Recycling old sand

Valkyrie · Dec 26, 2016

There's a thread here that was old regarding this subject, but I didn't want to resurrect it, even though I thought the information was useful. But I have a question or two still.

I just bought a used 20g long. The guy drained it and left a fair portion of the sand in it. It was being used for freshwater. I'm thinking about cleaning up the sand and holding on to it for future use. What do you think? I know sand is cheap, but really, that isn't the point.

I have a 5 gallon bucket filled half way with, what used to be, live sand. It was in the aquarium I was given and it was pretty gross, so I bought new sand. I never got around to throwing it out and it's been sitting outside for a year. Yep, you guessed it, I'm thinking about cleaning it up, drying it out in my oven and saving it. Thoughts?

cmcoker · Dec 26, 2016

I'd be concerned if the tank was ever coppered since it was freshwater. And also what kind of sand it is, I've used play sand in freshwater setups, but that would not be good in a salt tank.
Sand is not so expensive in the scope of things, so I won't save it any more myself.

cracker · Dec 26, 2016

Rinse the sand in a 5 gal bucket "real good " and rinse it again. Spread it out in the sun if possible. Seeing how it was in a freshwater tank, Is it silica based? Are the grains real small/fine ?

Valkyrie · Dec 27, 2016

cmcoker said:
I'd be concerned if the tank was ever coppered since it was freshwater. And also what kind of sand it is, I've used play sand in freshwater setups, but that would not be good in a salt tank.
Sand is not so expensive in the scope of things, so I won't save it any more myself.

Good point, probably better to err on the side of caution.

cracker said:
Rinse the sand in a 5 gal bucket "real good " and rinse it again. Spread it out in the sun if possible. Seeing how it was in a freshwater tank, Is it silica based? Are the grains real small/fine ?

Yea, pretty darn fine sand. I'll just use it for path work in my fairy garden.