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When I started my aquqrium, I only had 4 snails in it. I had sand at the bottom and about 4 inches of water (the tank was on a wobbly wodden table). From that it has grown into a beautiful planted 50 gallon tropical aquarium (with 50 gallons of water) on a steel stand. I have added more to my aquarium than I have taken out. I still have the original sand with some gravel mixed in. All the hard decor (substrate, rocks, driftwood) has come from our 50 acres. The sand came from our sand box, the gravel from a stream in our woods, the rocks from our yard, and the driftwood from our large pond. The sand was not the play sand you buy in bags at a store. It was real sand with various sized grains (the kind you buy in bulk for various things). My dad bought a dump truck load of this sand for our sand box (it is a big sand box). I found that the best way (from my experiences) to wash out sand is to put it in a bucket, fill it water, and swish the sand around. When I wash sand, I fill the bucket with water and leave the water running slowly. This way, as you're swishing the sand, the parcticles of dust and dirt will float away with the water. After this you can use hot water if you want to sterilize the sand. When the water runs clear, the sand will be clean. After having the sand in my aquarium for almost two years, it has created very little dust and only when my pleco digs (I didn't clean the sand enough at first beacuse I only had pond snails). It won't create any dust at all if you wash it good enough. I hope this helps.

Depending on how much clay or dust is in it, you will need to give the sand a very good rinse. It may also pay to strain it through a fine mesh like a net to remove any sharp bits of shale or granite.

You might find a bit of useful information in this thread -
http://www.planetcatfish.com/forum/view ... hp?t=11191

I've successfully washed play-sand by putting about 3-4" deep in a bucket, stirring it with lots of water (brim full bucket), letting it settle a bit, and draining off as much water as possible. You need to repeat until it settles to o clear water within a few seconds.

It's actually easier to clean a smaller amount of sand at a time, rather than trying too big a portion. This is because it's easier to get ALL of the sand stirred up with a smaller amount.

You WILL end up with some amount of sand going down the drain this way, unless you have a very fine-grained strainer/sieve that you can use for the purpose. I wouldn't worry about it, but if you've got one of those grinder-in-the-drain-sink thingies, you may want to use some other place to drain the sand...

If it's something that isn't dedicated play- or aquatic-sand (like "cement-mixing" or "natural" sand), then you may need to do A LOT of cleaning. The above method still works, it just takes a lot longer to get it clear.

A little bit of cloudy-ness once you've cleaned it is expected, because no matter how well you've cleaned it, the process of moving the sand to the tank will stir up some finer particles that you didn't get rid of. This should settle within a day or so.

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Mats