Question about sand

R

RJDENNIS

New member
I will be setting up my tank this weekend and I have a stupid question thats eating away at my brain. It is stupid in my opinion but I need to ask for opinions.
I have 40lbs of CaribSea Special Grade Reef Sand and every review I read says you need to rinse it.
So here goes the stupid question.
Can I rince it with regular tap water from a hose in a bucket or would it be best to use RO/DI water for rinsing?
I have an RO/DI unit but it is not hooked up yet and I did buy 15 gallons of RO/DI for that purpose but I feel its a waiste and dont think I would have enough to get it as clean as I would like so as not to have a cloudy tank.
Id like to just use the hose to rinse it off cause it would get done alot quicker and I would'nt have to waist the RO/DI.

I want to do everything right and that is why I am asking this question.
I dont want to have alge problems and I would think that using the tap from a hose would induce phosphates into the sand. Is that something to really worry about as I am just setting the tank up and would'nt have anything in the tank for a month or more.?

Thanks for the help
 
frostyjay1

frostyjay1

Active member
you can rinse it with tap water and it will be just fine. When you cycle your tank all the toxins will go away anyway. save the ro/di water to make salt water
 
capysolo

capysolo

New member
frostyjay1 said:
you can rinse it with tap water and it will be just fine. When you cycle your tank all the toxins will go away anyway. save the ro/di water to make salt water
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+1. My current tank has a 4-5" sand bed. All of it was rinsed with tap water. No problems. This is the best tank I've ever had!
 
Doug

Doug

New member
I always washed my sand in tap water when I used to use sand in my tanks. The amount chlorine and other tap water chemicals is small compared to the chemical changes that a tank goes through during the cycle.
 
gonebad395

gonebad395

Active member
Doug said:
I always washed my sand in tap water when I used to use sand in my tanks. The amount chlorine and other tap water chemicals is small compared to the chemical changes that a tank goes through during the cycle.
Click to expand...
+1 yep
 
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