How do you recycle old sand?

[seminolecpa]

As the post title states. Trying to figure out what I should do to clean and reuse old sand. Do I just leave it out in the sun to dry out? Run bleach through it?

 

[sfsuphysics]

I'd put it in a tray (or spare tank sitting around) run freshwater on it (not even RO/Di water) maybe sift it back and forth, you might see any "crap" (literally and figuratively) separate. Try to siphon that out or net it out... then yeah.. let it dry in the sun, make sure no local cats use it for a literbox.

 

[pixelpixi]

Why do you want to wash/bleach/dry it? Are there undesirable critters in it that you want to kill?

 

[Raddogz]

The bleach will whiten it.

Wash it takes out the detritus that has settled within the sand

 

[Gomer]

If it were me, I would get bottles of 3% hydrogen peroxide and soak the sand in that (no further dilution) rather than bleaching. It will oxidize and kill and whiten and all that jazz. The advantage, is H2O2 decomposes on surfaces and with light leaving just water behind, and no harmful chemicals. It is also dirt cheap. you can buy 1L bottles of it for ~$1 with generic.

 

[mark_s]

Good suggestion, Tony. I'll have to try that out.

I have a 30 gallon Brute trashcan full of old sand from a tank breakdown that needs to be cleaned. I built a makeshift sifter out of 4 2x4 that I used to create a frame and some aluminum screen stapled over it. Now I just put a scoop of the old, nasty sand on the screen and run water over it. It does an excellent job of washing away all the scum and detritus. I think I'll use Tony's suggestion as a second step.

 

[seminolecpa]

Yep. I will try both. hadn't really reused sand before. When I moved my old tank I ditched the sand and went bare bottom for a while only to re-add new sand later. Not really concerned about killing everything in the sand this time around as I will seed it from the sandbed in my existing tank. Just want to make sure I get rid of all of that crud and toxic stuff that tends to accumulate in sandbeds over time.

 

[xinumaster]

Where do you buy hydrogen peroxide, hardware store, longs? Do you have to rinse the sand with fresh water after using hydrogen peroxide?

 

[seminolecpa]

Isn't it just the plain old brown bottle from the drug store stuff or is that a different strength?

 

[Gomer]

Correct. Albersons, longs, Savon, target etc.

It will ALWAYS be in a brown container to block light. Light destroys hydrogen peroxide.
Consumer concentrations to the best of my knowledge, are always 3% in water.

Hydrogen peroxide is an oxidizer. I would rinse the sand after using it to remove non volatile oxidized compounds.

I've use the H2O2 steralization trick on the substrate on my planted tank before and it worked perfectly. Never used it on a reef, so YMMV.

 

[sfsuphysics]

Hmmm wonder if H2O2 would work on "purifying" LR as well... although I can image that could get expensive.


But yeah I wouldn't trust any crap in used sand from someone's tank. The potential benefits of it are outweighed by the problems by many orders of magnitude.

 

[Gomer]

for rock, let it dry (to open the pores allowing capillary action to draw the H2O2 solution into them ), the pour H2O2 on it. repeat a couple of times.


I've seen 1L bottles of 3% H2O2 as cheap as 69cents a bottle. Dirt cheap

 

[LeviT]

no way, I've bought dirt, good dirt is expensive

 

[seminolecpa]

Tony,

how much do you think i would need on say maybe 10 lbs of sand?

 

[tuberider]

Oxy-clean works as well, I'm a big fan, I use it for bleaching plastic plants, coral, rock etc. never on sand though. I chuck the sand across the street and let the alpaca's look at it.

 

[seminolecpa]

Gonna be kind of a experimental tank anyway. I bought a 12g eclipse from Zolio and am going to set it up to be my wife's nemo/zoa tank.

 

[Gomer]

OxiClean is a sodium percarbonate (C2H6Na4O12) detergent and bleaching agent which produces hydrogen peroxide when dissolved in water.

for the geeks


Honestly, for the hassle and low cost of the cleaning materials, I would just get the cheap plain sand. (not the expensive "live" sand)

 

[sfsuphysics]

I got some oxy-clean, unfortunately it smells like its scented, even though it doesn't say so anywhere on the package. As a result I'm really hesitant to uses scented products

 

[bad coffee]

I just dump mine in a 20 gallon rubbermaid, and let the hose run on it for a while. Once every couple o sips o beer, go stir the sand with your hand. Get it as mixed up as you can.

Then when the water runs clear, drain, and add half a cup of bleach. Refill so the water is just above the sand line.

Let it sit for a few days, then rinse. (with another beer in hand)

Let sit for a couple of days, and rinse again. When you can't smell bleach, it's good to go. IF you have to use it sooner than that, just throw in a handful of sodium thiosulfate and stir.

B

 

[seminolecpa]

Now you are speaking my language. Combining a couple fo my favorite pastimes drinking beer and playing with my tank. Now if I could only incorporate working with my car somehow in the mix I would be good to go.