Rinse live sand?

I am trying to get a 180 gal up and running and have 120 pounds of Fiji pink live sand. Now am I supposed to rinse this stuff before I put it in the tank? I am starting from scratch and plan on cycling some dead rock and such. Am I really supposed to rinse 120 pounds of live sand with saltwater?? If so, what is the best way to go about this.. I'm really not in a hurry.

Thanks!
-Pepper

 

No, do not rinse the live sand it would kill it. Just put the sand in first, put a small container in there ontop of the sand and pump water into the container so it doesn't splash around and lift up the sand as much.

 

No, you do not rinse live sand. The more you handle it, the more die-off you'll get. It will cloud the water, but that will clear long before you're ready for livestock.

EDIT: Devin beat me to the punch. What he said.

 

Definitely do not rinse it!

 

Thanks so much guys! One less thing to worry about!

 

I think what most people mean when they say "Rinse it" is to rinse it in salt water and remove any stagnant particulate that may be present. Biggest problem with that is, most of don't live near an ocean to have that much rinse water....

If you have the patience like you say, then simply placing the sand in your tank, filling the salt water up, and mixing the sand in the healthy salty water will ensure you don't have anything settled in the sand bed. From what I've learned, sulfur is a bad item that can sit for some time if undisturbed.

 

It kind of depends on the grain size.

Fine sands will cloud a tank for days and become cloudy with any disruption of the sand bed.

Rinse or not rinse, you still have to cycle the whole tank regardless. Live Sand, is more gimmick an than actually contributor to the biological filter.

You will do far better with some completely cured live rock.

JM2C

 

I've always just put the livesand down and then thrown a bunch of filter floss somewhere in the flow. Will clear the water faster than a day at the expense of some of the finer grit.

 

Moved to----Sand.

 

at least in my experience, that's one of the benefits to getting live sand is not having to rinse it and creates less of a cloud when put in the tank.....