Washing Sand

[GTS_MAD]

Hey guys im changing from Gravel to sand today, How do you guys wash your sand?

And also want to clean the ornamants and plastic plates what is best to use to clean these.

Cheers guys

 

[OldMan47]

I wash sand in a bucket. Fill the bucket maybe a third of the way with sand and run water into the bucket while stirring the sand well with your hand. When the water runs off clear from the bucket, put that sand into the tank and start again. It will often take 5 minutes or more to really clean a single bucket of sand well.

 

[GTS_MAD]

How about the ornamants and plastic plants

 

[arobinson1984]

If the ornaments / plants are not that bad then a good bit of hot water and elbow grease should work fine.

Make sure you dont use any types of soap etc

You can use a very weak bleach solution if they are particularly dirty, a ratio of 1 part bleach to 20 parts water would be ok but they need throughly rinsing afterwards to get rid of any traces of bleach, so if they arent bad its not worth the risk of using bleach.

Andy

 

[GTS_MAD]

i take it the sand is ment to go all sludgey when you put it in the tank do i just flatten it out

 

[Harlequins]

It might help to put a small ammount of water in the tank when you put the sand in,this way you can sculpt the sand has you want it

 

[GTS_MAD]

How deep is it ment to be guys?

 

[pjandnoo]

I read anything between an inch and two inches is the norm. I think two inches if your using real plants?? We tried to have it a bit higher in the back to help with giving the tank different levels.

 

[Floyds mum]

When i was washing my sand if i stirred it with my hand alot of it would float out of the bucket

 

[waterdrop]

When i was washing my sand if i stirred it with my hand alot of it would float out of the bucket

I think one of the ideas with sand is to assume from the start that a certain amount of sand will be lost but in the initial bucket cleans and also later when you are siphoning the surface on weekly water changes but that sand is cheap and you just keep a supply around and add more later if you feel you need to.

I think you can get a feel for how big to make the bucket, how much sand, how much water and how much to stir it up in these situations that will keep the sand loss to a minimum and yet have the debris removal be successful.

~~waterdrop~~

 

[SidTheSquid]

Sand and Gravel seem to quickly ruin plastic buckets - is there any reason not to use a Galvanised one?

 

[OldMan47]

The stuff washing over the side of the bucket is mostly not sand unless you are using a flow that is much to high. I use a hose-end shutoff so that I can dump the level of water down with the water shut off and refill while stirring. It lets me get much more aggressive with the stirring without losing too much. Any sand fine enough to be lost while I am washing at normal flows it is too fine for my tank anyway, so that part is the part that I let go.
For Sid, the galvanized bucket is a bucket with a zinc coating to preserve the metal under the zinc. I really don't like putting zinc into my tank if I don't need to. The bucket used for washing sand or gravel is the one devoted solely to use with the fish so you won't be noticing the minor scratches in it anyway.

 

[SidTheSquid]

Thanks, OldMan, I'm glad I asked!

Guess I'll have to buy a bucket, though, or my Mother will kill me...

 

[OldMan47]

You need your own bucket for water changes anyway Sid. You do not want to share that bucket for anything but the fish.

 

[SidTheSquid]

Duly noted.

And I thought Girls were an expensive hobby!