How long did your sand take to clean

[cterzich]

I bought some PFS and crushed coral. How long did it take to clean before using it.


Thanks!

 

[WhiteDevil]

I havnt used either of those but my play sand took me almost 2 hours per 50# to get it spotless clean.

PFS is supposed to be relatively simple, just put it or some in a 5g bucket and let the hose run till it is clear, stirring occasionally.

People say I was nuts to spend 2 hours per 50# but this was the end result and shows why patience is a virtue in this hobby.

taken maybe 15 minutes max after filling with NO PLATE.

It was warm when I did mine so if you cant be outside with it, the bathtub works great too.

 

[BigJim]

I got yelled at for making a mess in the kitchen (I live in an apartment and have no garden hose.), so I only spent about an hour cleaning my 50lb of play sand and it took 3 days to clear up in the tank. I also spent an hour cleaning about 30lb of medium sand, which I really think is PFS, but sells for $3 a bag instead of $8, and the tank never clouded. I really think I could have gotten away without rinsing the medium sand, but better safe than sorry.

 

[mfdrookie516]

pfs took me about 15 minutes to clean... rinsed it 3 times, and it was clean... never was really that dirty, but i never had my tank cloudy with pfs... i did when i tried play sand

 

[cterzich]

I dumped a 50lbs bag of pfs and 20lbs. It seemed to take forever! Yes all at once, I didn't really have a option. It was raining outside and my aunt went nuts when I started to do it in the garage. I wouldn't dare try it in the bath room since the cleaning ladies just got done in there. She would freak out for hours, so since I didn't want to hear her. I had to do it this way.

 

[Blueiz]

I used play sand. It took me about an hour to clean 150 pounds. I put about 20 pounds at the time in a 5 gallon bucket that I had sitting partially on a piece of wood so when the water filled it could spill out one side of the bucket, put the water hose in it and let it fill from the bottom while using my hand to swirl the sand around inside. The small particles that would float in the tank washed out. After I was done stirring it around, I carefully dumped the water out of the bucket and filled it up again several times, leaving just the sand in the bottom. I used the same method to rinse the CC. My tank clouded only slightly for a couple hours.

Here is a picture of it about 4 hours after adding the sand and slate to it: