rinsing sand

[MBVette]

What is the best way to rinse a lot of sand for a new tank? Or should I not even bother and just put it in, and it is dusty for a few days?

[SunWyrm]

I've just let it be dusty... usually clears in less than a day and I haven't had any side effects. Probably not the best practice but I had a lot of sand.

[MBVette]

Thats what I was thinking. The amount of sand I need will just take a long time to clean, and if its dusty I dont care its not like I am doing anything with the tank for the next month or so.

[Origami]

If I rinse sand, I'll put it in a 5 gallon bucket (or leave it in the bag with a corner cut out) and shove a running garden hose down deep. I'll turn the sand over with my hand until the water runs nearly clear. However, the last time I set up a new tank, I just put the bags of sand in and let the dust settle over a few days. No biggie.

[Anthworks]

I tried the method with hose and 5 gallon bucket and it tooks hours to run clear. It seemed if you stirred you got more dust. The smaller dust particles will create more surface area and help with the tank. So I would just put directly into the tank.

[Coral Hind]

I would just put it in the tank, leave the pumps off for a day so the fines can settle.

[marinebiologist]

if you are using Dry sand I highly recomend washing it. Not due to the dust issue but due to metal fragments. When you wash it you want to hold a high power magnet in your hand and stir the sand. The way most of the dry calcium carbonate based reef sands are created is by running terrestrial deposits of old reef throught machines that crush it down to a fine particle. This means the machines have metal teeth that pulverize the old coral skeletons which regularly chip and flake off into the newly created sand. So if you do not wash them and use a magnet to remove the metal fragments before putting it into your tank then you have possible rust issues leaching into the tank but more importantly if you use a magnet to clean the glass on your tank there is a high probablility that you will pick up one of the metal fragments and then as you clean the glass you will scratch it severly.

[Steve175]

I can honestly say that I've done it both ways over the years and never noticed a significant difference. And the washing process is a PITA. Not sure that I am buying the metal argument: GFO is rust and I've never noticed any metal (or anything other than corraline) stuck to my algae magnets nor scratches in glass tanks. I do think that the fine dust lines the pipes but never with any ill-effects (although admittedly, the smallest diameter pipe on my current system is 1.5") and, in fact, I have used this phenomonenon purposefully using unwashed sand to seal nuisance level leaks from BH/etc (missed with water testing early on in a system) over the years. $0.02.

[extreme_tooth_decay]

If I rinse sand, I'll put it in a 5 gallon bucket (or leave it in the bag with a corner cut out) and shove a running garden hose down deep. I'll turn the sand over with my hand until the water runs nearly clear.

 

 

That is exactly what I do.

 

It takes a long time, and my hand gets very cold from constantly turning it over, but I am happy in the end because I saw a lot of cloudy junk leave that I didn't want. I consider it a 1 time pain. Worth it to me, but I don't consider it critical.