Washing Sand

[Sorrell]

Hi everyone, I'm switching one of my tank over to sand and we just got a huge load of playsand in at our barn for an arena, so before it's dumped, I'm going to go and get some for my tank. I've heard that the best way to wash it is in the bathtub in a pillowcase. Will this clog my drain? Is there a better way?
Also, there are no fish in the tank right now, if I pull the filter, do I have to take out all the water still when I put the sand in? Thanks for your help.

 

[buggyboutbettas]

put some sand in a 5 Gal bucket and rinse it with a hose. rinse it really good and stir the sand with the hose so it get nice and mixed then pour the dirty water out. repeat until there is no more dirty water.

I'm not sure what you mean by the second question

 

[Sorrell]

I just know that you are not supposed to add sand when the tank is stocked because it needs to settle and you don't want your fish in a cloudy mess, and it can clog your filter, so what I'm asking is if I pull the filter out of the tank, seeing as it's empty can I add the sand in without having to remove the water first? The tank has been up and going for years and it's planted, but there are no fish in it. I guess I'm just lazy and I would rather not drain it.

 

[buggyboutbettas]

hmm....I don't know what you should do....

 

[Cheese Specialist]

I have converted my tanks to sand recently, using playsand. I just dumped the sand in the bath tub and then blasted it with water and swished in around. When I let out the plug only the water goes out (flows over the sand).

It was really easy to clean. I put it in my tank and put the water in, I syphones it in to minimise disturbance and the water was totally fine straight away. Another time I poured water on top rather than syphoning and it took a very short time to clear.

HTH

 

[Sorrell]

Can sand be added to a full tank though? That's my main question if I have to drain the tank before I add the sand.

 

[drobbins27]

I dont think its completely necessary to take the fish out, mine survived in a sandstorm, but I would. Especiallyif u have bottom feeders!

 

[smithrc]

he's already said there are no fish in there...

if i were you i'd wash the sand in a bucket with a hose until the water is clear.... finally rinse with declorinated water just to be safe you dont want to kill the bacteria in the filter.

to add the sand, turn off the filter and get adding, with water in will be best if you ask me as it wont stick to the sides and to you etc.

let it settle and turn the filter back on... try not to leave the filter off for too long. if the water is slightly cloudy, its due to very finr particals that the filter should remove when its turned on.

 

[bahja]

use some kind of scoop to drop the sand to minimize the debris you might have missed while washing, from floating around.

 

[ChriX]

Can sand be added to a full tank though?

Why not? Any coudyness caused by particles as large as what would come out of sand is going to settle pretty quickly.

I took fish out of my tank then just poured the sand in from the top, mainly because it looked like an underwater waterfall. It was as clear as before I touched it within 24hrs.

 

[RYO]

i have a heavy planted tank thats just been changed to sand.
i took out the fish and put then in a spare tank(large bucket will do) with filter.
syphoned out most of the water into bucketsand put floated my plants in .
cleaned out all the gravel.
chucked in sand and added half tank of tap water .
swish sand around then syphon off dirty water (repeat till clean)
add plants and decore ,fill with old tank water.add filter then fish.
just keep an eye on your water perams ,just incase your tank does a mini cycle

 

[Cheese Specialist]

I wouldn't put sand into the tank when there's water in it (and certainly not if there was fish, I know yours doesn't) but I suppose that's because I needed it to clear quickly for the fish.

I think playsand is quite heavy so perhaps it will sink fairly quickly.

Let us know what you do and how it goes.

 

[Sorrell]

I spent last night washing my sand. It was so dirty! It took me an hour to clean each half of it. Today I am going to sipohon the only gravel very well to try and get all the crud out. I'm going to take out some water and put it in a bucket to float my plants in, remove the gravel, and filter, and add my sand. I'll let you know how it turns out!