Boiling sand

[Fish Buddy]

I have been thinking for a while maybe I should replace my gravel with sand. As I started researching it seems that inorder to get the best results, one needs to wash times infinity. I then thought that maybe boiling sand in a pot could reduce the labour spent in hand washing the sant but get similar results. What are your thoughts?

 

[Da_Oz]

All that will do is stir it up will not remove it. You will still have to wash.

 

[Narayan]

I agree with Da_Oz. You will still have to wash it, boiling it will do no good.

 

[Teelie]

Boiling does nothing, though you don't need to wash it a lot, just six or seven times thoroughly and it will be ready.

 

[Narayan]

My advice was that you should wash it in a bucket untill the water goes clear.
My experience has been.. sometimes its a few times, sometimes its alot of times.

You can't really put a number on it.

Wash 'till water's clear.

 

[willywonka099]

No it wont "clean" it too make it look good but it will kill the bad bacteria

 

[FishDan]

Yeah, boiling will kill anything that may come with the sand. But then if you buy a bag of sand there shouldn't be anything to kill in it. At any rate, you aren't trying to clean the sand. You are rinsing the sand to remove the fine sand that tends to remain free floating. It's not dirty per se, just lighter than what one wants. Boil it if it makes you feel better. You'll still need to rinse it by hand.

\Dan

 

[canarsie11]

Still needs a good washing

 

[Fish Buddy]

Ok (darn I was hoping I would be savine time) I'll just do it the traditional way.

 

[smithrc]

fraid so... the cleaning is done to remove the very fine 'dust' in the sand that will float in the tank.

if its not done it will mess up filters etc as it will get sucked through and will damage the impellor system.

 

[Teelie]

The dust isn't so dangerous as the grains of sand but a proper sand will have good, heavy grains that won't easily float in the water where they could get into the impeller. It's also a good idea to occasionally take the filter out and wash out any sand and debris that gets down near the impeller. Even in non-sand tanks I would say to do it at least once every 6 months.