Cali Kid Corals

Cleaning sand... how do you do it?

S

sfsuphysics

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So I have a few buckets of older (dirtier) sand I want to put in the refugium. However I do want to clean it out. What the hell is a sure method to do that? Some shallow box and just run water over it hoping the "crap" floats and over the edge? Flood, siphon, flood, siphon? Considering that whole drought thing we're going through I'd like to try to waste as little water as possible :)
 
First tip, use your water change discards water for all but the final rinse.

For the actual cleaning I fill a bucket about half full of sand. I add water until it's nearly full, stir the heck out of it with my arm making the sand fully fluidized. I then let the sand settle for a few seconds and dump all the water out through a coarse sieve. Most of the biologicals will remain in suspension and go with the water. The sand caught in the sieve I will put into another bucket. I repeat a few times and usually the sand is pretty clean. Afterwards I will leave the buckets filled with a gallon of RO/DI and more water change discards. I stored the buckets open-topped in a dark closet. I repeated this next water change and had very clean sand.
 
I use a bucket and a garden hose with nozzle (regular tap water).
Fill bucket about 1/4 full of sand.
Blast hose in, to fluidize sand, tilt, and let the crud and fine particles float out.
You lose a bit of sand, but you lose the fine particles, which IMO is a benefit.

Cleans quick.

Let it drain, then do one soak at the end with RODI.
 
You could get a giant piece of cheese cloth lay the sand on top of it and with the garden hose on the "shower" setting spray it down. That way you could pick out the bigger pieces of crap you don't want in there. I assume all the beneficial stuff is already dead since its been in the bucket for X amount of time.
 
I shove a garden hose into a bucket O' sand and turn it on, it will churn up the water. I set it so that it will overflow the bucket, but not so violent that it washes the sand out of the bucket. Maybe put the bucket on a large basin (like a cement mixing tub) to catch stray sand.

Then I use the hose to just probe down into the sand and detritus rises to the top and overflows.

Of course, do this on the driveway where the salty water will not kill your grass, and so that neighbors will yell at your for wasting water.

For in-tank sand, use the sand sihpon thingy.

V
 
Kevin Kohen of Liveaquaria apparently does this to disinfect their sand in between shipments of new fish to ensure parasites/bacteria are killed:

Mix solution of 1/4 cup bleach per gallon of tap water.
Mix up the sand with solution and let soak for a couple hours.
Rinse well with tap water.
Soak in solution of sodium thiosulfate (or generous amounts of Prime or Amquel) for a few hours to remove the chlorine.
Rinse again with tap water.
 
I did the garden hose/bucket thing.

My sand is a combination of sand that's been in a bucket under my deck for 5 years, and sand that has been covered up for about the same time... the sand is so old that the plastic bucket shattered from UV damage. Half dry, half was covered with rotting leaves and mosquito larvae. I just garden hosed the wet stuff and I just dumped the dry stuff in, thinking that any crap in there will help the tank cycle. Also, any freshwater bugaboos will be eliminated by the salt water.

Disinfecting sand sounds like a good idea if the sand came from another salt water environment, but also kills off your good bacteria.

V
 
yeah disinfection would be good if it wasn't for the fact most of it has been sitting in a bucket for a couple years or so ... although I wouldn't sneak it past an aiptasia to find a way to stay alive that whole time!
 
I vacuum my sand when doing water changes occasionally. This removes some of the detritus. Something like this video I have never had any problems with the sand turning to concrete (usually due to inorganic calcium precipitation).
 
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