Sand rinsing

[Matt Carden]

I am rinsing my sand in a 36 gallon tall aquarium outside with a hose. It seems that there is no way that the water will run crystal clear while the hose is running. I stopped the hose and after 10 minutes the water is still cloudy. Is there a rule of thumb on how long the water should take to clear up to know if my sand is clean enough?

 

[flooddc]

old sand or new dry sand or live sand?
If old sand and has been out of the system for a while, then throw it out into the yard.
New dry sand, I'd rinse it several times and use it.
Live sand, go straight into the tank.

 

[Super Fly]

If its old sand, it’ll take a while to rinse. Folks rinse them in 5-gal buckets at a time

 

[Jvesche20]

when I added 120 lbs of sand it was cloudy for the first day then it became clear. I have live sand so I just added it straight in the tank. The sand also came with these packets to speed up the process.

 

[joec]

Just rinse it as long as you can tolerate doing it and that should be good enough, you're never going to get every bit of the cloudy elements out. It will settle in your tank and the water will be clear in a day or two.

I did my final rinse with RODI water

 

[ca1ore]

I only use dry sand ..... just wash it to the point where most of the fines have been removed. The rest will resolve itself once the tank is running. Even unwashed sand will eventually clear - the problem is that the bed is still full of fines so every disturbance release a new cloud. No thanks.

 

[Matt Carden]

Thanks everyone for your replies