How do you rinse 160lbs of sand?

[budsreef]

I picked up 160lb of Carib Sea Seafloor Reef Sand from Sam at Aquabuys that is dry, non live sand. What is the best way to rinse it before putting it in a new tank? Most of it will go into the 120G and the rest will be used in a 30G refugium. Thanks!

 

[FutureInterest]

10 lbs at a time?

 

[james s_]

Good Question. Im going to be doing the same thing soon,and was thinking about putting the sand in a 5 gallon salt bucket and running water thru it until it came out clear. Does the CaribSea sand really need to be washed though? How do you like the sand? Is it real fine?

 

[oz]

Multiple 55G trash cans and a lot of water. Leave the hose in each one for a couple hours and stir, stir, stir. That'd be my guess.

 

[james s_]

Might be hard to stir sand in a 55 gallon trash can. That stuff packs itself pretty good. It would end up like trying to mix set concrete. Smaller amounts would be the easiest way IMO.

 

[budsreef]

46bfinga;133696 wrote: Good Question. Im going to be doing the same thing soon,and was thinking about putting the sand in a 5 gallon salt bucket and running water thru it until it came out clear. Does the CaribSea sand really need to be washed though? How do you like the sand? Is it real fine?

I'm sure it does since it is dry and there must be a lot of powder in it from the grains rubbing against each other. It is not a real fine sand, a little coarser than the Fiji Pink I have in my nanos. I really like the Fiji Pink but since I'm going to have two Vortechs for flow I was worried about dust storms.

I hope I like it but don't know yet since it is stitting in bags at the moment.

 

[james s_]

If you dont mind, How much did you pay for each bag? Im trying to find a good deal on sand.

 

[victor626nj]

here go all the prices on the sand sam sells

 

[james s_]

Thanks Victor. And ARC gets a percentage off of that?

 

[victor626nj]

no sam only gives discounts on tanks stands and salt ...his prices are to low for him to give out a discount

 

[schwaggs]

Yea, you need to rinse it. Even though they claim it is clean, I still found lots of "organic" junk in mine. If it is a new tank, and you have a skimmer setup, your skimmer might pull some of it out (mine did). If you want to rinse it, I would do a 1/2 of a 5 gallon bucket at a time and rinse it with the garden hose... indoors of course since we have an outdoor watering ban on in the Atlanta area you know

 

[haninja]

Somebody told me once about building a simple wood frame and stapling door screen around. Then put the sand inside and rinse with a hose. I guess it would depend on the grain size but that might work for you.

 

[victor626nj]

this might soud stupid but do hand fulls at a time if you do alot at at time it wount clean off well and youll still get a sand storm that wont clear up for about a week ...you have time anyway bud

 

[budsreef]

46bfinga;133707 wrote: If you dont mind, How much did you pay for each bag? Im trying to find a good deal on sand.

$27.99 for a 40lb bag.

 

[mojo]

Budsreef;133705 wrote: I really like the Fiji Pink but since I'm going to have two Vortechs for flow I was worried about dust storms.

The

 

[cameron]

I would probably get a couple garbage cans and load them up with tap water then pour in the sand. Stir, dump the water and redo the process until the water is pretty clean.

 

[geno]

so, is everyone saying it's okay to use tap water with non-live sand?

first time i've seen tap water used with a reef system -- thank you!!

 

[schwaggs]

Tap water is fine for rinsing sand. Of course you would pour out as much of the water out of the sand as you could get out. If you wanted to be extra careful, you could perform a final rinse with RODI water before putting the sand in the tank.

NEVER use tap water for tank water, however.

 

[budsreef]

Thanks for all the replies. I think I'll use salt water in a bucket and do a little at a time. Maybe I'll try running the water through a filter sock so I can keep reusing it.