Rinsing Sand with Tap Water

[suzie9mm]

Hello!

I've been stalking this site for a couple years now, I am about to start a thread with my journey to setting up my fish tank for an Octopus, but I have an immediate question I wasn't sure about. I am using some store bought regular sand for the tank. More specific I am using Quikrete Play sand. I was just about to begin the process of rinsing the sand and it struck me I would be rinsing it with my hose outside.

Has anyone used regular sand like this? And should I just take my time and rinse and clean it with RO water instead of using tap water? Or would it be safe to rinse with tap water? I know it may sound like a silly question, but I don't want to ruin everything because I rinsed the sand with water that could contaminate the tank with metals. Thanks guys!

 

[CaptFish]

It's not live sand so i don't see an issue with rinsing it with a hose, by the time the tank is full of saltwater and cycled i don't think it will matter. I would suggest using pool filter sand instead of play sand, apparently, and this is just what i have read, the play sand is easily stirred up and makes the tank water cloudy very easily due to how fine the sand is. pool filter sand is more course and does not make the tank cloudy when disturbed.

 

[DWhatley]

I've read about people using regular sand (vs aquarium specific) but never tried it as I prefer something that will help with the PH buffering (like argonite). I DO rinse my sand in tap (if it is not live sand, something I don't usually buy) but then I final rinse with either salt or RO/DI (depending on what I am doing with it, for a new tank, I would just use the RO/DI but for an active one, the saltwater).

 

[suzie9mm]

Thanks so much! Ill definitely do a final rise with the RO/DI water.

 

[gpx1200]

i just read a post on another forum about someone using home depot play sand and loosing all the live stock in their tank and this post crosed my mind, i don't know why i missed in it the first place but i would not use play sand in any salt water tank but especialy an octo tank. their is no way of knowing what is in the sand that may leach out into the water in time things like metals,phosfates,copper(deadly even in tiny amounts), silicate(highly probable) all could wind up making your water toxic and in the case of copper posibly making the tank unuseable for cephs in the future becouse it can bond to the silicone
it's not worth the risk when dry crushed coral or argonite can be bought fairly cheep.

 

[CaptFish]

i just read a post on another forum about someone using home depot play sand and loosing all the live stock in their tank and this post crosed my mind, i don't know why i missed in it the first place but i would not use play sand in any salt water tank but especialy an octo tank. their is no way of knowing what is in the sand that may leach out into the water in time things like metals,phosfates,copper(deadly even in tiny amounts), silicate(highly probable) all could wind up making your water toxic and in the case of copper posibly making the tank unuseable for cephs in the future becouse it can bond to the silicone
it's not worth the risk when dry crushed coral or argonite can be bought fairly cheep.

I have never heard that argument. I have read about lots of people using it but none where there was a problem, only complaints about it being too fine, and complaints that it does not buffer. Play sand has to follow pretty strict standards because it has to be safe for kids to ingest. play sand is a pure crystalline silica (quartz).

 

[Jean]

Just becareful when rinsing with ordinary tap water that your pipes are not copper! (many older houses in NZ are, I assume the same would be true of other countries!). Copper is really bad!