Just brought playsand confused

Wash it A LOT!!! it will take a good amount of washing to get it clean. for mine i used two five gallon buckets. Filled each one half way with sand and hit it with the hose set on jet. then dump and fill again. repeat until the water runs clear. then remove clean sand and start over.

I bought play sand from home depot and Tailor0 is right, you have to rinse it like crazy, but it looks nice, very natural. I'm thinking of changing to pool filter sand though as the rocks I am using are black and I really want to get a black/white theme going.

The one thing you want to watch out for, as you have noticed, is that it is a very fine substrate. If you have a Hang-on-Back filter, you don't want to stir it around much because it can ruin your impeller (one of the most expensive parts of the filter).

thanks for the help im going to wash the sand some more tommorrow

I've never lost an impeller to sand, I have replaced a lot of impeller shafts, but they usually cost less than four bucks.

which kind of sand is more white? pool filter or playsand? i thought pool filter sand was darker, more natural looking and playsand was a brighter white.

there is a link somewhere in a post from a day this week with a video of how to was sand. look around and see if you can find it. if i stumble on it i will post for you. good video.

which kind of sand is more white? pool filter or playsand? i thought pool filter sand was darker, more natural looking and playsand was a brighter white.

there is a link somewhere in a post from a day this week with a video of how to was sand. look around and see if you can find it. if i stumble on it i will post for you. good video.

http://www.cichlid-forum.com/videos/rinsing_sand.php

i think this is it

Ah, *** seen that video before! When I first decided to use sand

I do believe the pfs is a purer white, it may have been bleached or something though, I'll have to keep looking around.

Here's a good question: what if you don't have a yard and a hose?

I live in an apartment, and I'm upstairs. How do you get your sand clean without a hose and yard to let it run like crazy?

Probably not the best suggestion...bathtub? I dont know if the sand would clog your drain or not though.

A second option would be to fill a bucket <halfway with sand and bring it downstairs (or stay if you just want to toss it off the balcony) with a couple more buckets of water, fill, stir, drain and repeat....and repeat....and repeat. :fish:

I rinsed my colorquartz in the bathtub, but I also have a removable showerhead, so I just ran the hose down from there. If you have a Python water change thingy, you could use that as well.

i threw out the stupid playsand and got me 20lbs of estes marine sand i like this sand better because its lighter then the play sand