N00B 101 - Cleaning sand (how?)

[Gnarls Gnarlington]

I bought two bags (100#) of pool sand from Leslie's Pool Supply.

I am told that I just can use it as is... I have to clean it. How?

 

[melosu58]

I`ve never cleaned my sand in 13 yrs now. I just let the CUC do it. Hermits, snails and nassirus snails will do fine. Also a sand sifting goby will help also.

 

[Gnarls Gnarlington]

Hmmm. I guess I'd rather be proactive and let cheap water do what live animals can do with their livers or expensive Fluvals can do with their media.

(Beautiful tank BTW!)

 

[Mr. Limpet]

I bought two bags (100#) of pool sand from Leslie's Pool Supply.

I am told that I just can use it as is... I have to clean it. How?

You want to rinse the dust out. Normally I'd suggest using a pillow case in the shower, but a 100lbs might take a while. If you have a big tubto pour it all in and float the dust out, that might work.

 

[Gnarls Gnarlington]

I think I only need to use about 65# of it to get a 3" bottom.

I'm excited but want to do it right!

 

[Grizz]

i fill a 5g pail about 1/3 full of sand top off with fresh water and mix well dump the junk that floats up and refill, keep at till it runs clean you'll use less water this way or put a hose in bottom of the pail and rinse away.
If i used one of my wife's pillow cases she'd put a rock in it and use it to clean me lol good idea though

 

[Pizentios]

To clean the sand after the tank has been running for a while, i just use a 1/8" tube and siphon off the junk that is sitting on top of the sand. If you do it right only the garbage will be sucked up and the sand stays on the bottom.