How do i wash Play Sand?

[IfoundNemo]

I bought 100 lbs of Play Sand from Home Depot last night. How do i prepare the sand before putting it in the tank? Do i rinse it with tab water,or wash it with salt water? TIA!!!

 

[tmcpeek]

Fill a 5 gallon bucket half full of sand and then top it off with water. Use a long stick or piece of pvc to stir the sand. The smaller stuff will float to the top. Once it settles pour off the water and repeat until you get almost no floating particles. I used tap water and had no problems.

 

[Nate C]

Depending on how much of a hurry you are in - you don't necessarily need to wash it. I left mine alone - (theory was that you need all the grain sizes, even the tiniest ones... opinions vary).

Anyways, My tank looked like a milkshake for about a week and a half, then it settled down and I don't have problems even when I move rocks now.

Your call. If you do decide to rinse it then the method tmcpeek seems to work rather well, tho I haven't tried it myself.

 

[IfoundNemo]

I put both bags in a big bucket,and did it like tmcpeek said for several times. The water looks milky when i put the sand into the tank lastnite, but it looks very clear this morning. Should i add a bag of LS on top of this PS? I heard some people say it will turn PS into LS as well.

 

[Nate C]

Live sand will absolutely seed your existing playsand. Bacteria growing on the surface of the grains of sand help keep them settled / heavy.

You could also wait until after you get your rocks, since that will stir the bottom up some as well - either way. Just try to work your rocks down into the sand and get them to rest on the bottom of the tank if possible - this is to prevent them from tipping over later if something burrows underneath them.

 

[IfoundNemo]

I setup 50 lbs BR on the glass bottom then poured in the sand around the rocks. Sand is about 2" deep. Looks much better now than when i was using CC.

 

[MadManMac]

I just washed another 50 pounds, and I am going to try cycling the sand for awhile to see if I can get the bacteria growing and not have the "milkshake tank" again. My bubble coral is still not recovered after last last addition of sand and that wes 4 months ago!