfisher33]

I bought some sand for my next tank and I'm wondering how I rinse it!

is this playsand or those cari-sea sand? if playsand, regular gardening hose and rinse in the backyard until the water is clear. If you're talking about those name brand sand, read the instruction. some are tank ready. but if you want to, rinse it with clean aquarium water once or twice should do.

 

[Oohitsae]

oh god, lol I'm glad you brought up this question before attempting it. It took me forever to figure out a good way to do it.

anyways, get a 5 gallon bucket and fill it up about 1/3 of the way with sand then grab a hose, turn it on pretty high and then try to wedge it down into the bottom....when the bucket over flows it should rinse out the fine particles and the bigger ones should stay in the bucket, or atleast most of them... stir occasionally with the hose and then once you see the water running clear add more sand. Once you have as much as you think you need inside of the bucket you'll want to rinse for a while longer after the water has cleared up to make sure you got almost everything.

Or, atleast that's how i did it
there are tons of methods out there

 

[dragonfisher33]

a word of advice, even after several rinse, it will still take hours if not days before the dirt settles down, which is fine for the fish although not pleasing to look at