# Washing sand in a planted tank?



## fish.com1 (12 Aug 2009)

Hi everyone,

Going to be putting the sand in my tank soon, just unsure whether anyone washes their sand in a planted tank? I'm using naturesoil aswell as sand, so the water clarity shouldn't be too bad, and the sand itself is good quality, clean sand. Should I wash it?

Cheers 
Alex


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## Ed Seeley (13 Aug 2009)

Personally I'd always wash 'inert' substrates such as sand or gravel to remove as much debris as possible.  It's amazing how much dirt and cloudiness comes out if even washed substrates.  Obviously don't wash planted substrates like aquasoil though!


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## FishBeast (14 Aug 2009)

I use the local river sand as the water conditions here are the same as the natural habitat of the the fish I intend to keep. I sift it over fly screen and wash the graded sand until pretty much clear. This takes a while but it looks so much better than play sand IMO.


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