How to clean ANS Bright Sand?

[Unmarked]

Hi everyone.

I recently bought a bag of ANS Bright Sand to use as substrate for my new tank. It's my first time using sand as a substrate and I've read up as much as I could on preparing it before use. I rinsed it thoroughly and then left it to soak for a day before rinsing it again. However, after filling up my tank, the water is still super cloudy. I left it there overnight with a HOF stuffed full of filter wool but it didn't clear up much.

Is this normal? What else can I do to clear up the water? Thanks!

[Urban Aquaria]

If the sand you are using is clouding up the water (even after being rinsed beforehand), then just do more water changes to clear up the remaining micro particles and dust. Eventually the clouding will gradually disappear over time.

[limz_777]

wait for a couple more days , should clear up , any close up picture of the sand ?

[Unmarked]

Thanks for the replies! Just spent the morning removing the water and rinsing the sand again. Now slowly dripping water back into the tank to minimize the amount of dust kicked up. The water is still slightly cloudy though. Can see lots of particles floating around when I shine a bright light over the water. I will put up a photo when the tank is filled up.

[ichise]

Hi there ,

i got the sand recently too , very cloudy even after washing many times .
Just to let you know the packing state PH neutral , I test it with distilled water and the PH is high .
distilled water PH 6.3 , after add sand few hours I test with API test kit show 7.6 very blue .
maybe I got a bad pack ? Suggest you test your PH

cheers

[zonkkie]

I heard also very hard to wash but never personally tried before.

Sent from my HTC One_M8 using Tapatalk

[ichise]

My friend told me he using no problem from him regarding PH .
So I took a cup size of sand and rinse it super super clean no dust and particles visible .
Filled it with distilled water PH 6.3 , will let it seat and update the result again tonight .

[Unmarked]

Hi ichise.

My tank has cleared up. After the second rinsing, I put on a hang on filter stuffed full of filter wool and let it run for about 2 weeks. The wool was changed once, as the first set I put in trapped a lot of particles very quickly and turned brown.

Regarding the pH, my tap water is pH 8.0 and the tank water was the same reading when I first flooded it. Stayed that way until I added some peat granules, which buffered the pH to 6.5. I'm interested to see the results of your test. Please update us! Thanks!

[ichise]

Hi unmarked ,

just did a test , pH jumped to 7.6 again .
Now I'm getting confused from what's stated on the packaging "ph neutral" ... Haha
Is it so hard to get inert sand ?

[Urban Aquaria]

For testing purposes, using distilled water will always tend to result in pH fluctuations because the distilled water has zero TDS and nothing to buffer the pH, so it will immediately absorb things which change its properties quickly... therefore even a slight amount of minerals in the sand will shift the pH (which may not occur if de-chlorinated tap water is used instead).

To do the tests, you should just use de-chlorinated tap water (which usually already has some pH buffering capability) or distilled water with mineral/trace additives to re-balance the water conditions, that will create a more reliable test parameter and simulates actual in-tank usage.

That is most likely how the sand is tested to be "pH neutral", under normal tank conditions.

[Unmarked]

That's interesting. I still have 3/4 of the pack left so I shall try doing a similar test over the weekend and see what happens.

Urban Aquaria did a similar test on Sudo sand here http://www.aquaticquotient.com/forum/showthread.php/100762-Sudo-Bottom-Sand-vs-Sudo-Reef-Sand!?highlight=bright+sand . Seems like he found them to be inert. That's an option you can consider if the ANS sand is really affecting the pH that much. For me, I will stick with peat for the moment and see how that works out over the course of a few months.

[ichise]

Hey guys thanks for your help and the link .
my tap water ph is too hard so never thought of doing a test with it .
I tried in 1 of my tank , "neutral sand" even after adding peats the PH is still high .
So want to create a biotope type without use of chemicals like acid buffer to bring the ph down .

[Urban Aquaria]

Yeah, just do the test with the actual water conditions that you will be using in the tank, either de-chlorinated tap water or distilled/RO water with mineral balancers (not just distilled water on its own without minerals, as your tank will not be made up of 100% distilled water anyways), then work around the substrate choice from there.

If you have high pH hard water from the tap, to bring down pH naturally, you can try using ketapang leaves or extracts to help reduce it, or use RO water with the necessary minerals/additives to achieve a targeted pH... or use aquasoil substrates that have long term pH buffering abilities.

[ichise]

Hi urban ,
thanks for the tip , just sick of the look of Ada soil after so many years ... Hahah