Rinsing sand

[calfishguy]

I've been rinsing sand for over 4 hours now and there is still a fine sand that rises to the surface what should I do. Did I get a defective batch.

 

[bud29]

have you given your sand a chance to settle?

 

[calfishguy]

It's been settling for a half hour and there is still some floating on top.

 

[Aquatic_Adam]

It's been settling for a half hour and there is still some floating on top.

I'd love to tell you that that isn't normal, I've let sand settle for days before.

Give it some time. As long as it isn't affecting you fish, it'll be fiiiiine.

 

[M1k3y_gumi]

It takes reaally long to wash sand 100%. In less your seeing large anoints f floating sand. I wouldn't be too worried. Most of it eventually sinks IME.

 

[FallenRedeemer]

I just bought some new sand for one of my tanks today. I dumped it all into a 10 gal tank and rinsed it thoroughly once then dumped the water out with all the fine floating sand and refilled it with water to let it settle. I only have a little bit of floating sand and then some sand that's sticking to air bubbles making small balls.

 

[M1k3y_gumi]

Sand is especially trick to wash. I found that for stubborn floating pieces, some water flow helped it. Try slowly mixing the water if it doesn't you still have floated after a while.

 

[greenwater]

If you are using a large filter on the tank, I always just dump it in and let the filter finish it off. It's not going to hurt the pump.

 

[calfishguy]

So the sand won't ruin my fluval c3 and aquaclear filter

 

[boadams87]

Just get some filter floss and put over your intakes until all the floating pieces are gone. And make sure the intakes are not close to the floor.

 

[calfishguy]

Thanks I set up the tank and almost all the floating sand is gone here are some pics.

 

[bud29]

Great! And by the way I love black sand!

 

[butterfly_koi]

What type of sand is it? I really can't tell by the pictures.

 

[Crawdaddy]

They way I washed my sand was to dump it into a 5gal bucket, stick my garden hose in it, move the hose up and down some, then leave it running (submerged in the sand) running about half open. I let it run like this for 45 min to an hour, and all the light stuff just floated over the lip of the bucket. Just to keep anyone's wife from cursing me,do it outside. I rinsed 60lbs of sand this way, and once I put it all in the tank and filled it with water, there was no real cloudiness.

 

[calfishguy]

What type of sand is it? I really can't tell by the pictures.

Its plain old aquarium black sand. Its still covered in air bubbles in the pic I think that will explain the confusion.

 

[butterfly_koi]

Its always good to stir the sand a bit after it's in the tank with water, that way you'll release any trapped air bubbles. Take a piece of paper towel to the top of the water and you'll collect any free floating particles.

 

[calfishguy]

Its always good to stir the sand a bit after it's in the tank with water, that way you'll release any trapped air bubbles. Take a piece of paper towel to the top of the water and you'll collect any free floating particles.

Thanks, that a good idea. To bad most of the particles have been taken care of and the bubbles have slowly dissolved.