Cleaning Dead Sand

[BiochemRobyn]

In addition to cleaning dead rock, I have ~35 lbs. of old sand that I was hoping to clean. It has been sitting in a couple inches of water for around 1 month (I think). Is there any procedure for cleaning sand like that?

[Redwinger]

You could let it soak in vineger for half a day swishing it around every couple hours and then rinse well.

[spsick]

i'd just rinse it thoroughly with clean r/o water, get all the detritus and crap out of it.

[mtfatwork]

lol, I would just buy new sand...lol

[christensonjes]

What works really well is to put the sand in a 5 gal bucket and stick a garden hose in the bottom. all the detritus and crap comes out the top with the overflowing water. It will take 20 to 30 minutes

[christensonjes]

If your worried about the tap water you could always rinse it with RO afterwards

[BiochemRobyn]

If your worried about the tap water you could always rinse it with RO afterwards

Would that work? I read a thread once that phosphates and nitrates caused a tank crash even after rinsing with RO.

Also, how may rinses would I need after the vinegar wash?

[christensonjes]

Would that work? I read a thread once that phosphates and nitrates caused a tank crash even after rinsing with RO.

Also, how may rinses would I need after the vinegar wash?

I would be willing to bet that the information was anectodal.

I dont know, I did it and it was fine.

You know there are alot of people that dont have RO units.

It worked great to get the crap out of the sand. And like I said if your worried, I would think if you rinsed it well with RO it would take care of the tap water

[Dirk Griffin]

To follow up what has been said. In the past this has worked well. Rinsing very well with tap water, drying all of it out and then use it. Have had no issues with the 8-10 times I or others have done it this way.

[sea monkey]

If your worried about the tap water you could always rinse it with RO afterwards

tons of people treat tap water with dechlorinator and use it for water changes and top off water . While I don't think it is a good practice to use tap water for everything i don't think it would hurt anything to wash your sand with it.

I used the bucket method on 400 pounds of sand that I used and had no issues. I did add some dechlorinator to the water and worked it through the sand when i was done , just in case : )

[BiochemRobyn]

Great ideas... Looks like I have some sand-cleaning to do this weekend

[Frogbone]

I'm with Dirk on this one. I have not had any problems with sand after I washed it with tap water and the 5gal bucket method.

[JAWS74]

Rinse well, spread it out on a tarp outside, and sun dry/bleach it. P.S. wait for a warm sunny day.