How to clean new sand?

[Alaris]

I bought a 50 lb. bag of pool filter sand. I don't think I'll be needing all of that in my 10g. What is the easiest way to clean the sand? I'm in an apt w/ no outside hose. I have a bathtub and a 2 gallon bucket.

 

[Purrbox]

I'd probably just fill your bucket about 1/4 full of sand then rinse in the bathtub gently swirling the sand with your hand. Pouring off the extra water and dust, but being careful to avoid pouring too much of the sand that floats down your drain.

 

[new2betas]

I'd probably just fill your bucket about 1/4 full of sand then rinse in the bathtub gently swirling the sand with your hand. Pouring off the extra water and dust, but being careful to avoid pouring too much of the sand that floats down your drain.

I was gonna say the same thing. I did this one day when the mosquitos were just too bad outside to stand out there and let them drain all of my blood.

 

[Alaris]

How long do I need to wash it for? And do I let the bucket overflow, or do I fill it up, stir, pour?

 

[SpeedEuphoria]

You can tilt the bucket as to let overflow run off, should be cloudy water. Just watch that you not dumping lots of sand down the drain. I would just fill the bucket 1/2 full with sand so that you won't have as much of an issue.

Also after its looking clear, keep doing it and stir it up otherwise its will still cloud your tank bad.

 

[Purrbox]

Basically just keep rinsing until the water stays pretty clear, and you'll have gotten rid of most of the dust.

 

[Alaris]

So I guess I didn't wash it enough? I was stirring and letting the water run off for nearly an hour. I added it to my tank and filled up with some water. Will it settle or will the filter take care of it? Do I need to dig it out and wash again (please say no lol)?

 

[Tifta]

first time I washed sand i didn't wash it very good. It looked like that. Just keep your filter on and let it filter though and it should clear up. I just cleaned some pool filter sand for my 55 gallon tank and it took an hour before it started running clear. It still got cloud though when i put it in. It should clear up

 

[SpeedEuphoria]

You'll be OK, its going to be cloudy no matter what you do IMO with anything but reg gravel.

Just let the filter run, if you have some poly floss(pillow stuffing) you could add that to the top part of the filter and it will help clean it up good. After it clears up then clean the filter media as it will prob be dusty, then maybe stir the sand a little and wait again then reclean.

 

[Alaris]

Ok we filled up the tank and I dug around in my craft closet and found polyfiber. w00t! Our new AC20 is up and running.

 

[MichaelsLilGray]

just be sure to check your filter about 3 days after you pull that fiber. i put black sand in mine and omg.. it was so clogged it was pouring back down the tubing housing.

 

[Alaris]

Actually I'll be pulling out the polyfiber and turning off the filter after the water is clear. I'm not cycling until this weekend.

 

[MichaelsLilGray]

im just sayin.. when you get any circulation going at all it will stur up the sand again... i learned it the hard way lol

 

[Taelen]

In my experience, I have rinsed my buckets of sand 5-6 times and that seems to work very well.

 

[Alaris]

The filter started clearing the sand cloud last night. I started the filter again this morning and when I came home from work the water was crystal clear. I rinsed the polyfiber and stirred up the sand some more. It didn't cloud nearly as bad and I have the filter clearing it again. I figure get as much dust out as possible before I start cycling this weekend.