washing sand

[TheeMon]

is this the correct way(or a way) to clean sand?

put it in a bucket then fill the bucket up with water stir the sand and the stuff that floats is the bad stuff, the stuff at the bottom is what i can put in my tank, correct?

 

[snotirl]

ye give it a lot of stirs and change the water a lot 2 and it should be ok

 

[R3GG]

I washed some sand today, put it in a clean bucket, added lots of water, stir and mash around for a few minutes and then tip the water away once the sand has settled back down a bit, i did this three times for each bag of sand (5kg bag) but doing it more wouldn't hurt.

 

[KnuckleHead]

One way to do it with the weather getting warmer now is to use an old pillow case. Put a couple scoops of sand in and use a hose to rinse. Rinse until the water runs clear. The pillow case will filter out all the smaller particles that can wreak havoc on a filter system. Oh and absolutly positively make sure you rinse in the front yard and wear a pair of underwear on your head while doing a funky chicken dance. Ok that last part isnt needed but its sure alot of fun.

 

[luxum]

I live in an apartment. I don't have a yard or a hose, so i can't rinse sand the conventional way. However, i have rinsed sand in the kitchen sink with a colander (that thing you use to drain your macaroni) lined with household cheesecloth. Got to do it in small batches though, last resort.

 

[Teelie]

I did mine in a medium sized bowl over the sink. I used filtered tap water to wash it repeatedly, more than 6 times a bowl and then put it in my tank. IMO this works better as you can clean the sand more effectively and control it better.

With the bowl I set it in the tank slowly and let the water fill it up so sand didn't go flying all over the tank and I just poured it out once I was at the bottom.

With a bucket you have a larger amount to deal with, less control in cleaning it and then you either have to use something else to scoop it up and pour it in or pour it from the bucket into the tank which is messier and cloudier.

 

[smithrc]

I went large scale..

I used a dustbin and a hose pipe.

Put a bag of sand in the dustbin and turned the hose nozzel to jet and left it going for about 30 mins... constantly churning the sand so the smaller lighter grains get caught in the water and overflow out of the bin.