can you clean out old sand?

[beoks]

my questions comes from a fellow member who decided the old sand bed in the tank was fueling cyano. is there a way to clean out old sand? boil it dry it out anything? what about a deep sand bed? i know your not suppose to touch them but could you remove all the sand spread it out and rinse it or something? or is your only option to replace it?

 

[Myteemouse]

you can clean it instead of replaceing it..
rinse alot and dry it out then rinse again, then rinse again..

 

[as1720]

Well i have vary fine sand and im just wonderin what you would use to rinse it out?

Maybe putting it in a towl and letting water run through it?

 

[warforged]

put it in a bucket...fill bucket... stir sand as you let the water flow from hose to bucket..causing overflow..and stir to kick up the crud...water should be cloudy as you do this...once water seems a little clear you should be all set.

This is normally what I do to clean sand before I put it in a new tank or replacement....i imagine it would and should work for used sand to.

 

[as1720]

Good idea!

 

[kgross]

You can also use some bleach to oxidise all the organics, then just neutralise the bleach and you will be good to go.

Kim

 

[young_skywalker]

the bucket trick works very well, but you I wouldn't be using very fine sand for a thick sand bed (if that's what you're doing). You can also use a gravel vac with a valve to reduce the suction. I've done that before and it works pretty well. If you have a deeper sand bed just don't go down very far.