Whats the best way to rinse new sand?

[arminkropp]

I'm setting up my tank in 8 days and I was wondering what the best way to rinse new sand is. I know a little at a time, but do I put it in a pot fill it with water and let the "dust" overflow or what?
How did some people here rinse it?

TIA

[midiman]

I put it in a 5 gal bucket (Home Depot), put the bucket in my tub and filled it halfway. Then I stirred it like a madman with my hand, poured out the frothy brown water, and did it 4 more times the same way.

(The live sand I did not rinse.)

[arminkropp]

Was this all done with R/O water or de-chlorinated tap water?

I'm gonna need alot of R/O water to rinse 80 Lbs of sand 8O

[xahx]

if its live, dont rinse, thats the live bacteria you want. If its not live sand, rinse few times and dechlorinate! You;ll be cleaning it again in a week or two!

[midiman]

Just good old tap water right out the spigot. Most of the water gets dumped anyway, so there's no real chlorine worry - I don't even bother with it until I added it to the tank. No problems so far - my cycle is just past one week and I have ammonia and nitrites galore - no nitrates yet, though.

Good luck.

[arminkropp]

Well I think wha I'll do is......
Rinse the sand with regular 'ol tap water and then just to be sure, do a final rinse with R/O water. I guess I might be a little paranoid, but oh well.

Correct me if I'm wrong!

And by the way.....GO EAGLES!!!!! 8)

[midiman]

Sounds like an excellent idea to me - I never thought about the rinse, but it's too late now for me.

Good luck.

And, I think you made a mistake in your last post. You probably menat to write:

GO PATRIOTS!!!!

[Fish Face]

As I recall reading somewhere that there is no need to rinse new sand depending on the type of sand and where you get it from. The "fine" dust breaks down easily to keep the PH balanced in your tank. You will have cloudy water at first but it should settle in a day or two once you have the PH's and Protein skimmer running. Maybe some of the more experienced posters can correct me if I am wrong though. I didnt rinse my CaribSea Aragonite sand and had no issues.

[midiman]

I read that, too, but I reinsed it anyway. There was still PLENTY of cloudiness when I put it in, but if you can bear the few extra days of cloudy water, it probably is beeter to leave the silt in. I'm using oolitic grade sand, so I think I'm not worried about particle size nor about surface area for bacteria.