Is it brand new in bag or live sand in bag? Did you get it from some location (collected personally)? Most people will prob tell you its fine if in a bag or bought live from a good rep person. Then when it comes to collecting it yourself then it verys. I have had success with collecting the sand, I cooked the sand in an oven at 450degrees for about 20mins or so a pan which was an 8x8, checked its temp which was around 280degrees. Then I took and through it into a cold bucket of water and rinsed it. When I have used bag I just took and dumped into tank (plug and play
).