Hey all. My inherited tank that's gotta be more than a dozen years old is falling apart, so I've purchased a new tank, hood, and coarse sand (previous tank had ugly blue coarse gravel).

I got everything ready last night to do an "Indiana Jones" (swapping the tank in the same location) including the just-rinsed sand in bowls on the counter, half tank of new water sitting for 24hrs, etc.

Well, the cats found the bowls of sand overnight and decided it was their new catbox (they did a great job cleaning up after themselves and kicked sand all over the counters too). If I rinse the sand thoroughly, will it be safe to use in the new tank, or is it hopelessly contaminated?

Hello Sticky...

Just rerinse the gravel. It will be fine. The fish will do the same and worse once you get the gravel into the tank.

B

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Low Tech Water Building Keeper

This will be hard to believe but..... In rare circles individuals will use their OWN urine to dose the tank with ammonia... Yea.. disgusting to me too!.. So the net result is no.. the cat's pee will not create a problem even without the rinse!... Bill in Va.

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12 Tanks, 900 gallons. Discus/Angels/Malawi/Lake Victorias. Just added a 135 & 2 - 29's..

Lol, I had to laugh! Just rinse it. I If you put it straight into a tank with fish the amount of ammonia might be toxic but if rinsed well or given a few days in a tank without fish I don't see a problem.

I got a hell of a kick out of reading down this post LOL. +1 for using kitty litter for substrate

If it makes you feel any better, you are not alone in having cats with a "creative" viewpoint on places to pee. I had set up my rice steamer a few days ago with water in the bottom for steam, and uncooked rice in the bowl. I went to measure out the water to go into the bowl with the dry rice, but got side tracked and did not get back to the rice for about an hour. You guessed it...one of our cats had added his/her own liquid contribution to the dry rice.

In a way, I wish I had witnessed the process. He or she must have had to straddle the steamer...the bowl is at least 8 inches high. And the whole steamer unit was still pushed back on the counter, under the overhanging upper cabinets. The perpetrator's body had to have been horizontal, not the usual 45 degree angle that they prefer in the litter box. And yet not a drop of pee missed the bowl. I wish I was not impressed, but I am.

I'm in tears

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