Pre Washing Crushed Coral Sand Substrate

[onidrase]

Hey guys. I've been working my way up in setting my 50 gallon tanganyikan tank up. I began to rinse out my crushed coral substrate, which is supposedly pre washed, so minimum rinsing would be required according to the bag.

30 minutes out in the lawn with a hose later, the water still hadn't run clear, the water was still milky white from the stuff, it began getting dark, so I called it a night.

Thinking back on it, the coral is supposed to slowly dissolve to harden the water, so I was thinking, technically, wouldn't this just make more and more small particles as I washed it out which would need to be removed, thus making this a rather endless cycle? Or is the bag just a filthy liar?

Is there some sort of special way to clean this stuff, or do I just need to keep going on it tomorrow?

 

[STEWARDSONS]

I washed mine for about 20 mins in a bucket the bath then put it in the tank. The cloudiness cleared within 2 days. After a week of being in there due to parasites I drained the tank and took it out and washed it again for another 20 mins or so. It gone back in last night with new water and is still cloudy this morning.

It would appear no matter how much you wash it you will still get some cloudiness but the filter will sort it pretty quickly

 

[thereverendturtle]

I think the prerinse is just to get most of the dirt out. There is usually a lot of coral dust left over, and it just takes a ton of rinsing to get it clean. I've always just rinsed it to get it from milky, to cloudy, then let the filter finish the job.

 

[ripil]

i rinsed my coral sand for about half and hour. put it in the tank, half filled the tank then took about four buckets of water out, filled it up and left it overnight with 3 internal filters and this odd air line filter i got. was clear as a bell in the morning and i didn't finish till about 11pm. used the pillow case in the sink method.