clean dead sand

[glarior]

I have 120lbs of what use to be live sand that I would like to clean. It has sat in a tank for 5 months with very little water and no filtration... it stinks lol. When I was removing the sand it was green under the top layer of sand.

Whats the best way to clean it so I can add it to another tank I have?

[rrasco]

I'm pretty sure rinsing it well is sufficient.

[jcnkt_ellis]

Rinse carefully, or you'll loose a lot of your volume, it will take a lot of time to get all the gross stuff out, and try not to rinse more than half a 5 gallon bucket at a time as more than that is hard to stir up during rinsing...Personally, I used a garden hose and rinsed in my yard, drained the excess water after rinsing, topped off to an inch above sand level with RO, treated the bucket with one of those freshwater chemicals that make tapwater safe and let it sit for 24 hours before putting it in any tank.

[rrasco]

That's exactly how I do it. Half a 5g bucket, garden hose to the bottom, run it full blast. Stir it around a little bit and all the nasty stuff should float up and out.

[vman181]

I used an old salt bucket filed half way with old sand. Took the garden hose to it till it ran over the side looking clean. I kept stirring it up with the hose running to keep making sure all the nasty was out of it. Then I spread it out thin on some Rubbermaid lids till it was completely dried by the sun. Then I used it with no ill effects to my tank.

[glarior]

Thanks for the replies! Now to find the time to actually rinse the sand out haha.