Cleaning old sand

[dwdenny]

I pick up some old sand that Chad(witecap4u) sold me and not sure how long it has been sitting in the tote. I was looking for some recomendations on cleaning. I am no where near ready to put it in the tank yet. I was thinking of putting it out on a tarp and letting it dry first. Then before I put in rensining it with RO water. What do you all think.

Doug

[SBreef]

I had some old sand also. I used a flour sifter and used the water hose to help sift it through the sifter. I then let it dry for a few days. The sifting got all of the larger pieces and dead snail shells out.

[GaryP]

No need for RO water. I did the same thing a while back with some old sand. Just rinse, rinse, and rinse some more until you get all of the trapped detritus out of it and the water is fairly clear, like with new sand. I took it out in the driveway and had it in a 20 gal. barrel with a water hose. While rinsing I stirred it up to help release the detritus. When I was done, I used a big collander to filter out snail shells or other chunky stuff and spread it out on a big plastic drop cloth to drain and dry in the sun for a couple of days. I turned it over with a rake every so often to help it dry. When I was done, I stored it in salt buckets to be used later.

[dwdenny]

thanks for the input guys. That is what I will be doing for the next couple of days then. Will let it dry then put it back into the tote(after I clean it too. lol

Doug