Do you rinse new sand in RODI or tap water?

[skey44]

About to wash about 240lbs of dry caribsea special here in a couple weeks. Thanks for the information! Plan is to transfer all of my rock from old tank and trash the old sand.

Can’t imagine! I did 80 lbs of rinsing this sand and was so done with it by the end.
Good luck.

 

[billyocean]

Can’t imagine! I did 80 lbs of rinsing this sand and was so done with it by the end.
Good luck.

Yeah....its not something I'm looking forward to..lol. but...beats rinsing my old sand!

 

[Freenow54]

I wanna jump into the discussion quick.
I just rinsed about 100 pounds of Caribsea Special Grade Arragonite sand.
I put 10 pounds at a time into a bucket and rinsed with tap water. Took me probably 10 minutes per bag. Water didn't come out 100% clear but at first it was murky as hell with pieces of debris. I rinsed until it just didn't change much anymore.
Now I have all that sand in a covered tub until Saturday when my new tank arrives.

Should I fill the tub with RODI water and let it sit until I am ready to put it in the tank or can I fill the tub with tap water and add some dechlorinator ?

I am short on barrels etc to make enough RODI water for the saltwater and potentially for the tub with the sand.

How would you go from here ?

I don't see any issue with tap water I don't know if your sand is live or not. If it is then Rodi I would say. If not then just let it dry?

 

[amateur.alchemist]

No rinsing here. If adding to an existing tank I use the plastic bottle trick and let mechanical filtration take care of any spillover.

 

[Freenow54]

No rinsing here. If adding to an existing tank I use the plastic bottle trick and let mechanic filtration take care of any spillover.

Do tell never heard of it

 

[amateur.alchemist]

Do tell never heard of it

Sure!

1. Fill a plastic bottle with sand, leaving a small gap between the top of the sand and the bottle opening
2. Turn all tank pumps off
3. Place the bottle into the tank, keeping it upright, and briefly dunk the opening just enough to let the bottle take in water until full. Giving the bottle a few gentle squeezes will help remove air trapped
4. Quickly flip the bottle upside down and move to the sand bed. Lift the bottle off the substrate just enough to let the sand flow out. The idea is that the heavier sand will sink and leave most of the lighter silt behind. A few gentle squeezes will help loosen up stuck clumps
5. Cover the opening with your hand, bring it to the surface, flip and remove
6. Serve with fresh mint
7. Okay, maybe don't do 6

Bottles with a wider opening tend to work better. If adding a lot of very silty sand I'll do this 1-3 times, turn pumps on and allow the water to clear before repeating.