Cleaning Play Sand?

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DanW0007

Aquarium Advice Regular
Joined
Oct 17, 2004
Messages
50
Location
Baltimore, MD
I'm sure this has been answered before, so forgive me, but when I tried to find it in an old thread or using the search feature I couldn't find exactly what I was looking for.

Anyway, I bought 100 pounds of play sand from HD today and started mixing things up as soon as I got home. I put maybe 30 pounds in a massive bucket of mine and started cleaning/mixing things up. After dumping the water/adding new water/cleaning/dumping/adding/cleaning/etc etc etc... maybe 15 times, the water is still very dirty. Does the cleaning normally take that long? I am probably just being impatient, but man, its been a lot of cleaning so far with what looks like little to no results.

Anyway, thanks for any help.
 
i have not done this myself, but all that i have read points me to believe that you will never get the water perfectly clear. rinse it throughly a couple times and it will be okay. you can use it with some fine material left in it. after a couple days, all the fine material will settle out and you will have clear tank...

~mike
 
What brand is the sand?

Rinse it very well, get a 5 gallon bucket and fill it half way with sand and then start pumping water through it and let it overflow the sides of the bucket. Use a broom handle or something to stir it around with. You will never get it perfectly clear. You will have cloudy water for a few days, get circulation in the tank and it will clear up. Be patient.

I did this rinse method with Old Castle Tropical Sand from HD and my tank cloudy for 2 - 3 days.
 
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