Help With Washing New Gravel?

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KieranBoyne

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Hi guys again, so I found some white aquarium gravel in my garden shed from pets at home, own brand and it's really sandy, and I mean really, really sandy. lIke, wow! So, I have been washing for about 15 minutes and it's still getting worse every bucket load of water. I am doing 0.5 kilos at a time to make sure it is super duper clean. What is the best way to clean it do you find? Please help. Thanks
 
I cleaned my sand (I know you have gravel), by pouring tiny amounts in to a bucket of water. With several vigorous stirs in the sand, I would empty the bucket of the cloudy water and refill it. I did this several times with each amount of sand until the water leaving the bucket was acceptable. ^_^ There's not many other ways I know of!
 
Just keep doing what you're doing (and make sure it's aquarium safe!). If you cut corners now you'll be greeted by a cloud of dust everytime you disturb your aquarium... Not nice!
 
Yeah, I've been doing it for an hour and a half now. Anyone else have ideas?
 
The most simple way of washing gravel it to get a coulender, put some of the gravel in and wash it under the tap, swish it round a bit, this washes all the sand away in one go, its really easy. Just have a bowl under to catch any small bits of gravel. 
 
I do the small amounts in a bucket stirring with constant water method myself... takes a long time and I always wish I decided not to change things!
 
This is going to sound odd bit it works for gravel:
fill a bucket full of water and then put the gravel in an old pillow case
Submerge it in the bucket of water so everything is wet
Shake and move the pillow case so the gravel rubs against each other. The gravel grains clean each other
A hose can then be sprayed into the pillow case and all the dirt washes away leaving clean gravel in the pillow
If it's sand you are trying to remove the colander method is the best as the sand washes out the holes but the gravel stays in the colander
 
I did my gravel with the colander and it was time consuming because I could only do a small amount at a time, but it worked well and the tank didn't cloud up.
 
The most simple way of washing gravel it to get a coulender, put some of the gravel in and wash it under the tap, swish it round a bit, this washes all the sand away in one go, its really easy. Just have a bowl under to catch any small bits of gravel.
I do pretty much the same but use a sieve, half fill the sieve with substrate of choice, fill a large bucket with water immerse sieve in water and swill about, most "dust" will be washed off, when water in bucket is considerably clouded change water, do all substrate then repeat if required! That's the fastest way I've found of getting gravel very clean! and I have tried most other recommended ways
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I have tried several different ways of cleaning gravel or sand.
 
The best method is actually using a large sieve and doing scoops of sand/gravel at a time.
 
Edit - just noticed KirkyArcher mentioned this as was typing this, nice to have confirmation that this method does indeed work pretty well.
 
Thanks for all of the advice guys. The water came up clear I the bucket but when I put it in the tank went really cloudy!! Like, I can see the back of the tank but it's pretty bad!

I tried all of he methods but I think that prariesunflower's method worked the best for me. Just a shame the tank is cloudy. Any ideas on how to clear that up?
 
Patients now, may just have to live with it for a week or two. It would seem that cleaning wasn't as thorough as you'd have hoped doing it the swirling bucket method.
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But the water came out crystal clear?? And i thought that meant it was clean...
 

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