Jump to content





Posted Image

PCS & Stuart M. Grant - Cichlid Preservation Fund - Details here


Photo

Washing Gravel.


  • Please log in to reply
10 replies to this topic

#1 Cicolid

Cicolid
  • Forum Member
  • Joined: 29-April 06
  • Location: Bouvard, Mandurah WA

Posted 11 June 2008 - 01:07 PM

I have spent hours & heaps of water washing used gravel in the past & thought there must be an easier way.

I converted this bucket to make washing gravel much faster & easier.

Just cut the bottom out of a square sided bucket, leaving a 15mm lip all round.

Get a piece of mesh with holes to suit the size of gravel to be washed .
I used the mesh from an old audio speaker laying around. Cut this to fit the bottom of the bucket, fix with silicon & a few self-tapping screws.

Take any container larger than the bucket, this one cost me $7.50. I find the black plastic last much longer than the clear ones.
Just put about 5cm of gravel in the bucket, place the bucket in the plastic crate filled with water, dunk it & swirl it around. 90% of the dirt it washed out very quickly. Replace with clean water when needed.

I have also used this for removing shells & small pieces of rock etc form limestone sand & crushed coral.

Hope this saves you some time.

Col

Attached File  Gravel.jpg   53.59KB   283 downloads
Attached File  Gravel2.jpg   90.75KB   273 downloads
Attached File  Gravel3.jpg   70.63KB   284 downloads

#2 dragonkeeper

dragonkeeper
  • Forum Member
  • Joined: 30-April 08
  • Location: Seville Grove

Posted 11 June 2008 - 02:31 PM

What a really good idea biggrin.gif

#3 viid

viid
  • Forum Member
  • Joined: 21-April 08
  • Location: Bibra Lake (10mins south of city)

Posted 11 June 2008 - 04:38 PM

waterwise smile.gif

#4 Bluey

Bluey
  • Forum Member
  • Joined: 11-January 09

Posted 11 March 2009 - 09:23 PM

Thanks Col,
The pics came through ok .... and as they say, great mate!
I will attempt making similar this weekend.
Cheers, Ray.



#5 n30

n30
  • Forum Member
  • Joined: 08-March 09

Posted 12 March 2009 - 08:42 PM

I just use one of those cheap black plastic pots with many small holes that I think are used for ponds... ???
You can find them in most LFS. I have seen them in Vebas and Aquotix.

#6 Cicolid

Cicolid
  • Forum Member
  • Joined: 29-April 06
  • Location: Bouvard, Mandurah WA

Posted 14 March 2009 - 08:03 PM

The bucket had a split in the bottom, so it was useless, the mesh came from an old speaker which was broken and about to be binned, so all it cost me was 30 minutes of my time. smile.gif

Col

#7 DR14GoNF14SH

DR14GoNF14SH
  • Forum Member
  • Joined: 06-January 07
  • Location: mirrabooka

Posted 04 April 2009 - 10:33 AM

Very good idea col...now can u devise something for my fine sandy substrates...LoL

#8 Cicolid

Cicolid
  • Forum Member
  • Joined: 29-April 06
  • Location: Bouvard, Mandurah WA

Posted 04 April 2009 - 05:17 PM

Just use finer mesh tongue.gif tongue.gif

Believe me I have tried everything I can think of for washing the fine Limestone sand I get locally, nothing works.
It's just a matter of washing it repeatedly & draining off the dirty water.

If anyone comes up with an idea please let us all know. smile.gif

Col



#9 Jadrow

Jadrow
  • Forum Member
  • Joined: 22-April 09

Posted 25 April 2009 - 07:25 AM

Well i just had to wash 60kgs of gravel and thought this is going to take ages.
Looked in the backyard and seen daughters trampoline that has the webbed matt on it thought maybe this may work.
Placed 20 kilo of gravel on there spread it out and then started hosing it off worked a treat washed all 60kgs in a cpl of hours.

Cheers Pete

#10 Blackcats

Blackcats
  • PCS Club Member
  • Joined: 04-April 07
  • Location: Waikiki

Posted 25 April 2009 - 10:23 PM

I have also used an old trampoline mat for washing gravel and it worked well but wasn't much use when washing fine sand.

Harry

#11 DavidK

DavidK
  • Forum Member
  • Joined: 04-May 13
  • Location: Hillarys

Posted 06 June 2013 - 10:12 AM

For fine sand I used a pillow case and a tub of water
That was for my river sand




0 user(s) are reading this topic

0 members, 0 guests, 0 anonymous users