Should I wash my sand before adding it into my tank?

[POIUY678]

I just got dry sand (not live) and I'm not sure if I should wash it or not.

I've seen some people wash it, but I've also seen people that don't wash it.

If I do need to wash it, what is the process of washing it? Also, should I wash it in just tap water or would I have to wash it in salt water?

 

[Garf]

I just got dry sand (not live) and I'm not sure if I should wash it or not.

I've seen some people wash it, but I've also seen people that don't wash it.

If I do need to wash it, what is the process of washing it? Also, should I wash it in just tap water or would I have to wash it in salt water?

Folks have just rinsed it with tap water for many years then drain it out. Just stops the water looking as cloudy for as long, although a particulate filter would remove it after a while anyway.

Edit - lol, no need to rinse it for many years, just till the water looks clear There is no best way, just different ways in my opinion.

 

[brandon429]

That's false garf because you don't have a single entrant work thread showing you guiding anyone's reef that way other than your own. In fact you're hiding information to the contrary that you know about, where testimony exists for multiple pages for consequences of not rinsing

trying to use a filter has no work thread either, it's made up.

You're trying to effect procedural change by withholding information, that's shortcutting the effort it takes to make proof with work threads. You're omitting plainly known consequence many hundreds of folks have by not rinsing for hours

You don't like our rinse procedure, but then again you can't make a single three page work thread showing yours and your advice sounds like you have practice managing the issue in others tanks

 

[brandon429]

Poiu

Take a handful of that sand and add it to a clear glass of water

Look at the filth cloud

Let it settle two days since everyone who doesn't do any work in the matter says it'll be fine

Go in there with a spoon and mix it up, this is your reef rock sliding down or some tank cleaning motion normal maintenance being modeled

Do you see how it clouds again? That's with three grand in corals and fish...

Do not use unrinsed sand until you get the cup to stay clear no matter what motion you do


Using tap? Top chemist on the site says not to

But again in theme, no work threads exist for Randy guiding sand in others tanks to workable clarity, and in any discussion of tap water rinsing the known massive example thread is omitted from any readers toolkit unless i post it.

Hiding and repressing known fact on file seems like a science shortcut so that personal bias wins.

I'm amazed that folks don't want the OP to see one shred of pattern that others post in the matter, the bad outcomes, from our work threads that actually study the matter in other people's tanks. It's disappointing, I expect good scientists to allow for their thought process to evolve once we're at a thousand tanks on file winning 100% of the time with hourslong tap water prep rinses. You guys keep squelching the truth... maybe you can get folks to cease rinsing altogether one day since you just don't like the notion very much.

 

[Jack Ravensbergen]

I clean it always , first with tapwater and if it's clean once again with osmosewater.
You never know what is hyding in the sand .

 

[brandon429]

Jack, we could assemble nine years of perfect sandbedding for any reef in the world with that advice, excellent. That directly matches massive work threads on the matter.

 

[brandon429]

The specific reason we rinse in tap first is because it's endless supply

Pre rinse in ro only= run out too soon

If this happens on a dry reef start, only annoying clouding happens

If this happens during a tank move, not fully rinsing old sand, people's reefs can die but then again it would take work thread accountability to know that and to relay it to someone.

 

[Jack Ravensbergen]

Jack, we could assemble nine years of perfect sandbedding for any reef in the world with that advice, excellent. That directly matches massive work threads on the matter.

Better safe then sorry , right?

 

[Garf]

That's false garf because you don't have a single entrant work thread showing you guiding anyone's reef that way other than your own. In fact you're hiding information to the contrary that you know about, where testimony exists for multiple pages for consequences of not rinsing

trying to use a filter has no work thread either, it's made up.

You're trying to effect procedural change by withholding information, that's shortcutting the effort it takes to make proof with work threads. You're omitting plainly known consequence many hundreds of folks have by not rinsing for hours

You don't like our rinse procedure, but then again you can't make a single three page work thread showing yours and your advice sounds like you have practice managing the issue in others tanks

Morning Brandon. In the interests of information disclosure we haven’t got a thread on tap water copper binding to aragonite yet either, and subsequent release. You already know we are looking at phosphate binding and release.

