Grading sand, I'm a sand sifter

[seabass]

I'm starting a new 100 gallon acrylic tank and I'm just about ready to add sand. I have a bunch of new, unused, but expired, Caribsea Arag-Alive Fiji Pink (0.5 - 1.5mm grain size); however, now I'm thinking that I want something a little less fine. I'm a little concerned that when cleaning the acrylic, some of the finer grains will become suspended, get caught in the cleaning pad, and scratch the inside of the tank.

 

I considered buying some Caribsea Arag-Alive Special Grade Reef Sand (1.0 - 2.0 mm), but really wanted to use the new sand that I already purchased. My solution was to try and find a way to further grade the sand to remove the smaller grains. So I found and ordered these soil sieves from Amazon. It comes with 0.5 mm, 1 mm, 2 mm, and 3 mm mesh sieves. I figure that I can use the 1 mm sieve to grade out the smaller grains (leaving grain sizes between 1.0 and 1.5 mm).

 

I couldn't find much information about people grading their sand, so I thought I'd start this thread. I figure that I'm going to have to dry out the live sand in order to grade it, so I'll probably give it a quick rinse before I let it dry out. The sieves are being shipped, so I'll post updates when I get them and grade the sand.

[Hexadron]

That's sweet, can't wait to see updates.

 

I just spent a bloody fortune to get some Tropic Eden Mini Flakes and wish I've seen this sooner

 

Besides, when you're done, you can go to the river and look for goooold!

[seabass]

I received the sieves this weekend and rinsed the sand yesterday. The sieves that I ordered do not scream quality (the outer ring seems like cheap tin), but they are good enough for what I plan to use them for. You can find stainless steel soil sieves, sieves for sifting flour, filtering tea, and so fourth; so they shouldn't be too hard to find. I guess the biggest problem when shopping for one is to know what size you actually need (which made this kit kind of nice).

Damp sand will not pass through the sieves. I'm not sure if it would work under water, but I assume that it would. Anyway, I'm going to wait until the sand dries out before I attempt it.

However, there was a handful of dry sand today, so I tried it out. Turns out that almost all of the sand passed through the 1mm sieve. So I tried the 0.5mm sieve, which worked the way I thought the 1mm sieve would (letting smaller grains go through, while keeping the larger grains). The sand is just more fine than I thought it would be (based on the specifications).

To give you an idea of the mesh and grain sizes:

• the 2mm sieve is about the same size as a typical screen porch screen
• the 1mm sieve will let typical granulated sugar and table salt through
• the 0.5mm sieve lets the sugar through but keeps most of the salt

This means that I'll end up with table salt sized grains (and larger).

It might be awhile for the sand to dry out enough to sift through it. I'll post some pictures when I start working on it.

[BulkRate]

You can spread your washed sand out on a thin layer on a couple of baker's sheets or parchment paper to help dry it faster. I originally tried to use Fiji Pink when I first set up my tank...but gave up due to the sandstorming - should'a tried your idea.

 

I wonder if .75mm mesh is available somewhere?

[seabass]

You can spread your washed sand out on a thin layer on a couple of baker's sheets or parchment paper to help dry it faster.

Except that I washed 160lbs of it (I figured that I'd shift out about half). That's a lot of surface area.

 

I wonder if .75mm mesh is available somewhere?

To me, that'd be a nice grain size (like 0.75 to 1.5mm). However, for the sand that I have, I think that too much would still pass through a 0.75mm sieve. Based on the Best By date, my "live" sand was originally graded in Jan. '11; so I wonder if some dissolved, and the grain size shrunk a bit.

[BulkRate]

I recall seeing one place locally that had the stuff dry and thinking "I should buy that" at the time. Now I can't remember where. DOH!

[seabass]

I wonder if .75mm mesh is available somewhere?

It's expensive, but here's one: http://www.amazon.com/Advantech-Stainless-Sieves-Diameter-Height/dp/B007F17EGA/ref=sr_1_27?ie=UTF8&qid=1403685327&sr=8-27&keywords=%2325+sieve

 

#25 mesh is 0.707 mm. Here's a conversion chart for anybody looking up mesh sizes: http://www.showmegold.org/news/Mesh.htm

So to get sand that's between 0.707mm and 1.410mm, you'd want to use a #14 mesh to remove the larger grains, and a #25 mesh to sift out the smaller grains.

[BulkRate]

Thanks for that. I've actually been putting off replacing the sandbed in my 9 gallon for a couple of months due to just this issue. Hoo boy, though... that IS pricetacular. The sieve costs more than the sand and the tank!

 

Didn't properly appreciate how much sand you were working with, so yeah... nix my parchment paper idea.

[seabass]

Hoo boy, though... that IS pricetacular.

Yeah, not so practical for occasional use in our hobby. And since you can often find a prepackaged product with an acceptable grade, the cheapo sieve set that I got was about all I was willing to pay for. It's kind of neat though in that you can grade sand to specific ranges (using two different screens). But I think it's primary value is to use one screen to separate larger or smaller particles from prepackaged dry sand products.

[seabass]

Alright, for the sake of this thread, I spread out some sand to help it dry faster. I then measured out two cups of the dried sand and did a few tests.

Here are the 2 cups of sand:

 

Using the 1mm sieve, I only captured a few grains:

 

The smaller grains that passed through the 0.5mm sieve are on the left, and the larger grains that got captured are on the right:

I'll use the smaller grains for a RDSB.

 

The resulting grains.

Still wish they were a little larger.

 

The 2mm sieve captured almost as many grains as the 1mm sieve did, so I think I'll just run everything through the 2mm sieve to take out the larger chunks (and keep everything nice and even).

 

1 1/3 cups (of the 2 cups) passed through the 0.5mm sieve (leaving me with 33% of the original sand). Seeing as I started out with 160lbs of wet sand (about 144lbs when dried), this should yield approximately 48lbs of graded sand (giving me a substrate that's just under an inch deep). I have few more bags that I will probably wash, dry, and sift.

[seabass]

I've graded more than half of the sand that I rinsed.

 

Yesterday, I was at a LFS and picked up a 15lb bag of CaribSea Special Grade (1-2mm). I wanted to compare it to what I have and see how it graded.


What didn't pass through the 2mm mesh is left, what did is right.

The coarse stuff is much like crushed coral. The finer grains are a very nice size. I am mixing these in with the sand that I'm using for my tank (not sure what, if anything, I'll do with the coarse grains).


I didn't rinse it (because it takes awhile to dry again), but out of the 15lb bag, this is what passed through the 0.5mm mesh screen.

[Hexadron]

• Buy bags in bulk

Sift sand to respective sizes

???

Profit!

[masterbuilder]

I just spent a bloody fortune to get some Tropic Eden Mini Flakes and wish I've seen this sooner

 

I have a few bags of Mini-Flakes sitting in my garage gathering dust. For some stupid reason I thought it would be much larger than SUGAR SIZED! Ended up using Carib-Sea Special Grade and am happy with it.

[seabass]

For some stupid reason I thought it would be much larger than SUGAR SIZED!

They state 2.0mm for grain size, which sounds large when comparing it to CaribSea's Special grade (which is 1-2mm). Not sure why there is such a disparity.

 

I was also surprised that more than half of my Fiji Pink turned out to be sugar sized. Oh well, makes for a good RDSB substrate. You could use 40 or 50lbs of it in a 5 gallon bucket.