Every time I see the title of this post I want to ask. "Who won the debate, you or the sand?"
The sand comes in two different ways. One comes with the cycling junk and the other does not. When I was accumulating mine they only offered the cycling one. I threw out this stuff as it is worthless. I then rinsed the sand well because it comes wet with I know not what- ugh.
I was getting it in 20 lb bags. I would rinse it as follows. Outside using a hose and a 5 gal bucket. I pour in the sand and insert the hose. Sometime I push it into the sand to the bottom of the bucket as that helps stir it. As the bucket fills with water I will stir it with my hand. This helps bring a lot of the dusty dirt to the surface and when the bucket start overflowing it carries out the crap. I will then tilt the buck and pour out a bunch of the dirty water. I then repeat the process as many times as it takes to produce pretty clear water in the bucket. This may ne 3- 5 fills.
Because I have set up summer tanks outdoors for years, I use sand in them. At the end of the season I have to remove the sand and dry it (a long process- the thinner the layer, the faster it dries). The next time I need to use this sand I have to rinse it again. So I have gotten pretty good at it. I would say it takes me less about 10 minutes a bag including filling and removing the clean sand from the bucket.
I tend not to go to the cleanest I could get it. However, I have a reason I can leave a bunch of junk still in it. I have a number of H.O.T. Magnums. This is a 250 gph hand on the tank canister. There are micron cartridges (actually cylinders) for this and they filter out stuff down to 10 microns. If even more is needed you can add a tablespoon or three to the filter water and it will polish it amazingly. So I can put in substrate and water and then run one of two of these for a while and they clean the water pretty well.
The sand comes in two different ways. One comes with the cycling junk and the other does not. When I was accumulating mine they only offered the cycling one. I threw out this stuff as it is worthless. I then rinsed the sand well because it comes wet with I know not what- ugh.
I was getting it in 20 lb bags. I would rinse it as follows. Outside using a hose and a 5 gal bucket. I pour in the sand and insert the hose. Sometime I push it into the sand to the bottom of the bucket as that helps stir it. As the bucket fills with water I will stir it with my hand. This helps bring a lot of the dusty dirt to the surface and when the bucket start overflowing it carries out the crap. I will then tilt the buck and pour out a bunch of the dirty water. I then repeat the process as many times as it takes to produce pretty clear water in the bucket. This may ne 3- 5 fills.
Because I have set up summer tanks outdoors for years, I use sand in them. At the end of the season I have to remove the sand and dry it (a long process- the thinner the layer, the faster it dries). The next time I need to use this sand I have to rinse it again. So I have gotten pretty good at it. I would say it takes me less about 10 minutes a bag including filling and removing the clean sand from the bucket.
I tend not to go to the cleanest I could get it. However, I have a reason I can leave a bunch of junk still in it. I have a number of H.O.T. Magnums. This is a 250 gph hand on the tank canister. There are micron cartridges (actually cylinders) for this and they filter out stuff down to 10 microns. If even more is needed you can add a tablespoon or three to the filter water and it will polish it amazingly. So I can put in substrate and water and then run one of two of these for a while and they clean the water pretty well.