 

[Garf]

I would add that although I wouldn’t forcefully encourage anyone to run a silica sand (playsand) bed, I did it for 9 years. There were a couple of points that I noticed during this time. Firstly I had no diatom explosion, which has been suggested for many years. Secondly I had no green algae growth in the sand, no cyano, nothing considered a pest. Thirdly, when I took that tank down there were no hydrogen sulphide pockets, in fact even though it was between 4 and 6 inches deep there was no evidence of any detritus whatsoever. This led me to the conclusion that the tiny grain size prevented detritus intruding into the bed.
So the question would be “Does rinsing aragonite sand encourage detritus intrusion into the bed? as the rinsed fines would surely have made there way between the grains if unrinsed to prevent such intrusion. Hence better?, nah, different?, certainly. Yes, I do understand the issues with fine particles, is it worth dealing with them in the long run? Perhaps.

 

[brandon429]

To me its about relaying risk ratios to people vs personal preference

If someone has never had a clouding event at their home setup their preference will be to not rinse at all and use a clarifier packet instead, or a light partial rinse, or some type of action which is not rinsing for hours until the sand is simply as clean as a snowglobe

They won't relay a risk % to someone they haven't personally encountered

The only way to encounter a problematic clouding event is to either have one happen at home -or- have one happen in a work thread where we promised someone their tank wouldn't crash or become clouded for days on end

Once someone experiences clouding from either of those perspectives, they will simply move to complete and total rinsing prep, there's literally no benefit to not fully prep rinsing there's only a risk

And I'm talking about bagged live sand, wet caribsea live sand marked no rinse necessary on the bag... not just dry sand which is obvious in any cup test that it must be rinsed or the tank will go totally opaque for days.



If someone actually produced sand that was cloudless like a snowglobe out of the bag none of this would matter (except during tank transfers where not rinsing absolutely has killed tanks that we have on file)


The only reason I get snooty on rinse prep threads is because the posters are simply never told or shown the risk of non prep rinse, it's how pictures like these exist:

There was simply no reason for this tank owner to endure solid brown water in a reef tank

They were given the statement that pre rinsing is bad, they'd lose bacteria (implying a reef tank cannot lose bacteria and still run)

OR they may have read in the chemistry forum pre rinsing in tap is bad because it exposes them to copper or phosphate

What they won't see unless I post it is:

Official Sand Rinse and Tank Transfer thread

The best way to prepare your sand for use in a transferred reef tank, an upgraded reef tank, a reef tank under invasion etc is to put the sand in sections in a bucket and TAP WATER rinse it outside over and over with the garden hose until all the silt / waste is ejected, expect hours of work per...

www.reef2reef.com

*only* not rinsing for hours on end causes this issue in the pic above. Don't blame me lol above was the *live* sand marked no rinse needed right on the bag.

I simply wish folks could see the full picture of outcomes before they're told to rinse or not rinse, rinse well or rinse 25% etc

I wish anyone who mentions anything shy of total pre rinse in tap had a thread i could read showing that working well for others. It's always just about their own tank, the recommend not to pre rinse in tap water for eight straight hours per bag.

 

[Garf]

trying to use a filter has no work thread either, it's made up.

It’s not me making stuff up,lol;

 

[mrpontiac80]

The only reason I get snooty on rinse prep threads is because the posters are simply never told or shown the risk of non prep rinse, it's how pictures like these exist:

I am only 2 years into this hobby. My tank has been running for you guessed it, 2 years. I started with Caribsea special grade live sand. I dumped it in and added the clarifying stuff. To this day I really have had no issues, but when I do a water change weekly I start by vacuuming the sand in the areas I can easily get to. And one thing I know for certain is that the water being pulled out into my white bucket looks just like the pic above. Also when my wrass is getting ready for bed (he sleeps in the sand). He always does a few dives into the sand first and kicks up a lot of clouds that go away in a minute or so.
Until recently I’ve always thought I was vacuuming detritus out of the sand but I really think it is a result of not rinsing.
I have no expert opinions and only my one 2 year old tank for experience…. But I am building a 180 gallon build this month and this time I will be rinsing the live sand. It will be interesting to see how the next tank differs. Good luck with your build!

