Rinsing Tropical Playsand

[~Flighty~]

Rinsing Tropical Playsand
Is there any easier way to do this? I just put it in a bucket and added water, stirred, let settle, poured off the water, and repeated. After a zillion or so times the water is still milky, it is more like watered down skim than heavy cream.

Just wanted to know if anyone has a better way of doing this.

 

[SherryQ]

I don't think you need to rinse it. When I got my 72, Paul and Doug poured the new sand in and then put the plastic bags on top of the sand and then filled the tank. Very little cloudyness. Within a day it was crystal clear. A great trick.

 

[dedfish]

Also put a plate or shallow bowl on top of the plastic and pour into that. It will overflow the plate and create less disturbance in the tank.

Oh and I never rinsed mine.

 

[stang8s]

ditto.. never rinsed any either...

 

[~Flighty~]

I'm only rinsing the sand for a shallow sand bed in the main display. I plan on having some sand diggers in there and don't want a milkshake every time they dart into their caves or add an addition. I'm having a lot of trouble with the sand settling on my rocks and corals from my bar gobies darting into their house.

 

[Matt L.]

Cindy,

First, if you use straight southdown, ultimately the fine, silty material will just go away without rinsing. You are then safe to have as many sand sifting/digging organisms as you like. Of course, the more macroscopic sand particles will still get tossed around like any other sand, but the fines will (rather rapidly I might add) vanish on their own. I think they dissolve as all calcerous material can do in a reef tank, or more specifically, go into solution. You won't notice a sand particle dissolving because the mass is so much greater than that of a silt particle. Also, a lot of the silt seems to wind up in my skimmate.

Second, what I am doing for my new 90gal reef is as follows. I dump unrinsed Southdown in the tank. I fill the tank up with a garden hose (silt is everywhere). I stir the sand to make the water as silty as possible. Then, I drain the tank using the garden hose as a siphon. I repeat this process. Finally, when I am satisfied the sailt is as gone as is pracitcal, I just fill the tank up with RO/DI water and let the skimmer or filter sock take care of the rest,

Matt

 

[denvig]

Cindy I did the rinsing the same way you described it. This won?t get rid of all the cloudiness but it will defiantly cut down on the froth that you some times get on the top of the water. And I think the water will clear faster.

 

[ceige]

I used the plastic bag method and the sand storm was 100% gone within 24 hours.....no rince I wanted the small particles...just need to clean the glass when its gone..

 

[Mike A]

I remember reading somewhere that putting some cured liverock in the tank will help
the sandbed settle a little faster.

 

[~Flighty~]

It's not the initial cloudyness I'm woried about. The 58 has been set up for 6 months or so and I still get sandstorms from the goby, muscles snapping shut, the clown fanning and me moving rocks and whatnot. It could be worse than normal because I am not using a skimmer on that tank right now. I will not be rinsing the sand for the DSB in the refugium for the new tank, just the SSB in the display.

 

[NateHanson]

How shallow are you making the bed in your display Cindy?

 

[~Flighty~]

I'm not sure. Probably 2 inches or so. That seems to be about the thickness of the aerobic layer in the other tank.