[clopez1]

I'm just tossing a few ideas around to see what might work. Would the pillow method of cleaning sand work to get miracle grow away from eco complete? Anyone ever try anything like this? I want to put the eco complete from my 20H to my 10 gallon and leave the miracle grow out of it.

 

[lauraleellbp]

What's the "pillow method"?

I've never tried it, but if I were to try and separate it all out, I'd probably just half fill a 5 gallon bucket at a time and blast it with a garden hose outside to let all the lighter MG particles run off.

 

[clopez1]

Putting the substrate in a pillow and run water through it till clean water comes out getting all the fine stuff out. I may do the bucket thing, will have to buy another bucket since the one I have will be holding my fish while I transfer everything over.

 

[cjstl]

Did you sift the bark and stuff out before you put the MGOPM in? If not, you'll still have all that junk, and it won't come out through a pillow case. Best way I've found is to scoop what you can of the cap off without disturbing the MGOPM. Then, once you're down to the stuff that's mixed, put a little at a time in a bowl and run it under water. The MGOPM will float up when mixed around. Make sure you have a strainer in your sink so the stuff doesn't clog your drain.

I haven't tried the bucket method, but that might work as well.

 

[clopez1]

I'll do that. I'll try my best to just get the cap layer then do the hose and bucket cleaning. Should work to get the little bit I may have scooped out..Thanks Guys.

 

[lochaber]

I tore down a tank and tried to recover the flourite (mixed with MGOCPM) a few months ago.

Did something pretty similar to what cjstl mentioned.

I'd let it dry as much as possible, put some in a large bin (or bucket, trash can, large pot, etc.), add a bunch of water to the bucket (I'd often use water from water changes to minimize waste), stir it up real good, and immediately pour off the water with suspended sediment. The heavier particles (like the flourite) will settle out almost as soon as you stop stirring them, so mostly just the organics and really fine particles will be in suspension. Pretty much like winnowing.

I've found letting it dry as much as possible twixt winnowings helps, as some of the organic particles will float when dried out.

Still had rocks/sand from the MGOCPM, and snail shells, but other then that the stuff is pretty clean.