jar05g

Hello everyone. I'm going to start another tank here in the next couple of weeks. I plan on using sand. I bought some sand a little while ago at the pet store. Do I need to rinse it out, or can I pour it directly into the tank, and then fill the tank up slowly as to not disturb the sand bed. I realize that I'll get a cloudy tank for a couple of days, but by not rinsing it, will I be doing harm to my fish? The sand is meant for aquariums by the way if that makes any difference. If I need to rinse it out, I've read about putting the sand in a bucket, and running water continuously for a little while so that the "weaker" sand can get out of the mix. It seems to me that by doing this, I will lose a lot of sand down the drain. Thanks for any help!

TFA101

preferably rinse all substrate before adding to the tank, for a "just incase" moment

jar05g

I can go about rinsing it like stated above?

David C

yeah, thats the way to rinse it. you dont really lose the sand, but the dirt that gets mixed in with it. i used pool filter sand for my 10gal and it was really dirty, glad to get that mess out of the tank, i figure it can't be good and wasnt much work so worth it in the long run.

jar05g

Alrighty then!! I had blue gravel in it before, and I have sand in a 10 gallon, and the sand looks so much better! Plus the tank I'm starting (30 gal.) is going to house live plants and a couple loaches...sand is much better for them. And with a power compact 50/50 bulb, it's going to look awesome...I can feel it!

Slug

The weaker sand is good to be gone. Otherwise this is the sand that will always be stirred up clouding your water. Rinsing sand is very tedious, and takes time. Lots of dust, dirt, and the weaker sand to get out.

A trick i've heard about is using a pillowcase. Gets the dust out but you'd still want to run it through a bucket to get the bigger particles out.

jar05g

So just pour the entire bag of sand into a pillow case and then run water through it? Thinking about it, the smaller particles will go through the fabric spaces, while the bigger pieces stay in. That's a good idea!!