posted 02-18-2004 07:51 AM         

And like Matty said, go to the hardware store and look for either white siliate sand or pool filter sand.

Definitely rinse the sand off first. My parents set up the 75 gallon for me and didn't rinse the sand off first. It took about 3 days for the initial cloudiness to clear up and now when I clean the tank it takes about 3 or 4 hours to clear up. For my 55 gallon, I rinsed the sand first and it took a few hours for the initial cloudiness to clear up and when I clean the tank it just takes a few minutes to clear up.

To rinse the sand, I just poured some in a large bucket, ran the hose in it, and let the dirty water overflow out of the bucket. It will take a while, but you should be be able to remove the hose and the sand should settle in a couple seconds. It took me about 20 minutes to rinse the sand for my 55 gallon, but that was playground sand. Pool filter sand shouldn't be as bad.

For cleaning, I actually do use a gravel vac on my sand. It takes a little practice, but I let it suck up some sand then lift up the tube and give it a gentle shake and the sand generally falls back out. I do this every few inches across the entire bottom of the tank.

Also, it's important to stir up the sand a little every time you clean the tank. Otherwise anaerobic pockets will form and you'll get some toxic gasses built up. That's why I actually use the vac on mine. But if you just want to skim the top of the sand with the vac, you'll need to take a stick and run it through the sand.

One last thing is you'll have to either use a pre-filter on your filter intake or at least raise the intake to at least 6" above the sand.