 

[brandon429]

That’s interesting to see thanks for update

the sand I keep for a pico reef is a tenth of that, so we learn the dynamics of unrinsed sand for large tankers with updates and pics like that

 

[Jack Ravensbergen]

I am only 2 years into this hobby. My tank has been running for you guessed it, 2 years. I started with Caribsea special grade live sand. I dumped it in and added the clarifying stuff. To this day I really have had no issues, but when I do a water change weekly I start by vacuuming the sand in the areas I can easily get to. And one thing I know for certain is that the water being pulled out into my white bucket looks just like the pic above. Also when my wrass is getting ready for bed (he sleeps in the sand). He always does a few dives into the sand first and kicks up a lot of clouds that go away in a minute or so.
Until recently I’ve always thought I was vacuuming detritus out of the sand but I really think it is a result of not rinsing.
I have no expert opinions and only my one 2 year old tank for experience…. But I am building a 180 gallon build this month and this time I will be rinsing the live sand. It will be interesting to see how the next tank differs. Good luck with your build!View attachment 2950008

You can not rinse live sand with ro water ..... all the bacteria in it will die.

 

[mrpontiac80]

You can not rinse live sand with ro water ..... all the bacteria in it will die.

I understand that may be the case, but honestly what’s the difference if it does.. I mean then I’m essentially starting with a regular dry sand right? My experience with my first tank that is at 2 years old now is positive. Not great but good. I used live sand in that tank and just dumped it in like most of us do. I do not overfeed and yet I fight high nitrates and phosphates. The nitrate is not too bad. Water changes can knock them down pretty easily but phosphate is killing me. Maybe it’s sub par filtration that comes with an all in one tank… I don’t know. So a few months ago I started vacuuming my sand again thinking that may help, and still there is so much crud or whatever being pulled out that I feel it is worth trying something different this go round.
I still consider myself a newbie but I know that for every way that works, there are other ways that work also.

 

[Jack Ravensbergen]

So why buy expensive sand with a lot good bacteria and then kill it?
The live sand helps to go a starting cycle as well with those bacteria thant transform toxic No2 in No3.
One of the main reason of hi phosphate could be the ditritus in the sand , i clean my sand montly.
well i'm a newby myself as well i learn every day , what's nice about this forum that you can learn from others mistakes ( expensive mostly) so that you don't have to make them yourself.

 

[Garf]

I understand that may be the case, but honestly what’s the difference if it does.. I mean then I’m essentially starting with a regular dry sand right? My experience with my first tank that is at 2 years old now is positive. Not great but good. I used live sand in that tank and just dumped it in like most of us do. I do not overfeed and yet I fight high nitrates and phosphates. The nitrate is not too bad. Water changes can knock them down pretty easily but phosphate is killing me. Maybe it’s sub par filtration that comes with an all in one tank… I don’t know. So a few months ago I started vacuuming my sand again thinking that may help, and still there is so much crud or whatever being pulled out that I feel it is worth trying something different this go round.
I still consider myself a newbie but I know that for every way that works, there are other ways that work also.

You’re in luck, I’m testing a 30 month, 3 inch sand bed for phos as we speak. Obviously all the crud will get worse, not better as the small grains are removed, but I’m just doing a test on sand de-adsorption, hopefully.

 

[mrpontiac80]

So why buy expensive sand with a lot good bacteria and then kill it?
The live sand helps to go a starting cycle as well with those bacteria thant transform toxic No2 in No3.
One of the main reason of hi phosphate could be the ditritus in the sand , i clean my sand montly.
well i'm a newby myself as well i learn every day , what's nice about this forum that you can learn from others mistakes ( expensive mostly) so that you don't have to make them yourself.

As for the sand I bought…. I bought it before I decided to rinse it. And also you can get really good deals through Petco at times. I think I spent less than I would have had I bought dry sand.

 

[mrpontiac80]

You’re in luck, I’m testing a 30 month, 3 inch sand bed for phos as we speak. Obviously all the crud will get worse, not better as the small grains are removed, but I’m just doing a test on sand adsorption, hopefully.

I’m just curious how you test that? I use a Hanna for phosphate but obviously I’m testing a water sample. How do you test what’s in the sand? Genuinely curious.