# Not Washing Pool Filter Sand



## coachcasa (Feb 17, 2014)

So I just bought a 50lb bag of pool filter sand to use in my new aquarium that will house Malawi mbuna. The aquarium is completely empty right now we recently moved. What I want to know is since I won't be putting fish in this tank for a month or so to let the environment build, can I just put the sand right in out of the bag without washing and let the filter do it's thing over the next week? The sand I bought was Mystic White II PFS. I've read a few things from people online about the product saying it was so clean they didn't need to clean it and put it right in and had no problems. I would much rather do that than do through the pain of cleaning it if I can. Thoughts on this? Thanks.


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## Deeda (Oct 12, 2012)

Try and rinse some of the product in a bucket with clean water and see how cloudy it is. Sometimes just the grains of sand rubbing against each other in the bag or when pouring it out will generate some fine debris and get trapped by your filters.


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## coachcasa (Feb 17, 2014)

Also I had taken all of my rocks out my aquarium when I took it down before we moved and they have been sitting in a few boxes on a shelf in the garage for the last month. I'm just planning on rinsing them off and putting them back in the aquarium. Anyone see a problem with this?


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## Deeda (Oct 12, 2012)

You should be fine just rinsing off the rocks.


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## DJRansome (Oct 29, 2005)

It's a lot less painful to clean it now rather than once it is in the aquarium.


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## caldwelldaniel26 (Jun 11, 2017)

Yeah you're much better off cleaning the sand while it's out than in. Just get a 5 gallon bucket from the hardware store pour in about 10 pounds at a time, use a water hose and stir up the sand with it while the bucket is tilted enough to let the dirty water out but not enough for the sand to wash out. Keep stirring up the sand with the hose until it runs clear.


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## Bd79 (Apr 11, 2011)

I'd just put it in the tank and not worry about it, based on my experiences with PFS.


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## coachcasa (Feb 17, 2014)

Didn't wash the sand and it is very clear, even after stirring up the sand in the water.


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## greid (Jul 25, 2017)

I'm just getting ready to setup a new tank as well.

Had used aquarium gravel in my older tank & when I emptied it the gravel was full of crud despite using python to do water changes.
Used pool filter sand for the tank for my pond fish over the winter. The canister always seemed to have a small pile of sand in the bottom and again when I emptied it this spring, sand was full of crud.

Made me lean toward just plan glass bottom.

Graham


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## Drake1588 (Jul 19, 2017)

In a tank that isn't going to have fish for awhile, I usually prefer to just dump pool filter sand in, and place foam sleeves over my filter intakes to catch any of the stuff that may want to float. Fill the tank about halfway, give it a few stirs a day and let the filters do their work. If it's cloudy after doing that a few times on the next stir, I'll drain the tank and refill it to half.


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