would you use, "used" sand?

I bought several bucket of used sand from a friend of mine. It's been sitting in the bucket for several months. I basically need to clean or rinse it.

I've been doing research on used sand. Some people say, it is not a good idea to use "used" sand because I might have phosphate issue.

What do you think?

 

Keep a cup of it. Wash the rest. When you fill up the tank add the cup.

 

What's the purpose of "a cup" ????

This is basically dry sand. Not live sand.

 

If you think there might be a chance of anything in it, test the water it came in. Stir it up a bit so you know nothing has settled. If it's been sitting that long though, chances are it probably doesn't have any benificial life left. But Phosfates could still be an issue. Did your friend say if it was a fowlr, or a reef tank he had?

Exactly

 

We use "used" substrate quite often. The real key is rinsing it until the water runs clear, which can be tedious, but necessary.

If the sand in questions is "sugar fine", there will be a bit of cloudiness due to very fine particles of sand in suspension, however, this is easily distinguished from "schmutz".

HTH

 

Exactly. I've used sand from different systems over and then over again. Do what Greg says (and what I do) and you will be fine.

 

Alright, Thank you for the input everyone. I will try to rinse it out and see how long it will take to clean it out. If it's too long, then I would probably pass....lol. I was just more concern about people saying it's the source of phosphate.

 

Only if it came from a tank that had long-term issues with high phosphates.

 

I was under the impression that this was live sand.

 

That's kind of hard to back track Mr. Bill ;D

Yeah, that's what I thought. and No, not live at all, it's been dry and in the bucket over a year.