View Full Version : to rinse, or not to rinse.. that is the question
Billy the kid
12/25/2001, 02:51 AM
ok, so I bit the bullet, and bought a 55 gallon tru vu tank with a corner overflow (too many horror stories about trying to use an external overflow with my glass tank).
Now the question is this. I have 200 lbs of south down.. I believe it's pure aragonite. Should I, or should I not rinse it prior to adding it in the tank. I have one opinion both ways right now, and am looking for common consensus.
Thanks in advance for all the replies!
-bill
wuelfman
12/25/2001, 11:03 AM
do not rinse
you want the small stuff
besides you woulf "rinse" away half your sand
Tenner
12/25/2001, 02:03 PM
BTK,
I always rinse mine, but I think these days it's a matter of the state of your tank. If you add the sand unrinsed your tank will cloud for several days as the finer silt gets settled or skimmed out. This would not be advisable if you already had animals.
Since it's a brand new tank it's really your call. Should be fine either way without animals.
Good luck,
Matthew
I would not rinse it at all. There is just too much benefit to the fine silt to just wash it away.
You will get some foam on the water surface. This stuff I would scoop off with a net and discard. The water will be cloudy until the grit has a bacterial coating.
chipmunk
12/27/2001, 05:02 PM
To quote Dr. Ron Shimek:
Taken from: http://www.rshimek.com/reef/sediment.htm
In a given volume of sand, the usable bacterial surface area rises rapidly as the average particle size decreases. For example, a cubical particle 1 mm on a side has 6 square mm of surface area, while the surface area on a particle that is one eighth(or 0.125) mm on a side is a total of 0.09375 square mm. However, in the volume of 1 cubic mm, there would be 512 of the smaller particles, for a total area of 48 square mm, eight times what is found on the larger cube.
and from: http://archive.reefcentral.com/vbulletin/showthread.php?threadid=16312&highlight=esv...
I use ESV's product and I never wash it. The fines are good stuff. If the water remains milk after a day, use a filter and some floss to clear it up. Once settled and once a bacterial film develops (a couple of days) it will not resuspend. Cheers, Ron
-chipmunk
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